David Brits is an award-winning artist whose experimental métier is dedicated to investigations in public-scale sculpture. Equally energised by material exploration and archival investigation, Brits’ practice spans installation, print-making, drawing, and film.
ENTER
↓
PUBLIC SCULPTURE
Red Edge (Ouroboros 1.3.1)
2020
Carbon fibre, fibreglass, resin, epoxy, polyethelene foam, quartz crystals, pigment.
311 x 183 x 98cm
Public sculpture installed at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
This sculptural work is the culmination of three years of vigorous material exploration and prototyping using advanced composite materials, such as carbon fibre together with innovative technologies such as 3D design and 3D printing. Such materials are generally used in automotive, marine and aeronautical industries, rendering them non-traditional within the conventions of fine arts. Carbon fibre is a product of recent advances in material technology and when combined with a plastic resin, it becomes eleven times stronger than steel.
The iconic serpentine shapes within Brits’ sculptures are rooted in his family background as his grandfather was a prominent South African snake catcher and reptile expert. Without a starting or finishing point, and appearing arterial in spite of their solidity, the forms seem to writhe and flow in constant movement. The effect is a sense of the wild and methodical working in harmony and unison - a kinetic energy feeding itself.
ART FAIR
Sculptures and photography works on show as part ofthe MovArt Gallery Booth at the 2024 edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair | Booth D3 With David Brits, Kay-leigh Fisher, Keyezua, Mário Macilau.
From the Press Rease:
“ MOVART Gallery is ensuring its agenda on the African art scene by once again taking part in the continent’s most important contemporary art fair, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, which runs from 16 to 18 February at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Today, it opens the private view for collectors, curators and cultural agents.
In response to this year’s edition theme, ‘Unbound’, circling around the unlimited potential of art to create and challenge realities and between imaginary intersections, materialism and stories, MOVART’S proposal aims to perform as a platform for art practices that provoke imagination while also engage in sociopolitical tensions and break with traditional narratives and social expectations. At this juncture, the works of David Brits, Kay-leigh Fisher, Mário Macilau and Keyezua are brought together.”
GROUP SHOW
The Hierarchy of Essential Disclosures (Ouroboros 2.2.1) 2019
Edition of 6 + 1 AP
42cm x 188cm x 100cm. Polyethlene Tube, Fibre Glass, Carbon Fibre, Resin, Quartz Crystals, Pigment, Fittings.
On show as part of Synaptic, at THK Gallery, Cape Town.
This work delivers a constantly shifting optical challenge; the patterns nested in the form are in endless flux as the viewer changes vantage points. Its size is imposing, but equally captivating is a perceptible weightlessness. Without a starting or finishing point, and appearing arterial in spite of their solidity, the form seems to writhe and flow in constant movement. The effect is a sense of the wild and methodical working in harmony and unison - a kinetic energy feeding itself..
SOLO EXHIBITION
Time is a Flat Circle
15 September — 13 November 2022. Movart, R. João Penha 14A, 1250-025 Lisboa, Portugal.
Curated by Camila Maissune.
Time is a Flat Circle by South African artist David Brits (b. 1987) comprises a set of photographic works completed between 2010–2012 as well as a series of new carbon fibre sculptures. The exhibition commemorates the 35th anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, a large-scale mechanised tank battle that took place in southern Angola between Angolan, Cuban and South African forces during the years 1987–1988.
Based in an archive of pictures posted on social media groups by South African ex-conscripts, many of whom fought in South Africa’s so-called “Border War” in Namibia and southern Angola from the 1960ies to the 1980ies, David Brits uses mark-making, erasure and scratching, thus embodying the complexities of working through his own masculinity and inherited history in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Brits’ sculptural works take as their principal archetype the “Ouroboros”, a Greek-derived word describing the symbol of a snake devouring its own tail. The artist brings forth an image whose logic refutes itself, and which somehow suspends time.
“In Time is a Flat Circle, one witnesses a political-poetic collage in different layers of the archive. Between image, video and sculpture, we witness a permanent camouflage in which history, man and animal are demultiplied in a narrative and a mapping of memories.
