South African artist Brendon Edwards makes a comeback to the local art scene with his most recent work, A Symphony of Spheres- Beethoven’s 5th, set for installation at Art@Africa’s Franschhoek sculpture garden, from Saturday September 24.
Returning to his home country after his early years in Zimbabwe Mr Edwards studied the Philosophy of Aesthetics and Logic before becoming an artist. His high impact, large scale works can be seen across South Africa and internationally.
His latest sculpture is according to a press release on the new artwork’s installation, a visual representation of Beethoven’s 5th symphony. “A masterpiece that encapsulates triumph over adversity, considered by many critics and composers to be the greatest musical composition of all time. ‘A Symphony of Spheres’ is a patinaed steel sculpture that represents opposites: earth and water, man-made architecture and organic flowing forms of nature,” it reads.
The work is a timeless, visual vibration of Beethoven’s 5th transformed into an immersive three-dimensional experience.In explaining his work, Mr Edwards communicates there is more than a man-made and natural connection, something that lies much deeper in human existence.
This begins with a shape that has played a monumental role in his work, circles. He states, “The spherical form is the language of our universe, the most inclusive language from the beginning to the end of time. From the tiniest atom to the infinite space of galaxies, all creation is spherical.”
Mr Edwards presents his work as a way to visually allude to an idea Plato labelled as the “Music of Spheres”. This is an ancient philosophical concept which demonstrates that the spatial relationship of the Sun, Moon and planets form a musical scale.
The Pythagorean theory states that the distances of the planets from the Sun and the distances between these bodies, are represented by musical intervals of tones and half-tones, etc.
Furthermore, Mr Edwards has labelled his genre Muse-spheric as a nod to this philosophical concept but adding emphasis to the idea of art and music. The reference to Muse refers to the Muses; nine deities in Greek Mythology who presided over the arts and sciences, becoming specifically associated with music.
What is ever present in Mr Edwards’ spherical work is this underlying idea that music is at the very core of our existence, born from the universe and considered by many intellectuals as the universal language of mankind. It has the ability to cross borders, ethnicities, time, race and religion, uniting humans together through pure emotion.
His studies and understanding of the world, philosophy and artistic language allow him to harness an incredible talent of creating art by taking complicated subjects and representing them in a simple aesthetic form.
The sculpture will be on show at the Art@Africa Sculpture Garden, Huguenot Street 2, opposite the Huguenot Monument. It opens on Saturday September 24 (Heritage Day) at 11am. For more information visit, www.artatafrica.art/collections/symphony-of-spheres
