"OCEAN DRIVE" 2009 -02010

In 2009 I discovered that if I scan a drawing into the computer then I was able to colour the drawing using a very basic programme that came with all microsoft word prgrammes, PAINT. Although the process was painfully slow the result was the wonderfull sense of flat colour I had been looking for. What follows is the result of that process.

"OCEAN DRIVE"

 In linguistics, semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols. It is usually divided into the following three branches:

• Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata
• Syntactics: Relations among signs in formal structures
• Pragmatics: Relation between signs and their effects on the people who use them.

The influences for the series lies in the drawings made for Tintin, Asterix, Archie and iconic gay comics such as Meatman (done in the 1970’s by Stephen)

Every image is divided in to thirds. One third always has a view of a tropical sea side view. The other two thirds are taken up by midcentury furniture and always an image of a piece of so called kitsch art piece, Tretchikoff, Lynch, Warhol, etc, as well as a character and some form of alcohol. In almost every image there is a character either entering or leaving the frame of the image. This is the basic format of each composition.

Ocean drive is a series of snap shots looking into people’s lives.The format relates back to the idea of a Polaroid photograph. It is what happens within each snap shot that tells the story. Here is where you can see how I was influenced by the study of semiology. Very often certain images are repeated in some way or another and these are used as signs to enhance to tell the narrative.

1.    Alcohol – martini’s, cosmopolitan, wine, beer, etc – signs of decadence and fun.

2.    Flowers – domesticity and a softer side to a personality

3.    Dog – loyal friend, uncomplaining companioning, follower of the action.

4.    The white cat – my cat (Itchy), always detached companion, domesticity.

5.    And also when the drawings are coloured, the colours used also add to the narrative. The colours are simple, bright and naïve

Once the drawing is coloured-in, then one of the characters is seen as a white person in a mid century interior, which places it in the South African context of an Apartheid area, what with the colonial tropical sea side view, the furniture and the paintings. However once the character changes race, and becomes a person of a darker race, ie, African, Asian, then the room takes on a new image, namely that of a post apartheid interior.

 The images deal with the breakdown in communication amongst couples (very tongue in cheek). And the contrasting’ness of the room with white and black characters. And of course the sexual tension between the characters.

These 90 images were exhibited @ The Wessel Snyman Creative –December 2010 - 17 Bree Street, Cape Town, South Africa

“In this evocative solo exhibition Durno explores the thin line of racial, sexual and suburban tension and politics to the backdrop of majestic seascapes and Tretchikoffs, illuminating the unstable relationships between sex,race and gender, and unsettling contemporary notions of acceptability.”