Two artists, two women, working through concepts of death, life, fragility and regeneration come together in TRACE to allow us to witness the quiet cycle of infinity, the delicate decay and the conversation that takes place between the work of an artist whose art celebrates the fragile life cycles within the Cape Floral Kingdom and the work of an artist who is exploring the spoiling liquid treasure left to her, and the unfolding result. Cathy Abraham and Jane Eppel, both based in Cape Town, have produced bodies of work that at first glance may seem to have no connection. Produced separately, the artworks resonate through the curation of the show. Abraham’s beautiful pieces in lipstick, glass and wine, materials that are symbolic in their use and meaning, address the death of her father and the four hundred bottles of wine he left to her. Most of the wine has rotted and, working through her past and her personal relationships, Abraham has “included the undrinkable to express the inexpressible”. The notion of time passing and transformation is carried through in printmaker Eppel’s work whose numerous, small copperplates which have been hand-cut and minutely etched, are constellated to celebrate the circular energies of rebirth and renewal of fragile flora and insects. Eppel’s arrangement of her insect copperplates into sacred shapes seek to capture the metamorphosis of the life that surrounds her, embodying the perfectly balanced patterns that exist both within our immediate natural world and the cosmos at large. She draws inspiration from the biodiversity of her home in the Cape Peninsula and the very real relationships therein between life, deterioration, death and rebirth. Eppel’s delicate prints embody a sense of balance, cohesion and lucidity which contrasts with the elements of mystery associated with mortality. Rendered in minute detail, her etchings demontrate her appreciation of living energy and complex life networks. We are taken on a journey unravelling the role of women through delusions and illusions with Abraham, exposing her own exploration of notions of fragility, mortality and expectation. Acknowledging the dangers of nostalgia, turned memories the protection that lies in loyalty, Abraham addresses her own sense of cosmic workings. Working organically, in terms of both her method and materials, Abraham lets go and allows stains to bleed into one another, resulting in her dreamlike narrative taking shape. Trusting only what her hands can do, Abraham expresses her concepts of identity, love and grief. Fragility, the concept of the inevitable and rhythm of time are the ideas that form part of the dialogue that exists between these two artists: Abraham’s brown blood-stain of a broken gift, Eppel’s wing vein of an insect pressed into paper. Mirroring Derrida’s statement: “the trace is not a presence but is rather the simulacrum of a presence that dislocates, displaces, and refers beyond itself”, both artists fearlessly explore loss and gain through potent sacred symbols and question concepts far greater than themselves in this exquisite exhibition.