Kym Tabulo

Local Contemporary Art Prize 2025 – Finalist

Image courtesy of the artist

Kym Tabulo | Anatomy of a Shroud | 2024 | digital print on aluminium | 155 x 55cm (framed)

This commemorative artwork blends digital and non-digital images, photos, and symbols, to serve as a memorial celebrating the life of a deceased loved one. It is an unfurled shroud revealing a palimpsest bearing traces of love and life to honour him. This deeply personal exploration is a multilayered work. Its complex production begins with an abstract watercolour using his favourite colours. This is divided into twelve panels, overlaid digitally with images of sentimental items. These are sequentially arranged and animated to become the frames of an abstract video. Yet this is not the finale. The process continues.  

“It’s always been in between the things I thought I was doing that the real work has happened.” - William Kentridge, artist. 

Like Kentridge, within the video I find my real work. Therefore, particular frames are captured, subtracted and recomposed into a static digital abstract polyptych, a series of connected images. This is duplicated, mirrored, and dovetailed to become the shroud, a horror vacui composition, covering the picture plane with no empty spaces. Based on Karmel’s six abstract art subject matter categories, the work is a combination of two, Anatomies and Fabrics. Viewers may see shapes that suggest human bone structures, a serendipitous outcome of the process. Plus, repetition and layering create organic patterning, which is classified as Fabrics. This also pertains to the fact that traditional shrouds are fabric. Robertson’s and McDaniel’s contemporary art theme of Memorial, evident here, conveys my desire to honour loved ones and make fading memories tangible.