“Bastersaad” – More about the Artists

The title of this year’s Fractal Young Artist Exhibition is BASTERSAAD, which refers to a hybrid seed produced by artificially cross-pollinated plants to improve the characteristics of the resulting plants. BASTERSAAD is an exhibition that exists out of artworks that focus on different themes, are made out of different media and created by artists from different backgrounds and training. The media used in the artworks include installation, painting, printmaking and photography. BASTERSAAD questions the boundaries of art disciplines and explores technological media together with “traditional” art media. It ventures between popular and high art, as well as art and design. The theme suggests a new breed of artist, where the fusion of popular culture and high art takes place. The resulting product, an exhibition compiled out of a mix of styles and media, cultivates a colourful, fresh and exciting new entity.

The featured artistis are Davina de Beer, Amelia Raath, P.W. Burger, Victor Geduld, Marjorie Human, Isak Janse van Rensburg and M.C. Roodt.

DAVINA DE BEER

(Geb. 14 Junie 1982)

Davina de Beer het haar Meestersgraad in Beeldende Kunste in 2008 by die Universiteit van die Vrystaat voltooi. Sy het verskeie kunswerkswinkels in 2006 en 2007 as deel van die Artists in Schools projek aangebied. Sy was ‘n studente-assistent by die Johannes Stegmann-kunsgalery van 2004 tot 2008, asook by Departement Kunsgeskiedenis en Visuele Kultuurstudie by die Universiteit van die Vrystaat. Hierdie jaar het sy aan verskeie uitstallings deelgeneem, onder andere by die Thompson Kunsgalery in Melville en die ABSA Atelier in Johannesburg. De Beer vertrek in Oktober 2008 na Sohar in Oman, waar sy kuns gaan aanbied by die Sohar International School.

The focus of De Beer’s research for the past four years has been the ruptures that occur in the continuity of family memories. Her artworks address aspects of memory preservation that deal with estrangement, anonymity, absence and mortality. She uses the interplay between exposure and concealment to examine the discontinuities in history and memory in the private and public spheres. Although she specialised in painting, she uses various media (family photographs, oil paint, light sensitive prints, digital prints and installation) to explore the discontinuities and different truths in memory. The paintings in the White Series focus on the aggression and estrangement of memory, and explore forgetting as an active element that transforms memories. Her smaller paintings pursue memory as frail and vulnerable, as if on breaking or vanishing point.

AMELIA RAATH

(Geb. 26 Augustus 1985)

Amelia Raath het haar BA Beeldende Kuns-graad in 2007 by die Universiteit van die Vrystaat ontvang en is tans besig met haar Meestersgraad in Beeldende Kuns by die Universiteit van die Vrystaat. Sy het aan verskeie uitstallings deelgeneem, soos die Sasol Nuwe Handtekeninge Kunskompetisie in 2007 in Pretoria en die Studente-uitstallings in die Johannes Stegmann-kunsgalery in Bloemfontein in 2005 – 2008. Sy was ook betrokke as kurator by verskeie uitstallings in die Johannes Stegmann-kunsgalery, soos By-Passing Catherine in 2007 en die Vierdejaarstudente uitstalling in 2008.

My Little Pony has been a part of Amelia Raath’s life since she can remember. They bombarded the toy market during the 1980’s and are still popular toys in the 21st century. She experiences them as ambivalent in nature, as they serve her inspiration – as muses – and at the same time as “her little demons”. This uncanny interplay between the polar opposites of demons and muses changes the apparently light-hearted My Little Pony toys into something more sinister. In her paintings she uses the My Little Pony as subject matter to play with different themes, like the apocalyptic horse.

P.W. BURGER

(Geb. 16 November 1977)

P.W. Burger het sy Diploma in Beeldende Kuns in 2000 by die Sentrale Universiteit van Tegnologie (SUT) in Bloemfontein voltooi. Hy het sy graad in 2001 ontvang en het in skilderkuns gespesialiseer. In 2006 het hy as ‘n deeltydse lektor in beeldende kuns by die Sentrale Universiteit van Tegnologie begin werk. Burger bied gereeld kunswerkswinkels regoor die land aan. Hy is tans besig met sy Meerstersgraad in Kunsfilosofie en Skilderkuns, en gee informele skilderlesse by Oliewenhuis vir volwassenes in sy vrye tyd. Hy skep ook kommersiële kunswerke en spesialiseer as ‘n tegniekkunstenaar vir die versiering van huise en kantore. Burger neem deel aan prominente uitstallings soos die ABSA Atelier en die Sasol Nuwe Handtekeninge Kunskompetisie.

P.W. Burger views artworks as vehicles that have the potential to question absolute truths and reveal hidden meanings. He explores its ambiguous nature and surplus meanings in his own work by making use of symbols. In his painting, The Shape Shifter (2006), the shape shifter itself is a symbol of how art and science transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, and thus expanding universal and natural laws and principles of daily living. In The Constant Beginning (2006) he probes the potential meaning that resides in the polemical information that viewers derive from the artwork. Burger is interested in the ambiguous nature of interpretation and continues to explore different truths that artworks convey.