Brits symbolically adopts the "ouroboros", a Greek word that describes the symbol of the snake consuming its own tail and connected it to an archive of images published on social media of groups of former South African recruits. Many of these ex-conscripts fought in what is known as the "Border War" in Namibia and Southern Angola from the 1960ies to the late 1980ies. The ouroboros presents itself once again in the black, circular strokes with which David erases the images, erasing the faces, in a sense vandalising them, thus incorporating the complexities of working with the inherited history of a post-apartheid South Africa. As Anfonso Dias Ramos states, Brits vandalises ‘the integrity of the original images, which were largely limited to scenes of male bonding and uneventful daily rituals, codifying the dominant way of talking about the war in terms of camaraderie and masculinity, ignoring the extreme violence surrounding it.’”
— Excerpt from curator Camila’s Maissune’s exhibition text for Time is a Flat Circle.
STUDIO EXPERIMENTS
Models for Public Sculpture
2016-Present
Dimentions variable.
SCULPTURE
Sinusoidal Nebulous VII
2021
Fibre Glass, Aluminum, Resin, Paint.
55 x 40 x 35cm
MACQUETTES
Maquette II
3D printed ABS
20 x 18 x 15cm
A series of 3D printed sculptural maquettes for public-scale sculpture.
GROUP SHOW
Sinusoidal Nebulous VIII 2020
Carbon Fibre, Aluminum, Resin.
65 x 56 x 55 cmt, Fittings.
On show as part of ‘Fullhouse’
at blank projects, Cape Town.
From the exhibition text:
“For this year’s winter show, in which blank traditionally uses its platform to highlight the practices of emerging artists and curators, two local project spaces, Fede and Under, have been invited to occupy the gallery.
Fullhouse consists of 1) a library of artworks sampled from practitioners that Fede and Under have worked with over the last year, 2) an empty room in which artworks will be continuously reconfigured and curatorial enquiries will occur.
CARBON FIBRE
SCULPTURE
Artefact of Perception I
2017
Carbon Fibre, 3D Printed ABS, Resin.
25 x 20 x 31cm
DRAWING CONCERTINA
Drawing Concertina I–III
2019
Drawing folio & 3D printed sculptural maquette. Dimensions variable
Available through the proto~ store at the A4 Foundation.
23 Buitenkant St, Zonnebloem, Cape Town.
“The concertina features test sketches and collages that delve deeper into Brits’ Ouroboros series, with accompanying comments and ideas written by the artist, as well as a 3D-printed model of the Ouroboros sculptures. These tests provide insight into the artist’s practice, as well as the process through which the works move from idea to execution.”
PUBLIC SCULPTURE
Red Edge (Ouroboros 1.2.1) 2019
Polyethene Foam, Glass Fibre, Resin, Quartz Chrystals, Pigment.
98 x 69 x 65cm
Public sculpture installed at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation near Masiphumalele, Cape Town.
Red Edge (Ouroboros 1.2.1) is comprised of an unfolding series of dynamic curves that urge the spectator onward to a new and different viewpoint until a circuit is completed. The form embodies the patterns that govern both the human body and the natural world - simultaneously evoking the symbolic AIDS ribbon and the double-helix structure of DNA.
“The sculpture explores pattern as the basis for understanding”, David reflects. “Seeing pattern is something which happens in the mind - you can see things with your mind that you cannot see with your eyes alone. Constantly recreating itself, the sculpture goes to the essence of what it means to see and perceive. It makes us aware of the great patterns of which we are part.”
“Not only is David’s sculpture an eye-catching feature”, says Githa Maralack of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, “it truly resonates with our work here - striving to impact both research and treatment relating to HIV and TB from within the community of Masiphumelele, rippling out to the wider world. There is no doubt in my mind that individuals leave our centre having not only information highlighting the work that takes place here but a memory ‘stamp’ of the Ouroboros sculpture to encapsulate their whole experience with us.”
STUDIO EXPERIMENTS
Making Ouroboros 1.3.1
August 2019
Dimentions variable.
CARBON FIBRE
SCULPTURE
Sinusoidal Nebulous VIII
2021
Carbon Fibre, Aluminum, Resin.
50 x 33 x 38 cm
Famously, in the late 19th Century the German organic chemist August Kekulé had a dream of a snake biting its tail. He described this as the eureka moment when, after decades dedicated to working out the structure of hydrocarbons, the shape of the snake biting its tail in a dream provided a crucial clue to deciphering the molecular structure of benzine. Benzine has a C6 structure, one closely linked to the C4 molecular structure of carbon fibre, the material in which these sculptures are made.
