Edition ‘S’

MARLISE KEITH

Take a load off Manny
2009
Edition of 40
Three plate colour etching made in soft ground, hard ground
and aquatint with hand colouring printed on Zerkall Bütten 250gsm paper.
Paper dimension: 34,5 x 38 cm
Image dimension: 19,8 x 24,5 cm

SOLD OUT

Warren Editions is very proud to announce the Edition ‘S’ 2009 artist – Marlise Keith. She is the first artist of the Edition ‘S’ project, launched by Warren Editions in September 2009.  Each year an artist will be chosen to create an edition in the printmaking medium for the Edition ‘S’. The identity of the artist is kept a secret and will be announced after a pre-release date. All are invited to subscribe so as to secure a print from the Edition ‘S’. Upon subscription a place in the edition is held for the continuing subscriber from year-to-year; however, there is no obligation to renew annually.

Marlise Keith collaborated with master printer Zhané Warren, assisted by Sara-Aimee Verity to make the three-plate colour etching, Take a load off Manny, crafted in the soft ground, hard ground and aquatint applications with hand colouring, printed in an edition of 40 on Zerkall Bütten 250gsm paper.

Keith explains the following of her etching: “I’ve done it again… Bob Dylan’s song Weight has been torturing me for the past week, and as per usual I got the words wrong. But it is the perfect title for the etching: Take a load off Manny (supposed to be Fanny). I did the sketch for the etching the day I stopped temp teaching. It represented everything I hated about the experience. Most of all how I changed into this weird super bitch from hell and after every hour spent with the little darling buds of mayhem left me really disliking myself. So I drew the French bulldog, clipped and replaced her ears with bunny ears - my identity change. I also drew what I would have loved to do with some of those babes in the woods, taxidermied and stuck to a wall. Mostly I drew how happy I was to drive away from that school. I couldn’t get away fast enough… I’m still unclear who I was at school - the bunny or the bitch?”

About the Artist
Marlise Keith lives in Kalk Bay and draws primarily in acrylic inks on paper and board. Her work was described by critic Melvyn Minnaar in the Cape Times (26 June 2008) as “The glorious and mysterious things of [a] fleeting world [is] what Marlise Keith uses to define her astonishing individual, complicated visual tales. An artist with a…brooding, vivid original voice”.

Keith studied BA Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria, which was completed in 1995 and completed her Master’s Degree in Fine arts at the University of Stellenbosch in 2000. To keep the wolf from the door, she taught art at high school level and later was head of the Production Design Department at AFDA, a tertiary film school before finally committing to do art full time in 2006. She has participated in various group shows nationally and abroad. Her first solo show was in 2000. Keith’s works can be found in various collections in South Africa, America, Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden. She has participated in several competitions, was a top ten finalist in the Absa L’Atelier in 2007 and won the Vuleka competition (sponsored by Sasol) in 2006.