Deon Venter - Evidence - 2002
"With regard to the Evidence Series, the artist has the expressed hope that the viewer would experience the works viscerally, without the dictate of his intent. If one had to intellectualize content, metaphor and symbol, this would diminish some of it's mystery and visual power. It would, however, be misleading to conceal these attributes from the viewer. Venter's works at first seem deceptively simple but they are considerably more than they appear. In his latest work, nothing is explicit. We are asked to reconsider the everyday. His visual vocabulary is the painstakingly slow process of documenting the commonplace and everyday around him. Out of this familiarity is derived something more than it's subject, something international and universal. The Evidence Series basically depicts very ordinary things in the landscape around him, such as a burn pile, a vineyard, tracks or footprints in the snow. Through use of scale, material manipulation and the choice by which the artist excludes some details and emphasizes others - one is compelled to consider it's layers of possible reference to the issues of history, memory, geography and identity. Although the work has particular reference to the artist, it also has an open endedness which could give rise to other associations for viewers of different backgrounds and experiences. The work therefore, raises as many questions as it declares absolutes." Jacques de Klerk - November 2001
