Strauss & co - 14 March 2016, Cape Town

533 David James BROWN SOUTH AFRICAN 1 951- Thomas and the Boneyard bronze casting, stainless steel, copper, brass, wood, glass and found objects approximately 450 by 260 by 140cm R120 000–160 000 EXHIBITED The 1st Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, 2001/2002. LITERATURE Paul Edmunds. (ed.) (2001/2002) Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Stellenbosch: Spier. Illustrated in colour on a double-page spread, unpaginated. Emma Bedford. ‘Common Ground: The Case for Public Art’ in Edmunds. Ibid, unpaginated: In Thomas and the Boneyard David Brown likewise encourages playful exploration, but closer examination of the work exposes sinister undertones. Toy trains reminiscent of childhood innocence contrast with references to the trains that carried the condemned to concentration camps. Chilling reverberations of the holocaust raise the spectre of apartheid in South Africa and its devastating impact. Through a range of autobiographical investigations the artist prompts a voyage of discovery that leads one alternately through evocative associations of everyday life and the darkest moments of the twentieth century. Employing construction, welding, bronze casting, carving, and found objects, this work embodies a history of contemporary sculptural processes. 284