Surfaces Rudolph Willemse
List of works 1. 2. 3. 4. 4. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Advertising Board, Wolmaransstad (2017) * Advertising Board, Wolmaransstad (2020) * Advertising Board, Arraiolos, Alentejo (2020) * Welcome to Derby-sign, Northwest Province (2020) * Oupa Fanie se Trekker (2020) * Street, Corfu (2020) ** Floor, Barrydale (2020) ** Zebra Crossing, Pinelands (2020) ** Wall, Ponte de Muchella, Portugal (2020) ** Wall, Porto (2020) ** Stone, Menhir dos Almendres, Alentejo (2020) ** Sypaadjie, Riebeek Kasteel (2020) ** Wall Montmatre (2020) ** Waterway, Venice (2020) ** Wall, Monterosso, Cinque Terra (2020) **
Sizes: 297 x 420 mm All printed on HahnemĂźhle Photo Rag 308gsm by Pictorex All Limited edition of 35 prints * **
R5000 framed, R4000 unframed R4000 framed, R3000 unframed
Cover page: Detail of Advertising Board, Wolmaransstad (2017)
Surfaces Rudolph Willemse A photographic exhibition 11 to 13 December 2020 Pictorex, Solo Studios, Riebeek Kasteel
Biography Rudolph Willemse pursued a career in law and retired from the corporate world in 2019. He mainly worked in the area of housing, finance and legislative drafting. He drafted a number of pertinent pieces of legislation, and acted as a legal, regulatory, risk and compliance specialist. He studied law and philosophy and holds various legal qualifications including a masters in jurisprudence from UNISA and a masters in constitutional property law from Wits. Rudolph is a published poet. He has published two volumes of poetry and has been taken up in various anthologies and literary magazines. His show, Middelman, has been performed by actor Marcel van Heerden and friends at the KKNK and the 2017 Solo Studios and is back on stage in Riebeek at Solo Studios, 2020. Rudolph has exhibited abstract photography at Pictorex during the 2017 and 2019 Solo Studio events. He has attended courses in photography with photographer Louis Botha in Prins Albert and the Cape Town School of Photography (where he participated in a student group exhibition). Rudolph and Emma Willemse are the owners of Hoofstraat Conceptual, a venue in the Riebeek Valley, promoting conceptual art, new music and acoustic jazz.
Photo: Ad Goedhart
Artist Statement One of the things that interest me in photography is the ready-made abstract works of art I tend to find on unusual surfaces in unexpected places. The surfaces I am referring to could be walls, floors, streets, pavements, vehicles, waterways, signs, advertising boards, chairs, tables, even rocks. The places where I found the surfaces include international and local destinations. Marks inflicted on the surfaces by time, people, external forces - certainly with no intention to create art - have nonetheless worked together to become found works of art, when I photograph them. I feel I have found something special when the images I find somehow reminds me of Miro, or abstract expressionists like of Jackson Pollock. Particularly interesting for me are those surfaces that ironically profess some important attribute or function, but which is no longer functional. Advertising boards and signs, seem to have become symbols of urban decay and dereliction and the marketing messages they once conveyed have been replaced with an unintended new aesthetic. Similarly, zebra crossings, which had to show the way, still do, but with less authority, it seems.
Advertising Board, Wolmaransstad (2017).
Advertising Board, Wolmaransstad (2020).
Advertising Board, Arraiolos, Alentejo (2020)
Welcome to Derby-sign, Northwest Province (2020)
Oupa Fanie se Trekker (2020)
Street, Corfu (2020)
Floor, Barrydale (2020)
Zebra Crossing, Pinelands (2020)
Wall, Ponte de Muchella, Portugal (2020)
Wall, Porto (2020)
Stone, Menhir dos Almendres, Alentejo (2020)
Sypaadjie, Riebeek Kasteel (2020)
Wall Montmatre (2020)
Waterway, Venice (2020)
Wall, Monterosso, Cinque Terra (2020)
Acknowledgements Pictorex – Printing, technical support and exhibition space Format Framing – Framing Axel Ryder – Installation Riebeek Solo Studios – Event organisation