iJusi portfolio no.2 T +27 (0)72 6580 762 C +27 (0)83 6894 461 us@rookeandvanwyk.com www.rookeandvanwyk.com
iJusi portfolio no.2
Towards a new visual culture... continued.
IJusi is an experimental magazine first published during the vibrant period following South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. From the onset iJusi posed an important question: “What makes me African - and what does that look like?”, piecing together the various cultural dichotomies and potentialities that have evolved ever since the fall of Apartheid. Garth Walker published the first issue of iJusi in early 1995, showcasing South African visual culture, creating an independent vernacular in South Africa. Subsequent issues have been themed around the disciplines of Graphic Design, Illustration, Typography, Writing, and Photography, in an effort to contribute to various, ongoing cultural dialogues in South Africa. Resultantly, iJusi has developed a worldwide following, despite having
a print-run in the low hundreds. The magazine has reached cult status, largely due to its rarity and the fact that it has never been commercially for sale. To ensure the survival of the magazine iJusi, in collaboration with the Rooke & van Wyk gallery, launched the limited edition iJusi Portfolio #1 in 2010. Comprising ten quality printed lithographs, Portfolio #1 showcased work by selected artists from the first twenty-four issues of the magazine. This initial portfolio has been acquired by a number of leading art museums and private collectors worldwide. IJusi Portfolio #2 follows from the success of Portfolio #1, inviting a selection of South Africa’s leading artists and photographers, two world renowned graphic designers and two local emerging designers, selected from submissions for
iJusi issue #26, themed “Afrika Typografika III”. This second portfolio explores concepts surrounding lettering and typography integral to the context of the ‘African Experience’. The iJusi magazines and portfolios have culminated into a pivotal and historic series of documents, testaments to a developing country dealing with various socio-economic stratifications and political dimensions. Despite its often satirical and parodic approach iJusi is not a negative, or even critical commentary, but rather a platform for discovery, safeguarding the wealth of talent, rich traditions, and strong sense of heritage in South Africa, with its diverse cultural backgrounds, each with their own contribution to make, exposing a creative poignancy and visual vocabulary that remains unrivaled. 1
Roger Ballen
Roger Ballen (b. 1950, New York) is an internationally renowned photographer living and working in Johannesburg. He started his career in the 1970s after moving to South Africa from the United States. Before his arrival to South Africa, and parallel to obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Ph.D in Mineral Economics from the University of California, Ballen spent five years globetrotting. He met his wife on his first visit to South Africa, returning to Chicago where he used the photographic material from his journey as the subject matter for his first series of photographs titled Boyhood, also published as the artists first book in 1979.
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After completing his studies he returned to South Africa to work as a geologist. His work allowed him to travel South Africa extensively, learning about its socio-political eccentricities under Apartheid, and the curious existence of certain marginalized communities in rural areas. Arguably, Ballen’s early documentations of South Africa gave rise to his most prominent series of photographs, comprised of images that he took of backwater hamlets, ‘dorps’ as they are called in Afrikaans. This series culminated in
a publication called Dorps in 1986; now highly collectable and recently re-printed in its second edition. Dorps displays Ballen’s fascination with architecture and interior spaces, communicating the ideological hold that was ingrained in every facet of South African society during Apartheid.
