Ephemera Laurette de Jager
4 February 2023
Rust en Vrede Gallery
Laurette de Jager
Ephemera
Rust en Vrede Gallery
February 2023
Laurette de Jager
Laurette de Jager holds a MA in Visual Arts (Unisa) (Cum Laude), ND in Jewellery Design & Manufacture (CPUT) and an NHD In Jewellery Design and Manufacture (CPUT). Laurette is currently working toward her PhD in Art through Unisa. She lives, works and teaches in the Northern suburbs of Cape Town. Laurette has participated in numerous group exhibitions, her work is represented in private collections in South Africa and abroad. The concept of making strange the familiar and familiar the strange is a leitmotif in Laurette’s work. While her style has been described as contemporary surrealism, she describes the objective of her work as: finding new ways to exist in a dying world.
Her MVA exhibition, Poetry of Decay was exhibited at the art. B gallery (March 2019) and at Youngblood Africa (October 2019). A selection of work from her Ephemeral Nature of Things body of work were exhibited at the Turbine Art Fair in 2021. Laurette made her curatorial debut with the exhibition and accompanying webinar titled Apart / A Part exhibited at art.b in November 2020 and has since curated Violent Femmes June 2021 and The Secret History in November 2021 . Laurette's first Solo for nonacademic purposes, Ephemera, is opened at Rust en Vrede Gallery in February 2023.
Exploring New Ways of Existing in a Dying World
Come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbour of your longing, and put your lips to the world.
And live, your life ~ From mornings at Blackwater by Mary Oliver . Blackwater pond has served as the origin for Mary Oliver’s life work, produced over 5 decades. This unassuming yet exquisite body of water led to works of such profound beauty that it has forever changed the way we (many of us) see and experience the world. As Oliver said: “My work is loving the world”. The place from which my work originates, though likely far smaller than Blackwater, is no less significant or beautiful. Although sometimes just a piece of fenland during the dry season, it does provoke in me the same love of the world, Oliver speaks about. I know every one of these milkwoods, intimately, I have, to date, drawn parts of them 7 times over and will likely do so many times more over the next decade... This is my body of water, the source of my life’s work. My way of showing how much I love the world.
The intention of this series is to invite the viewer to contemplate the material reality (the nature of things) of the natural world in contrast to the virtual reality (abstract things) of modernity, thereby acknowledging that all things are ephemeral. These works are the genesis of an ongoing exploration of decay as metaphor for finding ways to “to live and die well with each other in a thick present” (Haraway 2016:1), while living in the climate crises, the 6th mass extinction event and the post-truth era.
The Ephemeral Nature of Things, is a series of digital photomontages, charcoal studies and paintings, investigating the concept of decay as it occurs in the natural world.
My artistic process follows the documentation of my engagement with the natural world through photographs, which I manipulate through digital photomontage, thereby creating a Utopian worldview. The resulting utopian ideal is then reworked by exploring the photomontage in charcoal studies, engaging with the concept of the decaying trees (wood), in the photographs, by using dead, burnt wood (charcoal) to explore the image on a decimated pulped wooden format (paper), thereby engaging with the concept on a visceral level. This process, working with photomontage combined with artistic reinterpretation of the subject, is influenced by painters such as Eric Fischl, Neo Rauch and Matthew Hindley. The concepts explored through photomontage and charcoal studies are further explored in oil paintings. In this way the photomontage becomes the Utopian ideal, which is mirrored in the drawings and paintings depicting the Dystopian reality.
The objective of my work is to explore new ways of existing in a dying world.
de Jager, Ceci n'est pas une métaphore | This is not a metaphor III (2022). Oil on canvas, 49cm x 104cm. Framed in Kiaat.
R16 000
Laurette
Laurette de Jager, Ceci n'est pas une métaphore | This is not a metaphor I (2022). Digital Photomontage, Ultrachrome Inks on Felix Schoeller True Fibre Matt 200gsm, 49cm x 89cm. Framed in Kiaat.
de Jager, Ceci n'est pas une métaphore II | This is not a metaphor II (2022). Charcoal on Canson Montval Aquarelle 300gsm, 49cm x 89cm. Framed in Kiaat. R 10 500
Laurette
©Rust en Vrede Gallery
Laurette de Jager, C'est le monde I (2022). Digital
Photomontage, on Felix Schoeller True Fibre 200gsm, 49cm x 89cm. Framed in Kiaat. R8 500
Laurette de Jager, C'est le monde II (2022).
Charcoal on Canson Montval Aquarelle 300gsm, 49cm x 89cm. Framed in Kiaat. R10 500
Laurette de Jager, C'est le monde III (2022). Oil on canvas, 49cm x 104cm. Framed in Kiaat. R16 000
Laurette de Jager, Microcosm I (2022). Digital Photomontage, Ultrachrome Inks on Felix Schoeller True
200gsm, 49cm x 89cm. Framed in Kiaat.