VICTOR GEDULD

(Geb. 3 November 1973)

Victor Geduld kom uit ‘n familie wat in kuns belanggestel het en hom gemotiveer het om self daarby betrokke te raak. Aangesien hy geen formele kunsopleiding gehad het nie, het sy familielede se skilderye gedien as inspirasie en blootstelling tot die skildermedium. Geduld neem elke jaar deel aan die ShopriteCheckers Kunskompetisie en skenk gereeld skilderye vir fondsinsamelings vir liefdadigheid, soos Ons Kinderhuis in Bloemfontein en KANSA. Hy neem gereeld aan uitstallings deel in Bloemfontein en in die res van die Vrystaat. Tans word van sy werk uitgestal in Excelcior by die Pelican Art-uitstalling.

Victor Geduld finds inspiration in the immediate world surrounding him, alert to anything that will catch his eye. As a child he used to peer through the windows of art galleries, absorbing influences from mostly South African artists. Images from magazines, of everyday life, function as inspiration for his ideas. As an accomplished realistic portrait painter, he enjoys exploring facial expressions of people from different cultures, but also focuses on issues that he feels is pertinent to his surroundings. He depicts both the mundane and the violent, and in this sense asking if the violent has not become part of the mundane. In his paintings he investigates the meaning behind the obvious, raising questions about the worth of everyday life.

MARJORIE HUMAN

(Geb. 23 Desember 1981)

Marjorie Human is tans besig om haar MA Beeldende Kunste-graad by die Universiteit van die Vrystaat te voltooi. Sy was betrokke by die Artists in Schools-projek, ‘n gemeenskap gebaseerde kunsinisiatief, as projek koördineerder van 2004 – 2008. Sy gee ook klas by Planet Pixl School of Advertising and Photography in Bloemfontein terwyl sy studeer en aan haar kunsloopbaan werk. Hierdie jaar het sy reeds aan verskeie groepuitstallings deelgeneem, onder andere in die Thompson-kunsgalery in Melville.

Human is interested in the global revival in the practice of painting. She explores the decorative pattern and pattern-making processes imbedded in new image-based media. Her painting practice calls to mind the obsessive, labour intensive acts of craft that are integrated with every day life. She uses pattern and decorative symbols out of everyday surfaces, such as printed textiles, wallpaper and graphic design as an abstract communication “language”. In her latest work she explores specific motifs out of South African popular culture, like the springbok and the rose. The springbok was once a powerful symbol of popular culture and part heraldry, but is currently degrading to a nostalgic and kitsch image, used in retrograde design. In her paintings Human strips the springbok of its power and signifies its decadent nature by the use of springbok skulls, which also refer to the 17th century Dutch Still Life theme, vanitas. Human also reduces the Victorian roses that were imported into the South African fashion through colonial influence, to their skeletal structure, and build them up again turning them into flowers with a hybrid character. By using decorative surfaces that seems to portray changing and conflicting cultural identity constructs, she tries to translate a sense of uncertainty about the promises of bliss made by superficially constructed appearances.

IZAK JANSE VAN RENSBURG

(Geb. 14 Augustus 1987)

Izak Janse van Rensburg het by Planet Pixl School of Advertising and Photography in Bloemfontein studeer en werk tans as grafiese ontwerper en fotograaf. Hy het van kleintyd af in die skepping van kuns belanggestel en gepoog om sy kreatiwiteit te ontwikkel. Hy het in 2006 en 2007 aan studente-uitstallings van Planet Pixl by Oliewenhuis Kunsmuseum in Bloemfontein deelgeneem.

Izak Janse van Rensburg tries to convey his experience of life by combining documentary and fine art photography. He explores the meaning behind the everyday, trying to catch something fresh and unsuspected on film. He enjoys taking photographs that suggest a narrative and incite people to think outside their frame of reference. He believes that a photographer needs a bit of luck and a lot of patience to wait for the moment to take a perfect shot.

M.C. ROODT

(Geb. 27 Julie 1986)

M.C. Roodt is ‘n kunstenaar wat in die Noord-Kaap gebore is en tans Beeldende Kuns by die Sentrale Universiteit van Tegnologie in Bloemfontein studeer. Sy monodrukke, Summer Mu & Psychiatrists’s Chair en My TV Does Not See Me is onlangs by die permanente versameling van die Nasionale William Humphrey-kunsgalery in Kimberley ingesluit.

M.C. Roodt works in a variety of media and experiments frequently with the characteristics and limitations of such media. His work examines the structures and paradigms embedded within the legacy of western determinist reasoning. His work, as medium-specific investigation, can thus be paralleled with the function of thought as binding “medium” in the mentioned worldview. Currently Roodt is investigating the proposition that the classification of intangible thoughts, abstract emotions and behaviour changes their context by associating them with a pre-existing model which was not an intrinsic part of the processes that led to their inception in the first place. This impartial model de-humanises the individual through classification and reassembles identity to form a mere sum of biologically measured and understood fragmented parts. The nature and outcomes of such conceptual and linguistic structures presupposes an impartial reality free from cultural and personal identity. Roodt probes at what effects this has on the process of reciprocity.