Peter Machen is well known for his writing about art. Having written for a number of publications – arguably better known for the Independent on Saturday - he is gradually making a considerable reputation as a visual narrator.

Testament to this is his upcoming solo exhibition at the KZNSA titled Corduroy Man.

Based on an unpublished book, the exhibition of words and images is, in a sense, a documentary. While the genre usually involves the artist or photographer or writer documenting something external to themselves, this particular exercise - which extends over more than ten years - documents Machen’s own scattered consciousness. As such, objectivity - that other holy tenet of the documentary maker - falls by the wayside.

This is what the artist says about this project: “I have long been convinced, through reading, observation and the processing of simple thoughts, that it is subjectivity and not objectivity that is the pathway (in as much as there a pathway) to the universal. In the same way that Van Gogh’s impressionist windswept fields give the viewer a greater sense of the actual experience of being there than supposed photo realism ever could, the verbal fragments and often blurry and impressionistic visuals of the Corduroy Man give a clearer view of my own consciousness than careful scripting and perfect focus ever could”.

Corduroy Man runs at the KZNSA Gallery from May 16 to June 4 in the Mezzanine gallery. The exhibition is funded by the Bartel Art Trust.

Three other exhibitions open at the KZNSA Gallery on May 14 and run until June 4. They are Jill Trappler's This is where we meet, an exhibition that focuses on the transformation of raw material into cloth and its transformation into clothing; the final instalment in the 2005/6 Young Artist's Project, Bok (a video installation by Peter van Heerden), and Stretching the Strelitzia which is an exhibition by the Botanical Art Association of Southern Africa concentrating on the Strelitzia and using various media.

For more information, contact the KZNSA Gallery on 031 202 3686 or 031 277 1703 or visit www.kznsagallery.co.za