 WALTER OLTMAN Beaded Apron (Zulu) |
Artist's Statement
My main area of creative focus is in sculpture, and more particularly in fabricating woven wire forms which sometimes reference local craft traditions. My drawings are also based on and explore similar references. I have researched and written on the use of wire in African material culture in this region and am deeply interested in the influence of these traditions in contemporary South African art. While I exhibit my artworks quite regularly on group and solo exhibitions, I have in recent years also been involved in large-scale commissions.
In my sculptures I use images of natural phenomena (human, plant and animal) and play with the idea of mutation, hybrids and reconfiguring the familiar. Through dramatically enlarging and/or transposing features of one to the other, I play with the paradox between vulnerability and the monstrous. Using the language of craft, my artworks are always a product of labour and time.
Biography
Born
1960, Rustenburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Present position
Lecturer, Division of Visual Arts, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Qualifications
1978-1981 BA(Fine Arts), University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg
1982-1985 MA(Fine Arts) WITS University, Johannesburg
Publications
1997 September, "Decorative Wirework in African Material Culture of Southern Africa" De Arte 56, Pretoria, Univ. of South Africa Press, pp 9-24.
Selected Exhibitions
1985 Cape Town Triennial Exhibition
1993 Two person exhibition with Peter Schütz, Goodman Gallery
1995 Three Sculptors - Three Readers, Three person travelling exhibition with Neels Coetzee and Peter Schütz
1998 Holdings: Refiguring the Archive, Group exhibition, WITS University
1998 Icons and Idols, Two person exhibition with Peter Schutz, Goodman Gallery
2001 Standard Bank young Artist travelling exhibition
2003 Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Boston, USA
2004 Michael Stevenson Contemporary Gallery, Cape Town (shared exhibition with Kevin Brand and Samson Mudzunga)
2005 "In the Making: Materials and Process", group exhibition at Michael Stevenson Contemporary Gallery, Cape Town
Commissions
1995 Gencor wall sculpture, Johannesburg
1997 Durban Convention Centre: wall sculpture
1998 MTN wall sculpture, Sandton, Johannesburg
1999 ABSA North Towers: sculpture, Johannesburg
2000 Sandton Convention Centre: wall sculpture
2003 Dimension Data: suspended sculpture, Bryanston, JHB
2003 Arabella Sheraton Hotel, Cape Town: suspended sculpture
2003 New Constitutional Court, chandeliers and lamp shades, JHB
2004 SAB wall sculpture, Sandton, Johannesburg
2005/6 Wits Origins Centre: world map interpretation
My main area of creative focus is in sculpture, and more particularly in fabricating woven wire forms which sometimes reference local craft traditions. My drawings are also based on and explore similar references. I have researched and written on the use of wire in African material culture in this region and am deeply interested in the influence of these traditions in contemporary South African art. While I exhibit my artworks quite regularly on group and solo exhibitions, I have in recent years also been involved in large-scale commissions.
In my sculptures I use images of natural phenomena (human, plant and animal) and play with the idea of mutation, hybrids and reconfiguring the familiar. Through dramatically enlarging and/or transposing features of one to the other, I play with the paradox between vulnerability and the monstrous. Using the language of craft, my artworks are always a product of labour and time.
© 2007 All rights reserved. Origination by Di Conradie.