The South African artist Hentie van der Merwe (born 1972 in Windhoek, Namibia, lives in Antwerp and Amsterdam) presents three recently completed installations in the Galerie Gabriele Rivet, all of which relate to each other subtly and at times more obviously in form and content. In his first solo exhibition in Germany van der Merwe continues to explore his familiar themes, central to which is the subject of the artist's body, and its relation to a social environment which includes historical as well as political aspects.

His interest in the body, lead van der Merwe to continue his fascination with clothing and costume in its mediating role between the body and its environment. In his previous series of blurred photoghraphs entitled "Trappings", he focused on the military uniforms found at the South African Military History Museum in Johannesburg as an investigation of masculinity, memory and war (2000). Thus "Trappings" was a deliberation upon the military uniform and its psychological place in war and conflict. In our exhibition, the artist refers to costume and body on a more abstract, metaphorical level, including personal references to two special types of fabric and costume.
In a recently completed work entitled "Camouflage" the artist makes extensive, almost obsessive, use of red-and-white chequered vichy fabric. The room is covered with this fabric resulting in a feeling of optical intensity and overload: claustrophobia. On the walls ink and watercolor works on paper show animals from logos and crests from political and economical contexts – the American, German and Russian eagles, the Puma from the sportswear brand, the Jaguar from the car brand.

In a different installation van der Merwe uses large amounts of a completely different type of fabric. He stretches meters upon meters of hounds-tooth fabric in the gallery basement. The optical intensity resulting from the sheer graphic nature of the fabric creates in the viewer, upon entering the room, a feeling of dizzying disorientation. Thus, through use of this particular fabric, the installation functions as a metaphor reflecting costume and body in its relation to the environment that is charged either as hostile, discomforting, unfamiliar, transitory, alienating, or simply seductive.

A series of self-portraits acts as a link between the two installations. The images point literally to the artist and his body as the main impetus for the creation of this exhibition.Hentie van der Merwe. Solo shows: 2003 Galerie van Laere, Antwerpen; 2003, 2000 Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg; 1997 Generator Art Space, Africus Institute for Contemporary Art, Johannesburg. Selected group shows : 2003 Arche Noah. Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Köln; Body and the Archive. Curated by L. Firstenberg, Artists' Space, New York. 2002 BIGTORINO, 2nd. International Biennial for Young Artists. Curated by M. Pistoletto, Turin; Formen der Gewalt. Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Köln; Dis/Location - images and identity. South Africa. Curated by D. Tilkin for Fotoespaña, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao; Centro Cultural de Maia, O'Porto. 2001 Rencontres de la photographie africaine. 4 th. Biennial of African Photography, Bamako, Mali; One to Seven. Curated by J. Geismar, Galerie Gabriele Rivet; Köln. 2000 "FNB Vita Art Prize Exhibition," Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg; Translation/Seduc-tion/ Displacement. Curated by L. Firstenberg and J. Pfeffer, White Box Gallery, New York. 1998 Dreams and Clouds. Curated by I. Arnesson and W. van Huysteen, Kulturhuset Stockholm. 1995 Taking Liberties: The Body Politic. Curated by C. Richards and P. Ntuli, Gertrude Posel Gallery at University of the Witwatersrand, Africus 1995, Johannesburg Biennial, a.o.