Willie Saayman’s first solo exhibition at Gallery AOP teems with images of zombie-like figures. His drawings, whether oil-based media or pencil on paper, abound with figures that seem to float in an indeterminate, entropic space, often filled with graffiti-like writing that hovers in mid-air around them. They inadvertently occupy one’s perception with bewildering and yet oddly familiar mask-like figures that combine to have a weird effect, best described as a ‘disquieting strangeness’. The strangeness of Saayman’s figures can, however, be related to similar type of figures found in the work of James Ensor, Jean Dubuffet, Jean-Michel Basquiat and A R Penck.

“The figures, or characters as I would like to call them, are influenced by graphic novels. The same characters appear in different works, sometimes shifting roles and making one question whether it is their morality that changes depending on their circumstances, or not. They tell the stories of outsiders, vagrant characters and transient beings. These figures are also often cropped in a manner that is more akin to the processes one associates with storyboards and with photography. There is darkness in the figures of these new works, but humour too, however wry or grim. There is still a lot of blood in these works but it seems as if the carnage is more vibrant, orchestrated than before. In my stories it is difficult to tell whether the good guys are really good or merely indulging their darker sides.”

Saayman’s art draws on a long tradition of graffiti art, as well as other traditions of outsider art, and street art: punk, children’s art, skater culture and graphic novels. His latest body of work also summons memories from his youth growing up surfing at a time when surfers were seen to be transgressive.

Gallery AOP is at 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark, Johannesburg. Opening times 10:00 to 17:00 Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 to 15:00 on Saturday.