Manuela Holzer Sculpture, 52 Ryneveldt Street, Stellenbosch (2026)

01/04/2026

IBI Art Gallery is proud to present:

The Shadow Series by Manuela Holzer and Layered Thoughts by Jonathan Stone

Both body of works deal with the flexibility, fluidity and uniqueness within the human experience. Both artists capture a moment in time reflecting a beautiful passing moment.

Join us for a night celebrating expression and beauty. There will be wine and snacks served.

Please RSVP using the details provided in the image.

15/12/2024

This exhibition, titled "Psychotic (In)Sight", constitutes the culmination of a five-year PhD journey and aims to foster a deeper understanding of first-person experiences of psychosis. The exhibition primarily highlights Manuela Holzer’s experiential knowledge of psychosis, in which she has found greater clarity and meaning through artmaking and storytelling. The objective of the exhibition is to translate the ineffable and highly stigmatised experience of psychosis into a visceral and emotive experience for the audience, thereby making the experience of psychosis more accessible to others.

The title of the short film is a direct rebellious comment on the clinical understanding of psychosis as a ‘lack of insight’. The title "Psychotic (In)Sight" asserts that first-person accounts may provide valuable insights into the experience of psychosis that have the potential to challenge stereotypes and stigma. At the same time, without the "(In)", the title would read as "Psychotic Sight", which encourages viewers to rethink the concept of ‘hallucinations’ in order to reframe the experiences as ‘visions’ or, more broadly, proposes that psychosis is not necessarily purely a ‘disability’ but also has the potential to be a challenging yet meaningful gift that may lead to personal growth.

Photographs taken by

14/12/2024

This exhibition, titled "Psychotic (In)Sight", constitutes the culmination of a five-year PhD journey and aims to foster a deeper understanding of first-person experiences of psychosis. The exhibition primarily highlights Manuela Holzer’s experiential knowledge of psychosis, in which she has found greater clarity and meaning through artmaking and storytelling. The objective of the exhibition is to translate the ineffable and highly stigmatised experience of psychosis into a visceral and emotive experience for the audience, thereby making the experience of psychosis more accessible to others.

The title of the short film is a direct rebellious comment on the clinical understanding of psychosis as a ‘lack of insight’. The title "Psychotic (In)Sight" asserts that first-person accounts may provide valuable insights into the experience of psychosis that have the potential to challenge stereotypes and stigma. At the same time, without the "(In)", the title would read as "Psychotic Sight", which encourages viewers to rethink the concept of ‘hallucinations’ in order to reframe the experiences as ‘visions’ or, more broadly, proposes that psychosis is not necessarily purely a ‘disability’ but also has the potential to be a challenging yet meaningful gift that may lead to personal growth.

Photographs of sculptures at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

13/12/2024

A few weeks after my first psychotic episode in August 2017, I started sculpting the female figures of the “Shadow Series”. From the end of 2017 until the beginning of 2020, I focused almost purely on creating large female figures in melted black plastic. After my first psychotic episode until embarking on this PhD study, I unquestioningly accepted that psychosis was a meaningless and dangerous psychopathology which fuelled the shame, self-stigma and embarrassment I felt. Therefore, these large sculptures express the height of this deeply unsettling, internalised state. This means that although the creation of these sculptures preceded the start of the PhD study, they represent a vital phase that informed the PhD journey.

The large sculptures are full-bodied female figures and are autobiographical in nature as they reference my own body. The way I have chosen to depict the bodies in the various vulnerable poses emphasises their gravitational heaviness. The organic texture of the melted black plastic on the female figures gives an unsettling sense of charred bodies. Melting the black plastic in itself is a toxic process that conceptually speaks to the toxic feelings of shame that I was expelling through the process of sculpting.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Reflecting Shadow I
Date: 2017
Medium: Steel armature and melted black plastic
Dimensions: 168 x 52 x 43 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

12/12/2024

I created the “Immaterial Realms Series” between October 2023 and August 2024, and it represents, through sculptural expression, an alternative understanding of psychosis. Instead of viewing psychosis as a meaningless psychopathology the “Immaterial Realms Series” depicts psychosis as an other-worldly experience that I associate with the spiritual realm. The title of the “Immaterial Realms Series” speaks to a juxtaposition between the intangible nature of an altered state of consciousness experienced during psychosis and the tangibility of the sculptures, which locks them in consensus reality.

