Art Catalogue Wayne Barker 2013

LAND & DESIRE SERIES //
B arker’s landscapes, which unlike ,Pierneef’s have superimposed images of people, as well as
being overlaid with pop imagery indicating material desire, also contain cartographers’ signs and
route markers bringing to mind the subordination of the land under the colonists’ control. Marking
and mapping imply possession (and dispossession) and, as we look deeper into his paintings, we see
how possession and desire are linked. He also uses words to emphasise his theme and these words,
which are scattered sparingly across the compositions, tease out ideas. “ Worlds”, “apart”, “desire”,
“land” all come together in a relationship of control and commerce.
T his serie is undoubtedly built on his own artistic history where he has, in one way or another,
pursued the same ideas. Sometimes this pursuit has been outrageous and symptomatic of a man
who is angry with a complacent society. These works veil that anger by attractive surfaces but their
strength lies in that passion, which is the quality which lifts Barker’s work above the ordinary into
the extraordinary.
CAROL BROWN
Untitled / 2004 / monoprint and enamel on canvas / 19 x 17 cm