Kamyar Bineshtarigh: If Walls could Talk
You would think that fixing cars and making art could not be more different. Yet some of the activities that take place at a panel beaters shop are not too dissimilar to those in an artist’s studio. Achieving the perfect tone or shade of paint can hold great significance in both for example. The interiors of both are typically paint splattered. Incredible transformations also take place in these locations; damaged cars leave looking like they are fresh off an assembly line and blank canvases can become portals into an artist’s imagination or shed light on society's woes. Drawing comparisons between artists and panel beaters is consequence of a novel exhibition at the Southern Guild Cape Town gallery presented by the Iranian-born Kamyar Bineshtarigh. Stealing its title from the address of a panel beater shop near his Salt River studio, 9 Hopkins centres on the artist extracting the incidental marks from its interior walls.
Indeed in many cities, artist studios sit cheek by jowl with panel beaters – think of the studios in and around Maboneng or Doornfontein in Joburg. Bineshtarigh is not the first artist to draw inspiration from his neighbour – Rosie Mudge and Liberty Battson have both exploited automotive paint in their art. Battson seriously leaned into automotive production, generating hanging works that exuded the gloss of newly minted vehicles. - first published in The Sunday Times.
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