The small hessian-string figures represent myself unravelling in consensus reality, while the cement sand-cast elements represent me in another realm that I consider spiritual in nature. In this spiritual realm, the logic of consensus reality is stretched, warped, and unrecognisably transformed, which is conceptually reflected in the nonsensical depiction of the naked body parts within the cement sand casts. All the sand-cast images take the form of relief sculptures. The intention was to purposefully visually explore an in-between space that is not flat nor fully three-dimensional. Conceptually, this in-between state feeds into the idea of being caught between two fundamentally different states of being during the psychotic experience, one being a spiritual realm and the other consensus reality.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Immaterial Realms I
Date: 2023
Medium: Cement, plaster of Paris and hessian string
Dimensions: 102 x 102 x 36 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

11/12/2024

A few weeks after my first psychotic episode in August 2017, I started sculpting the female figures of the “Shadow Series”. From the end of 2017 until the beginning of 2020, I focused almost purely on creating large female figures in melted black plastic. After my first psychotic episode until embarking on this PhD study, I unquestioningly accepted that psychosis was a meaningless and dangerous psychopathology which fuelled the shame, self-stigma and embarrassment I felt. Therefore, these large sculptures express the height of this deeply unsettling, internalised state. This means that although the creation of these sculptures preceded the start of the PhD study, they represent a vital phase that informed the PhD journey.

The large sculptures are full-bodied female figures and are autobiographical in nature as they reference my own body. The way I have chosen to depict the bodies in the various vulnerable poses emphasises their gravitational heaviness. The organic texture of the melted black plastic on the female figures gives an unsettling sense of charred bodies. Melting the black plastic in itself is a toxic process that conceptually speaks to the toxic feelings of shame that I was expelling through the process of sculpting.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Shamed Shadow III
Date: 2018
Medium: Steel armature and melted black plastic
Dimensions: 67 x 45 x 59 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

10/12/2024

I created the “Immaterial Realms Series” between October 2023 and August 2024, and it represents, through sculptural expression, an alternative understanding of psychosis. Instead of viewing psychosis as a meaningless psychopathology the “Immaterial Realms Series” depicts psychosis as an other-worldly experience that I associate with the spiritual realm. The title of the “Immaterial Realms Series” speaks to a juxtaposition between the intangible nature of an altered state of consciousness experienced during psychosis and the tangibility of the sculptures, which locks them in consensus reality.

The small hessian-string figures represent myself unravelling in consensus reality, while the cement sand-cast elements represent me in another realm that I consider spiritual in nature. In this spiritual realm, the logic of consensus reality is stretched, warped, and unrecognisably transformed, which is conceptually reflected in the nonsensical depiction of the naked body parts within the cement sand casts. All the sand-cast images take the form of relief sculptures. The intention was to purposefully visually explore an in-between space that is not flat nor fully three-dimensional. Conceptually, this in-between state feeds into the idea of being caught between two fundamentally different states of being during the psychotic experience, one being a spiritual realm and the other consensus reality.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Immaterial Realms II
Date: 2023
Medium: Cement
Dimensions: 150 x 109 x 30 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

09/12/2024

A few weeks after my first psychotic episode in August 2017, I started sculpting the female figures of the “Shadow Series”. From the end of 2017 until the beginning of 2020, I focused almost purely on creating large female figures in melted black plastic. After my first psychotic episode until embarking on this PhD study, I unquestioningly accepted that psychosis was a meaningless and dangerous psychopathology which fuelled the shame, self-stigma and embarrassment I felt. Therefore, these large sculptures express the height of this deeply unsettling, internalised state. This means that although the creation of these sculptures preceded the start of the PhD study, they represent a vital phase that informed the PhD journey.

The large sculptures are full-bodied female figures and are autobiographical in nature as they reference my own body. The way I have chosen to depict the bodies in the various vulnerable poses emphasises their gravitational heaviness. The organic texture of the melted black plastic on the female figures gives an unsettling sense of charred bodies. Melting the black plastic in itself is a toxic process that conceptually speaks to the toxic feelings of shame that I was expelling through the process of sculpting.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Petrified Shadow III
Date: 2020
Medium: Steel armature and melted black plastic
Dimensions: 47 x 93 x 80 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

08/12/2024

I created the “Immaterial Realms Series” between October 2023 and August 2024, and it represents, through sculptural expression, an alternative understanding of psychosis. Instead of viewing psychosis as a meaningless psychopathology the “Immaterial Realms Series” depicts psychosis as an other-worldly experience that I associate with the spiritual realm. The title of the “Immaterial Realms Series” speaks to a juxtaposition between the intangible nature of an altered state of consciousness experienced during psychosis and the tangibility of the sculptures, which locks them in consensus reality.

