Pieta (2019)
Vivien Kohler's assemblage pieces articulate the social and economic realities and unfair perceptions of those on the periphery, seeking to hold space for duality and complexity.
"I grew up as a mixed-race male on the Cape Flats in Cape Town, South Africa, and was seen and regarded as Black by the South African government. My hybridised Blackness points not only to the political history of South Africa, but also to its hoped-for future. My works are an effort at an explorative redefining of identity in this place called home.
—Vivien Kohler
"I construct two- and three-dimensional assemblage pieces, casting found materials in resin and painting naturalistic figures and detailed replicas of packaging material to articulate the challenging social and economic circumstances that affect those on the periphery. My works do not hide the realities of unfair perception, but symbolically display it in relation to the liberating verdict of the human spirit. With gentle rawness, I capture the complexity of the human disposition, and seek to illuminate the duality of lived experiences by depicting the individual mentally cocooned from, yet physically enveloped, by life's detritus."
—Vivien Kohler
