BIG ideas with little people.

Darren Aiken has lots of little things happening in his head. No, not mentally. He has BIG ideas that he transforms into the most delightful miniature scenarios.

He started off with chess sets. The most notorious is the Old vs New SA Political where Winnie and Nelson Mandela(as king and queen) take on FW de Klerk and Evita Bezuidenhout - such a stunning idea, and now a collector’s item. Even more quirky, appealing to my sense of humour, is the Addams Family where Morticia and Gomez take on – empty spaces – because they are all ghosts. Love it. His chess sets expanded to Legends of Music, People of the 20^th Century and World Cup Soccer.

 

“Location, Location, Location” is Darren’s latest obsession. I am proud to say that I was one of the first people, in 2010, to be privy to this concept. In fact a small spaza at the top of the debut painting is named ‘Kuhle’ which means ‘That’s good’ in Zulu (despite the fact that it is distinctly Danish!).

Location, Location, Location (or lok'shn) started one morning when Darren joined his equally talented wife, Audrey Rudnick, in her studio. Inspired by an article in American Artist magazine they experimented with a new technique by painting geometric shapes on canvas, and painting faces over them. Darren, not one for staying ‘inside the lines’, used very bold colours and large geometrical shapes across the whole canvas. He identified with the vivid colours found in Africa and started developing an idea that the geometric shapes were really only a collection of different sized blocks. Next he painted roofs and alleys of a township from a bird's eye view, and included miniature objects and people (which is more his style). Soon a miniature township, detailing life (plus associated brands), came alive on canvas.

And as he cheekily says: “The play on words of Kuhle as the name of my obviously Zulu Spaza shop was potentially a marketing effort to entice my first potential customer - Lois Kuhle into buying the first of my concept paintings.” Sadly, at that time I did not have the funds to invest in this. Not fair, as it's like selling someone a puppy! Now I am sorry I didn’t buy it!!

That year at Art in the Park in Pietermaritzburg Darren launched ‘Location, Location, Location’. Within an hour it was sold with 7 other prospective buyers for ‘Kuhle’. Limited edition prints were made.

‘Location, Location, Location’ has progressed to include a medley of pre-94 and post-94. Cards depicting individual scenes are also available.

Darren Aiken and Audrey Rudnick can be found at the Up-Market in Umhlanga Centre (Durban) every Sunday morning.

DARREN’S WEBSITE: http://www.thehoozoo.com/

Other blogs by Lois Kuhle:

SMOKE RINGS IN CUBA. A TWO WEEK JOURNEY FILLED WITH SALSA, SUNSHINE AND SILLY PEOPLE: http://smokeringsincuba.blogspot.com/2013/10/smoke-rings-in-cuba-journey-filled-with.html

'LIFE'S COOL'. MY NEAREST AND DEAREST BECAME THOSE THAT GRUNTED, BARKED OR BIT. http://milimanilifescool.blogspot.com/2013/12/i-n-2002-i-was-lucky-enough-to-be-given.html

COOL THOUGHTS – LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE: http://loiscoolthoughts.tumblr.com/

LOIS KUHLE WEBSITE: IT’S ABOUT WRITING, GIVING, EATING, LIVING AND LOVING. https://sites.google.com/site/loiskuhle/