Collection: Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024 | Solo Section | Anico Mostert

Anico Mostert is a contemporary South African artist exploring the liminal space where internal and external worlds coalesce. Through her distinctly expressive style, the artist invites us to consider how we project ourselves into the physical fabric of our world, and how these spaces mutually inform our psychological sense of selfhood in return. Concerned with the experiential nature of belonging, she examines how ‘lived spaces’ act as receptacles of memory, emotion, sensation, and identity.

Seeking to articulate humanity’s innate being in the world, Mostert illustrates with her intuitive use of colour and bold brushwork the continuous loop of projection and reflection found in the intertwining of her mind with reality. She comments on the characteristically human mode of existence whereby existence itself is spatial, prompting us to question where and how both reflection and introspection take place. In a state of playful observation and imagination, the artist weakens the boundary between reality and experience, providing a reliable ground for us to understand the artistic intention of bridging worlds together- mental, material, and memorial.

This collection of work contemplates the transition from external perception to internal reflection. During this transition, Mostert’s figures slowly re-emerge into an interior sanctuary. Outdoors, they bask in a liberating sense of freedom akin to the innocence of a child, unburdened by self-awareness. Mirroring nature they seamlessly integrate into the landscape- learning, growing, and coexisting with surrounding flora and fauna. In this reciprocal relationship, the elements of the landscape- the wind, sun and flowers- mirror the emotions and movements of the figures’ inner worlds. As they shift from the outdoors to the confines of four walls, the figures become immersed in introspection, inhabiting the realm of their thoughts. Their once-unencumbered freedom is tempered and impacted by the influence of the outside world. Now, contending with the awareness of being perceived and observed, they confront the need to present themselves. In this newly enclosed space, they grapple with the challenge of self-expression, exploring various facets of their identity and choosing how they wish to embody their selfhood for others. A subtle awkwardness pervades this new environment and amidst this tension, figures begin turning to one another for support. The vibrant outside landscape becomes a wistful memory serving as a backdrop to their journey of self-awareness and expression.

Calico, a cotton fabric similar to the material embodiment of newsprint- often witnesses the emergence of new ideas on an artist’s journey toward self-expression. A vessel for Mostert’s contemplations in the realm of possibilities, this tactile medium regularly fosters the beginning of creative genesis. The inclusion of calico in this body of work serves as a representation of these various moments. By layering and extending the imagery beyond the canvas, the artist invites us to create narratives that wander into the uncharted world that expands past the confines of our viewfinder. The frayed threads of fabric therefore come to symbolise the delicate unravelling of our collective dreams, thoughts, and memories over time.

Mostert draws a line of familiarity and belonging between all the lived spaces we occupy- mind, body, memory, home, and even greater space itself. It is within her artistic process that each canvas becomes a site of inquiry, subverting the familiar through surreal exploration and encouraging a poetic awareness of the world.

‘If Summer Was a Colour and Winter a Feeling’ is Anico Mostert's solo presentation for the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2024 and encapsulates the immaterial within the material.