Would you agree that the evening sky is misleading?
How does it deceive us that stars are mapped in the same place each night? How are light years reduced to brief moments of observation?
How does it play with perception, reducing celestial forms of magnitude—suns, moons, distant planets, and the various constellations they form—to trails and clusters of tiny dots? Evenings spent in areas with minimal light pollution allow a subtle, silent conversation with these celestial forms. They tell tales about their formations and how they come into existence.
The conversations continue in the studio space, where blank sheets of paper are interpreted as the stark, clear evening sky, void of stars and suns, awaiting their formation and birthing. Through the playful practice of drawing these tiny dots and unweaving nylon bags traditionally used for trading oranges, I have found an avenue to an unexpected meditative process, approaching each work without preconceptions of what the end product should look like or a defined direction. The philosophies of the late South Korean abstract artist Park Seo-Bo provide comfort for the tedious labour, particularly, his belief that repetition and drawing are foundational for meditation. These induce a state of calm and the formation of unity between the materials, the act of drawing, the studio space, and the artist.
Additionally, his interpretations relating to the level of purity that an artist attains due to countless repetitions, the processes of unweaving and playful pointillism, prompt me to question the metamorphosis that exists in the lifespan of the materials and all matter in existence. The nylon fabric takes on a new identity: a thread used for paper embroidery that results in the formulation of fictional theories around the formation of suns and celestial beings, as well as their orbits and movements. Through repetition, the embroidered marks play on the imagination and propose a land filled with planted sun seedlings awaiting harvest. The markings and symbols unintentionally create an ancient text-like arrangement, suggesting a language for suns and celestials, resulting in sun formations birthed from an iterative process of the attraction that light particles exert on one another, leading to harvesting.
Vanessa Majoro is a retired telecommunications engineer and a self-taught abstract artist. Working primarily with recycled materials, she combines pointillism and threaded nylon drawings on paper to create intricate, textural works. Her practice is rooted in meditative processes, including the unweaving of nylon bags traditionally used to sell oranges—an act that reflects her commitment to sustainability and transformation.
Majoro draws inspiration from her immediate environment, translating everyday materials into layered visual narratives. Her work has been featured in various platforms, including a commission with the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, and group exhibitions with the Turbine Art Fair, and Sasol New Signatures. She is currently based in her hometown of Qwaqwa, South Africa, and is pursuing a BA in Visual and Multimedia Art.