The small hessian-string figures represent myself unravelling in consensus reality, while the cement sand-cast elements represent me in another realm that I consider spiritual in nature. In this spiritual realm, the logic of consensus reality is stretched, warped, and unrecognisably transformed, which is conceptually reflected in the nonsensical depiction of the naked body parts within the cement sand casts. All the sand-cast images take the form of relief sculptures. The intention was to purposefully visually explore an in-between space that is not flat nor fully three-dimensional. Conceptually, this in-between state feeds into the idea of being caught between two fundamentally different states of being during the psychotic experience, one being a spiritual realm and the other consensus reality.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Immaterial Realms III (Two Worlds)
Date: 2023
Medium: Cement
Dimensions: 106 x 132 x 40 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

07/12/2024

A few weeks after my first psychotic episode in August 2017, I started sculpting the female figures of the “Shadow Series”. From the end of 2017 until the beginning of 2020, I focused almost purely on creating large female figures in melted black plastic. After my first psychotic episode until embarking on this PhD study, I unquestioningly accepted that psychosis was a meaningless and dangerous psychopathology which fuelled the shame, self-stigma and embarrassment I felt. Therefore, these large sculptures express the height of this deeply unsettling, internalised state. This means that although the creation of these sculptures preceded the start of the PhD study, they represent a vital phase that informed the PhD journey.

The large sculptures are full-bodied female figures and are autobiographical in nature as they reference my own body. The way I have chosen to depict the bodies in the various vulnerable poses emphasises their gravitational heaviness. The organic texture of the melted black plastic on the female figures gives an unsettling sense of charred bodies. Melting the black plastic in itself is a toxic process that conceptually speaks to the toxic feelings of shame that I was expelling through the process of sculpting.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Struggling Shadow III
Date: 2019
Medium: Steel armature and melted black plastic
Dimensions: 109 x 39 x 38 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

06/12/2024

I created the “Immaterial Realms Series” between October 2023 and August 2024, and it represents, through sculptural expression, an alternative understanding of psychosis. Instead of viewing psychosis as a meaningless psychopathology the “Immaterial Realms Series” depicts psychosis as an other-worldly experience that I associate with the spiritual realm. The title of the “Immaterial Realms Series” speaks to a juxtaposition between the intangible nature of an altered state of consciousness experienced during psychosis and the tangibility of the sculptures, which locks them in consensus reality.

The small hessian-string figures represent myself unravelling in consensus reality, while the cement sand-cast elements represent me in another realm that I consider spiritual in nature. In this spiritual realm, the logic of consensus reality is stretched, warped, and unrecognisably transformed, which is conceptually reflected in the nonsensical depiction of the naked body parts within the cement sand casts. All the sand-cast images take the form of relief sculptures. The intention was to purposefully visually explore an in-between space that is not flat nor fully three-dimensional. Conceptually, this in-between state feeds into the idea of being caught between two fundamentally different states of being during the psychotic experience, one being a spiritual realm and the other consensus reality.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Immaterial Realms IV (Eternally Expecting)
Date: 2023
Medium: Cement, plaster of Paris and hessian string
Dimensions: 110 x 85 x 34 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

05/12/2024

A few weeks after my first psychotic episode in August 2017, I started sculpting the female figures of the “Shadow Series”. From the end of 2017 until the beginning of 2020, I focused almost purely on creating large female figures in melted black plastic. After my first psychotic episode until embarking on this PhD study, I unquestioningly accepted that psychosis was a meaningless and dangerous psychopathology which fuelled the shame, self-stigma and embarrassment I felt. Therefore, these large sculptures express the height of this deeply unsettling, internalised state. This means that although the creation of these sculptures preceded the start of the PhD study, they represent a vital phase that informed the PhD journey.

The large sculptures are full-bodied female figures and are autobiographical in nature as they reference my own body. The way I have chosen to depict the bodies in the various vulnerable poses emphasises their gravitational heaviness. The organic texture of the melted black plastic on the female figures gives an unsettling sense of charred bodies. Melting the black plastic in itself is a toxic process that conceptually speaks to the toxic feelings of shame that I was expelling through the process of sculpting.

Details of sculpture:
Title: Collapsed Shadow III
Date: 2020
Medium: Steel armature and melted black plastic
Dimensions: 44 x 175 x 57 cm

Photograph of sculpture at Stellenbosch University Museum taken by

Manuela Holzer Sculpture

01/04/2026

15/12/2024

14/12/2024

13/12/2024

12/12/2024

11/12/2024

10/12/2024

09/12/2024

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05/12/2024

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