Folly, Frailty and Fear 2021 | UJ Art Gallery Johannesburg

Diane Victor explores the notions of folly, irrationality, and stupidity in a compelling new body of work: FOLLY, FRALITY AND FEAR, with experimental works and different processes beyond her traditional approach. Through drawing, printmaking, and blackboard chalk drawings, drawings on stone and smoke drawings printed on cloth, Victor alluded to ramifications of foolish actions on individuals and their society.

With her evocative drawing skills (as a manifestation of her approach to art making) and a huge dose of dark and sardonic humour Victor seduces the viewer to keep looking at images that one would like to forget. In employing humour on the one hand, she highlights the bizarreness of the situation and on the other makes the message more palatable. The only way for her to deal with dark issues is by means of humour, she argues, by breaking through peoples' defence mechanisms in order for reality to hit harder. And equally so by introducing a sense of the carnivalesque , a type of comedy which acquires power in its subversion of social norms, values, and systems and in its ability to free people from dogmatism and a stagnant social order. The result may be either purifying or appalling. That is Victor's way of communicating. Having a mistrust or dislike for words at the best of times and finding it difficult to talk, she plays the game of visual seduction, of seducing the viewer into investing time to look at the work and open up a dialogue. - Johan Myburg