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The second show of the Maitland Institute takes the form of a four-month residency for Penny Siopis, whose four-decade career has made her one of South Africa’s most prominent artists. At the Institute she will work in situ on a large-scale multi-part painting; during this time the space will be open to the public, offering a rare opportunity to see how her glue and ink paintings evolve. Talks: Open Form During the residency, Siopis will present a series of public talks, in addition to workshops for learners of various ages. The talks programme is an open platform and engagement by the public is welcome. PLEASE RSVP TO GIVE AN IDEA OF NUMBER ATTENDING Saturday 6 May, 11am – 12.30pm ‘Materiality and its acts’ Penny Siopis and Sean O’Toole will discuss contemporary painting, focusing on its propensity for materiality and performance, chance and contingency, and pondering if and how these aspects might speak beyond the studio to comment on society at large. Saturday 20 May, 11am – 12.30pm ‘Horizontal becomes vertical’ Working horizontally, looking down and engaging in intimate tactile relations with the medium gives a sense of being ‘in’ the painting. How does this change when the painting is in a vertical position? Can this experience of proximity and distance speak to the ways humans relate in the wider world? Saturday 3 June, 11am – 12.30pm ‘Opacity turns transparent’ Can tracking the physical transformation of the medium, from wet white opaque substance to dry transparent layer, offer a way to talk about larger questions of the dynamics inherent in cultural translation? Saturday 24 June, 11am – 12.30pm ‘Figure plays with ground’ All painting wrestles with figure/ground relations, whether within the bounds of the canvas or in its relationship to the space around it. What does this mean in the larger philosophical sense? What compels us to assert form – as in figure – over formlessness – as in ground? Siopis will document her process in the studio at http://www.pennysiopis-openform.tumblr.com/