Walter Oltmann
Wire tapestry
A tapestry is about an act of labour. In this case I have woven a somewhat unconventional tapestry from approximately 4km of aluminium wire of various gauges. The metallic cloth was fabricated by weaving square patches that were then sewn together to form a faceted grid not unlike a patchwork quilt or a kente cloth.
The idea of a metallic quilt or tapestry sounds a bit contradictory. I like this uneasy meeting of material and process and use it here to arrive at a tactile panel that concentrates perception on time and blends the abstract and decorative. The stitched wire patches make the tapestry become a rather rigid mesh or screen, the tensile nature of the wire ‘solidifying’ and rendering more sculptural or object-like what one usually expects to be a labile form. Further layering of smaller square units articulates the grid pattern even more and adds to the reflective shimmer of the overall surface. Small knot-like wire doodles stitched to some of the squares break the flatness of the surface and may allude to other activities of labour and ritual such as tying of knots or fly-tying.
I was initially drawn to using wire as a sculptural medium when I moved from Pietermaritzburg to Johannesburg to complete my postgraduate studies in fine arts. Gabion structures (wire cages filled with rocks as a preventative measure against soil erosion) along mine dumps and roadside embankments caught my eye as possible sculptural forms to explore. The limitations of the weight of these forms soon directed me to using wire in itself as a medium.
I also became aware of African wire weaving traditions. Although very little information is available on the early manufacture of wire in southern Africa, it is likely that it was made indigenously as early as the first millennium AD. Wire ‘drawing’ is a quintessentially central and southern African craft, having been practised widely for hundreds of years. It involves very labour-intensive processes of heating and drawing metal rods through successively smaller holes in metal drawplates until the required thickness of wire has been achieved. For this reason wire was considered a very valuable commodity, even being used as a form of currency. Nowadays, industrial and technological developments have made wire a relatively cheap and easily obtainable material.
Aluminium, being a lightweight metal, allows me to work on a larger scale than I might with other metals (eg copper or brass). I order the wire to my own specifications from a factory in Vereeniging, where power cables are made by mechanically twisting together several strands. The wire I use is of the softest grade and therefore lends itself ideally to hand-coiling and stitching. I am also drawn to its strong silver lustre which adds visual impact to the patterns and forms I employ.
The hand-weaving of the wire involves a process of coiling and stitching. I use a thicker gauge wire around which thinner sections of wire are coiled, not unlike processes of basket weaving. I use pliers and wire cutters to work with the wire but do most of the coiling and weaving by hand (without gloves, as they tend to get in the way). While my wirework is labour-intensive and time-consuming it is also meditative and therapeutic.
Biography
Born in Rustenburg in 1960, Oltmann has a BA Fine Arts from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg (1981) and an MA Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand (1985), where he has lectured since 1989. He won the Standard Bank Young Artist award in 2001. His most recent solo exhibition was at Michael Stevenson in 2004. Group exhibitions include Coexistence: Contemporary cultural production in South Africa at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Boston (2003). He has produced numerous commissions, most recently for the new Origins Centre at Wits.
Click here to view Walter Oltmann's previous exhibition at Michael Stevenson