Strauss & co - 9 November 2015, Johannesburg

205 who draws heavily on the cultural artefacts of civilizations across space and time. She refers to the horses in her work figuring as ‘daemons’ 8 or intermediaries ‘between my physical self and my higher Self’ 9 . She adds that the horse and rider figures are ‘really about the notion of the complete fusion of self and spirit’ 10 , a function of art that is close to the heart of Bell’s artistic project. The tension between the weighty bronze and rough-hewn materiality of these four sculptures, and their almost ethereal, otherworldly presence, is what animates them. They embody the paradoxes of self versus universal, present versus eternal, stillness versus motion, physicality versus transcendence. As such they are not just spiritually charged objects, but also paragons of art. 1. Pippa Stein. (2004 ) TAXI 010 Deborah Bell, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing. ( Journey of the Magus III, 1999/2000) 2. Jacques Lange. (December 2010.) ‘Deborah Bell: Notions of the Self’ in Design>Art Magazine, No. 2. Pretoria, Design>Magazine. Page 49. 3. Pippa Stein. (2004) ‘The Journey Home’ in TAXI 010 Deborah Bell, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing. Page 7. 4. Deborah Bell. (2004) ‘Artist’s Writings’ in TAXI 010 Deborah Bell, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing. Page 43. 5. Heidi Smith. (February 2009) ‘A Divine Spark: Interview with Deborah Bell’ in SC Magazine. 6. Ibid. 7. Deborah Bell. (2015 ) Deborah Bell: Dreams of Immortality (Catalogue), Johannesburg: Everard Read. Page 22. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid. 10. Heidi Smith. (February 2009) ‘A Divine Spark: Interview with Deborah Bell’ in SC Magazine.