Page 17 - Art First: Karel Nel: Observe

The ladder has long been symbolic of spiritual questing – one only
has to recall the ladder in Jacob’s dream or the ladder in the Kaballah
that links the sephiroth into a coherent system. In Initiate ascent, Nel has
included two ladders from Papua New Guinea. In that society, ascend-
ing the ladder enacts the transition from boyhood to manhood as the
young men enter the ceremonial tall houses, and symbolises the mystery
of the change of state, and the change of consciousness that goes with it.
The ladder enables an incremental change of vantage point – new view
12 upon new view, insight upon insight.
The fugitive but precise nature of Nel’s works are created layer upon
careful layer: broad washes of colour in browns, lilacs and greens; the
rubbing of wooden grain; the subtle effects of marbling in small areas;
the distinctive airy forms which suffuse space, traced with fingers through
grains of sand; emphatic use of high-key colour to set off the muted tones
of the drawings and the meticulous linear optical projections, which re-
mind the viewer these are not simply interiors, but a considered mapping
of the interior worlds of a thinker and maker.
In this exhibition, focussed observation and meditation work together
to create the capacity to look both outwards, upwards and inwards. Nel
once again presents a visual case for the intimacy of scientific exploration
of the universe, of which we are inescapably part, and of the internal
seeking after the nature of what can be understood.

LEFT: Initiate ascent detail

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