For several years now my practice has reflected my independent research in the area of Animal Studies. In other words, my interest in non-human animals, the ways in which we relate to them emotionally, their complete dependence on our protection, and on our ability and inclination to think wisely and correctly about them and their rights as members of an extended community.
My interest has long been with psychological matters. My explorations of ideas around emotional attachment to place brought both internal and external landscapes into focus and then overlapped them. The dynamics and consequences of internal (or emotional) disharmony on an individual level - as addressed by ideas in Psychology and Psychoanalysis - suggest to me a stream of metaphors for crises in the physical world. And because bad governance and decision-making are so often directly linked to environmental destruction, the echo often seems more than just metaphorical.
In my studio practice I test the boundaries between artmaking and the language of animal advocacy. It seems clear that to be effective in either or both it is necessary to keep a degree of separation in the language at least. However animal ethics and rights issues are a major concern for me and inevitably infect and inform my images and my thinking.
My reading includes Animal Studies, Philosophy, Psychology, Psychoanalysis and History. I return regularly to the fiction of John Berger. His strategy, in his fiction, of not specifiying place or time resonates with my own inclination to fictionalise what is very close. Similarly, the novels of Jose Saramago.
My work has varied in its forms, from huge temporary land art installations using anamorphic perspective to the small painted, sculpted and drawn works that are my focus now.
My imagery of the past several years can probably be described as allegorical or fantasy in the sense that I avoid representation of known forms or places. However, probably as with most fictions, my impetus is always firmly rooted in the real, in current events near and far, personal and global.
The artists whose work I return to are often, though not consciously, German, including Beuys, Kiefer and Baselitz, I refer constantly to Japanese painters and printmakers and follow the work of, amongst others, Cornelia Parker and Tacita Dean, and recently, photographers Britta Jaschkinski and Charlotte Dumas.
Education
2006 - CELTA certificate (ESOL - Teaching English as a second language)
2004 - Art Critical Writing Module in Masters of Fine Arts Program (as occasional student)
1990 - MFA - Michaelis School of Arts, University of Cape Town, South Africa
1985 - BAFA - Department of Fine Art and Art History, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Solo Exhibitions
(Currently preparing for next solo exhibition, provisionally entitled Strangers of Commanding Aspect, at AOP April 2015)
2012 - Beast in a Dangerous Landscape, AOP (Art on Paper) Gallery, Johannesburg
2010 - Beast at Home - AOP (Art on Paper) Gallery, Johannesburg
2007 - Anticipated Memory - AOP (Art on Paper) Gallery, Johannesburg
2005 - Promised Land - The Premises Gallery, Civic Theater Complex, Johannesburg
US Museum and Art Gallery, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2001/2 - Giving and Not Giving - Millenium Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1994- Exhibiiton of sculpture - Everard Read Contemporary, Johannesburg
1990 - Exhibition of sculpture - Goodman Galleries, Johannesburg
(Most solo exhibitions were accompanied by a publication with texts written by the artist, and various writers and academics.)
Group Exhibitions include..
2014 - Jerwood Drawing Prize
2014 – A5, Art Athina, Athens, Greece, Project by Lubomirov-Easton, London
2010 - Halakasha - Exhibition of artworks and objects relating to football, Wits Art Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
2008 - Exhibiiton of Contemporary South African Art, Myerson Art, London
2006 - Launch of South African art Bank, Johannesburg Art Gallery
2006 - Exhibition of work about Johannesburg, 3 Artists, Johannesburg Art gallery
2002 - Sao Paulo Bienal - Commission of two-part site-specific work entitled Spirit.
2000 - A.R.E.A.- Exhibition of Contemporary South African Art, National Gallery of Reykjavik, Iceland
1999 - Emergence ... 25 Years of South African Art, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
1998 - !Xoe Site-Specific ... Exhibition of site-specific works, Nieu- Bethesda, South Africa
Employment
2007-current Ongoing studio practice, studio at V22, Dalston, London
ESOL teaching (English as a second language)
(prior to relocation from South Africa to London...)
2007 - Collaborative design development for contemporary diamond jewellery collection, shown at Dover street Market, London in 2007/8
Ongoing - studio practice
1998 - 2003 - Lecturer in Sculpture and Head of Department of Sculpture, Department of Fine Art, Witwatersrand Technikon (now University of Johannesburg)
1996 – 1998 - Private adult classes in Drawing, Sculpture and Art Literacy
Freelance Art Consultant to private and corporate collections
1992 - 1995 - Lecturer in Sculpture, Ceramics and Drawing, Department of Fine Art, Parktown College, Johannesburg
1991-1992 - Assistant Curator, UNISA Art Museum, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
1987 - Leave replacement - Lecturer in Sculpture, Department of Fine Art and Art History, University of Kwa Zulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Awards and Residencies
2006 - Ampersand Fellowship - 2 month occupancy of Ampersand artist's apartment, NY, USA
1996, 2003, 2008, 2013 - Residencies, Cite des Arts, Paris
Public Collections include
Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art Museum, Standard Bank Collection, SABC, South African Reserve Bank, Speer, UNISA Art Gallery
Commission
Installation for premises of Norton Rose Attorneys new headquarters in Johannesburg.