DRAWINGS
FOR SCULPTURE
Drawing for Public-Scale Sculpture.
2020
29,7 x 21 cm
SCULPTURE
Sinusoidal Nebulous V
2021
Fibre Glass, Aluminum, Resin, Paint.
27cm x 23cm x 20cm
ART FAIR
Ouroboros 2.2.1 2019
Edition of 6 + 1 AP
Polyethlene Tube, Fibre Glass, Carbon Fibre, Resin, Quartz Crystals, Pigment, Fittings. 42cm x 188cm x 100cm.
On show as part of the SMITH Gallery Booth, FNB Art Joburg, 2019.
BRONZE
SCULPTURE
Ouroboros 3.3.1
Bronze
2014 x 266 x 216 cm
DRAWINGS
FOR SCULPTURE
Drawings for Public-Scale Sculpture.
2020
29,7 x 21 cm
MACQUETTES
Maquette III
3D printed ABS
15 x 20 x 10cm
A series of 3D printed sculptural maquettes for public-scale sculpture
CARBON FIBRE
SCULPTURE
Sinusoidal Nebulous II
2019
Carbon Fibre, Aluminum, Resin.
65 x 56 x 55cm
Sinusoidal Nebulous III
2019
Carbon Fibre, Aluminum, Resin, Pigment.
70 x 56 x 50cm
DRAWING CONCERTINA
Drawing Concertina I–III
2019
Drawing folio & 3D printed sculptural maquette. Dimensions variable
Available through the proto~ store at the A4 Foundation.
23 Buitenkant St, Zonnebloem, Cape Town.
“The concertina features test sketches and collages that delve deeper into Brits’ Ouroboros series, with accompanying comments and ideas written by the artist, as well as a 3D-printed model of the Ouroboros sculptures. These tests provide insight into the artist’s practice, as well as the process through which the works move from idea to execution.”
SCULPTURE
Sinusoidal Nebulous VI
2021
Fibre Glass, Aluminum, Resin, Paint.
35 x 35 x 40cm
MACQUETTES
Maquette III
3D printed ABS
20 x 18 x 15cm
A series of 3D printed sculptural maquettes for public-scale sculpture.
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” — C.G. Jung.
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” — C.G. Jung.
David Brits alongside Ouroboros 1.3.1 installed at the Melrose Arch Precinct, Johannesburg.
David Brits was born in 1987 in Cape Town and lives there. He graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art (Painting) at the University of Cape Town in 2010.
Brits has, over the past six years, devoted his practice to formal investigations in public-scale sculpture. Equally energised by material exploration and archival investigation, Brits’ practice also spans installation, print-making, drawing, and film.
Recent major public sculpture commissions include the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, The Speir Arts Trust and the Iziko South African National Gallery.
Brits is the winner of the Rupert Foundation’s inaugural Social Impact Arts Prize and a recipient of the Barbara Fairhead Award for Social Responsibility in Art. He is a founding member and curator of The Ramp, a multidisciplinary project space in Cape Town.
Brits’ recent solo exhibitions include Time is a Flat Circle, curated by Camila Maissune at MovArt Gallery, Lisbon, as well as inclusions in theMaterealitygroup show at the Iziko South African National Gallery, curated by Andrea Lewis, andSynapticat THK Gallery, Cape Town.
In 2014 Brits was awarded a residency at the St. Moritz Art Academy, Switzerland, under the mentorship of Marcel van Eden and Daniele Buetti. Additional group shows include Words curated by Willem Boshoff at the Nirox Sculpture Park, Johannesburg; Nevermind the M*ss at A SPACE, Helsinki; Kindergeburtstag, held at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. His work has been featured in the academic journal Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture (2015) and has been named a “young artist to watch” by the South African Art Times.
Brits made his curatorial debut with Not My War, an exhibition held at the Michaelis Galleries, UCT. This acclaimed show brought together works by significant South African artists that have reflected on their country’s involvement in border wars in Northern Namibia and Southern Angola during the 1960ies to 1980ies.
Brits’ work is housed in public and private collections in both South Africa and abroad, including the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Collection, the SunFair Collection in New York, and the Fondation Gandur pour l'Art Collection in Geneva. He is a recipient of the Golden Key Society Award for Visual Art and the Irma Stern Scholarship.