Ephemera 2023

Ephemera Laurette de Jager 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​, opened at Rust en Vrede Gallery in February 2023. She was selected as one of Art.co.za’s Ten Artists to Watch in 2023.

The Ephemeral Nature of Things

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.

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. R 8 500

Laurette 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 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

©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 Fibre Matt

200gsm, 49cm x 89cm. Framed in Kiaat.

Laurette de Jager, Microcosm II (2022). Charcoal on Canson Montval Aquarelle 300gsm, 49cm x 89cm.

Framed in Kiaat.

R 16 000

Laurette de Jager, Microcosm III (2022). Oil on canvas, 49cm x 104cm. Framed in Kiaat.

©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.

Laurette de Jager, All of Creation III (2022). Oil on canvas, 49cm x 104cm. Framed in Kiaat.

R 16 000

Laurette de Jager, Things of Ephemeral Nature III (2021) Digital Photomontage, Ultrachrome Inks on Hanemühle

German Etching 310gsm, 86cm x 45.5cm Framed. R

Laurette

Jager, The Ephemeral nature

Framed.

de

of Things III (2021) Charcoal on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, 87cm x 47cm

Laurette de Jager, The Ephemeral nature of Things III (2021) Oil on canvas, 80cm x 45cm, unframed.

Laurette de Jager, Things of Ephemeral Nature I (2021) Digital Photomontage, Ultrachrome Inks on Hanemühle

German Etching 310gsm, 86cm x 45.5cm Framed.

R

Laurette de Jager, The Ephemeral nature of Things I (2021) Charcoal on

Framed. R

Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, 87cm x 47cm

Laurette de Jager, The Ephemeral nature of Things II (2021) Oil on canvas, 100cm x 45cm, unframed.

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

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

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

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

2023 – Art.co.za Artists Watchlist.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

Art.b gallery – Vuleka competition finalist

SASA 109th Annual exhibition

SASA Merit exhibition

August 2016

October 2016

January 2017

EXTERNAL EXAMINER DUTIES

2000 - External moderator NHD Jewellery Design & Manufacture

Cape Technikon

The Goldsmiths’ Gallery - Steampunk Trouvé

Art.b gallery – Vuleka competition finalist

November 2017

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

Violent Femmes - Interrogating the Femme Fatale archetype at art.b gallery June 2021

Catalogue Available [online]

IS art gallery - Hamba Kahle

Youngblood Africa – Broken Monsters

Violent Femmes – art.b

Edg2020 – Gothic Romantic

December 2020

February 2021

June 2021

September 2021

Turbine Art Fair – Gothic Romantic October 2021

The Secret History – art.b

Phantasmagoria – RK Contemporary

The Grand VI– Rust en Vrede Gallery

November 2021

November 2021

June 2022

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:

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

Ephemera– Rust en Vrede Gallery

February 2023

Apart / A Part Webinar – a discussion on the exhibition

November 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JgsqJ9KzlU

Violent Femmes – Interview on RSG Kuns

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

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