City treasures

Fool's Gold is a new exhibition by Stephen Hobbs that comments on the spatial qualities of cities.
Posted 10 Aug 10 By Design Indaba Creative Work / Design News Comments

Visual artist Stephen Hobbs’s solo exhibition, Fool’s Gold, at David Krut Projects in Parkwood examines the meaning of the modern cities and how the history of iron pyrite has impacted on this development. The exhibition runs from 12 August to 25 September 2010.

Hobbs includes various mediums in his work, including video, photography, installation and assemblage. Fool’s Gold specifically represents the modern city of Jo’burg as it moves between first world order and third world informality. Lead, copper and pyrite are some of the materials with which Hobbs experiments n this exhibition.

The work has been described as an “exploration of architectonic forms, perception games, blind city walks and talks” and searches for a new meaning through all of this while employing an “urban vocabulary” of images, signs and symbols.

Fool’s Gold is also an investigation into the experiences that people have in cities and how it comes to define the fabric of their lives.