Galerie Chaton

Valeria Talian - The Custodians

22 July to 12 August 2023 
 
A custodian is someone who has the responsibility of taking care of or protecting something.  Within this collection of work the artist created metaphorical entities reminiscent of Jungian archetypes.  The latter refer to the universal cast of characters within all myths, legends and fiction such as the fool, the hero and the king.  These archetypes don’t just appear in fiction but are found in history and life as well.  Each person may embody different archetypes throughout their lives.  The custodians can be seen as the guardians of these archetypes and are the embodiment of forces necessary for our transcendence.
 
Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Valeria Talian moved with her parents to Pretoria in 1990.  In 1995 they became naturalised South Africans, and the country became her permanent place of residence.   She attended school in Pretoria.  After school she travelled and lived in England for two years and on her return to South Africa, she acquired qualifications in the Early Childhood Development field.  However, she craved creative expression and started spending all her free time experimenting with different forms of art and mediums ranging from mosaics, drawing, and painting to encaustic.  She fell in love with encaustic and mixed media and through many years of experimentation, sometimes with disastrous results, she feels she has grown and evolved as an artist in her own right and has developed a personal style.
 
Talian created The Custodians by using mixed media.  It involved a slow layering process of acrylic mediums, paints, pastels, collages, and threading.  The works are encased in box frames behind glass.  They are small glimpses of the guardians going about their business.  Just as each artwork has its own accentuated colour, each custodian has their own quality and gift.