Fibre Matt
Laurette de Jager, Microcosm II (2022). Charcoal on Canson Montval Aquarelle 300gsm, 49cm x 89cm.
Framed in Kiaat.
Laurette de Jager, Microcosm III (2022). Oil on canvas, 49cm x 104cm. Framed in Kiaat.
R 16 000
©Rust en Vrede Gallery
Laurette de Jager, All of Creation I (2022). Digital Photomontage, Ultrachrome Inks on Felix Schoeller True Fibre Matt
200gsm, 49cm x 89cm. Framed in Kiaat.
Laurette de Jager, All of Creation II (2022). Charcoal on Canson Montval Aquarelle 300gsm, 49cm x 89cm.
Framed in Kiaat.
R 16 000
Laurette de Jager, All of Creation III (2022). Oil on canvas, 49cm x 104cm. Framed in Kiaat.
EDUCATION
1993 Matriculated DF Malan High School, Bellville.
1996 ND Jewellery Design & Manufacture, Cape Technikon (CPUT)
1997 NHD Jewellery Design & Manufacture Cape Technikon (CPUT)
2019 MVA University of South Africa Cum Laude
2022-ongoing PhD in Art University of South Africa
EMPLOYMENT
1997-1998 Jewellery designer, SA Link, Cape Town.
1998 – 2000 Jewellery designer, Visconti & Co, Cape Town.
2001 – 2005 Principal, Jewellery designer, Visconti & Co, Cape Town
2020 – Committee Member Arts Association of Bellville
2021 – Chairperson of Arts Association of Bellville Committee
2022 – Interim Postgraduate Research assistant, Unisa. 3 Month Contract.
2023 – Visual Art & Design Teacher Grade 8 – 12, DF Malan High School, Bellville
EXTERNAL EXAMINER DUTIES
2000 - External moderator NHD Jewellery Design & Manufacture Cape Technikon
AWARDS
1998 - 2nd Place in the Designer category of Jewellex Collection awards
2000 - 2nd Place in the Professional category of Jewellex Collection awards
1998 - 2nd Place in the American Swiss Jewellery Designer of the year 97/98
2000 - Superiority in Jewellery Design in the Professional Designer category Jewellex
2016 - Three Highly commendable awards SASA Selection Weekend 2016
2015/16/18 - Finalist Vuleka Art Competition hosted by Art.b gallery
2019 - Top Ten Finalist State of the Art Competition
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Art.b gallery – Vuleka competition finalist August 2016
SASA 109th Annual exhibition October 2016
SASA Merit exhibition January 2017
The Goldsmiths’ Gallery - Steampunk Trouvé November 2017
Art.b gallery – Vuleka competition finalist August 2018
Art.b gallery – Poetry of Decay (MVA) March 2019
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (continued):
State of the Art Gallery - Award Finalists September 2019
Youngblood Africa – Poetry of Decay Duo with Romi Flowers
October 2019
IS art gallery - Hamba Kahle December 2020
Youngblood Africa – Broken Monsters February 2021
Violent Femmes – art.b June 2021
Edg2020 – Gothic Romantic September 2021
Turbine Art Fair – Gothic Romantic October 2021
The Secret History – art.b November 2021
Phantasmagoria – RK Contemporary November 2021
The Grand VI– Rust en Vrede Gallery June 2022
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Ephemera– Rust en Vrede Gallery February 2023
CURATORIAL:
Apart / A Part – a group exhibition exploring the human condition under social distancing at art.b gallery November 2020Catalogue Available [online]
https://issuu.com/laurette_de_jager/docs/apart_a_part_art.b_2020 _catalogue_issuu.pptx
Violent Femmes - Interrogating the Femme Fatale archetype at art.b gallery June 2021
Catalogue Available [online]
https://issuu.com/laurette_de_jager/docs/violent_femmes_catalogue_iss uu.pptx
The Secret History - A group exhibition of Gregory Kerr Students’ work at art.b gallery – November 2021.
Catalogue Available [online]
https://issuu.com/laurette_de_jager/docs/the_secret_history_catalogue_ issuu.pptx
MEDIA AND PRESS:
Apart / A Part Webinar – a discussion on the exhibition November 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JgsqJ9KzlU
Violent Femmes – Interview on RSG Kuns
15 June 2021
Podcast available [online] https://iono.fm/e/1055351
Ephemera – Interview on RSG Kuns
7 February 2023
Podcast available [online]https://omny.fm/shows/rsgkuns/ephemera-laurette-de-jager
laurettedejager@gmail.com
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