works, by the mid 90s Balllen’s attention moved towards a merger of architectonic narratives and physiognomic social studies, with often disturbing characters and piercingly discursive props. The most significant example of Ballen’s hybrid-brand of documentary and posed photography can be seen in his publication titled Outland (2001), followed by the aptly titled Circa 1980, Ballen’s documentation Fact or Fiction (2003), culminating of the local archi-political vernacular in his famous Shadow Chamber connected to the Apartheid series (2005). Outland and Shadow regime began to evolve, finding a Chamber went on to worldwide natural progression towards the commercial success, both published documentation of local individuals by Phaidon publishing. A key and inhabitants native to the rural stylistic trait in all Ballen’s work villages that he had visited on from this period is that his images his travels. Ballen revisited the are simultaneously painterly perspectives that he used in Dorps, (expressive) and sculptural focusing primarilly on the people (gestural) in a manner that has in these rural towns, which he not been associated with later published and titled Platteland: photography in the past. Images from Rural South Africa (1994). This evolution towards the Ballen’s most recent series, titled precarious subtleties, mannerisms, Boarding House (2009), revisits gestures, and behaviors of many elements of both previous individuals would prove to be Phaidon publications, interrogating a precursor to his more the formal relations of power recent, popular work. between people, environments, and objects. Also published by Although there are hints of staged Phaidon, Boarding House evolves subject matter and more cerebral upon Ballen’s rich textural, theatrical elements in his earlier textual, and pictorial oeuvre. A
dominant theme in Ballen’s latest work is the manner in which ideological epidemiology filters down to the masses , theatrically directed through the reflection of his own psyche, stemming from his older work. Balllen’s work is illustrated in numerous supporting publications including: Boarding House (2009), Shadow Chamber (2005), Fact or Fiction (2003), Outland (2001), Cette Afrique’ (1997), Platteland (1996), Dorps (1st ed. 1986, 2nd ed. 2011), Boyhood (1979). Unseen works, is the only body of work not included in these publications, which was exhibited at the Rooke Gallery in 2009. His work features in many key collections including: Brooklyn Museum (USA), Johannesburg Art Museum (RSA), National Gallery, Cape Town (RSA), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL), and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (UK). Awards include: the Art Directors Club Award for Photography (2006), Photographer of the Year by the Rencontres d’ Arles (France, 2002), Best Photographic Book of the Year by PhotoEspana (Spain, 2001), and the Sani Festival for Best Solo Exhibition (Greece, 2000). 3
Jonathan Barnbrook 4
Johnathan Barnbrook (b. 1966, Luton, England) started designing at the age of thirteen, after winning a design competition at school. From an early age Barnbrook developed an interdisciplinary work ethic, incorporating Graphic Design, Typography and Fine Art influences. After graduating from the Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London he started his own practice. It is from this foundation that Barnbrook has developed his influential style, establishing his first studio in 1990, known for its socialist stance towards commercial design. Thanks to his often bold and sensationalist convictions, Barnbrook has become an authoritative voice in the fields of Graphic Design, Typography, and Motion Graphics. Barnbrook has pioneered the notion of design with a social conscience, providing an opposition to design based purely on Capitalist intentions. His sometimes-controversial pronouncements about global consumerism, cosmetic wars, market capitalism, and international politics have generated an air
design as a method for social change, helping shape a better environment for people to interact with and perceive. Barnbrook’s ‘Agitprop’ modus operandi has attracted other, non-commercial, equally influential clients, such as Damien Hirst and Adbusters. Partly as a commentary on the decades-long conflicts in Iraq, Barnbrook’s oeuvre was showcased in a solo exhibition titled Friendly Fire, at the Design Museum in London (2007). The exhibition included Barnbrook’s First Things First Manifesto, and the debut appearance A dominant theme in Barnbrook’s work is its historical and semiological of the Barnbrook Bible, which has reached cult status amongst design stratification of contemporary subculture, coupled with an almost anti- professionals and enthusiasts alike. Other publications that he has design approach to typographical designed include Typography Now signification. Barnbrook approaches Two: Implosion, and Damien Hirst’s language and letterforms in a typically postmodern, archaeological infamous I Want To Spend The Rest of manner, often utilizing counterpoise My Life, Everywhere with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now as a tactic to subvert commercial (2007), which has garnered him advertising and consumerist worldwide critical acclaim. propaganda, revealing his anticapitalist sentiments. From In keeping with the social Barnbrook’s perspective it is foundations of his graphic agitation, imperative for us to understand Barnbrook started his own digital why we are assaulted by addictive typographic design studio, called images and visual stimulation, the Virus Foundry in 1997; made envisioning a new emphasis for of notoriety around his public persona. Resultantly, Barnbrook has combined a sense of political acumen and an awareness of design thinking and responsibility, whilst still managing the day-to-day constraints of mainstream Capitalist demands, working in both commercial and non-commercial arena’s. Barnbrook’s clients range from international museums to charitable organizations, including the BBC and Grey Advertising.
famous for such cult-status fonts as Bastard, Drone, Exocet, Mason, Nixon, and Prozac. Barnbrook established this font foundry so that he could use typefaces without necessarily turning to commercial foundries and paying exorbitant amounts of money for their typefaces. The foundary was also an attempt to effect visual change within the global design community. Due to his strong anti-authoritarian, anti-design perspectives, Barnbrook has not entered any award competitions since 1998. However, pre-1998 he did collect a host of awards for himself and his studio, including: Most promising newcomer to typography from Creative Review (1994), Most promising designer from Direction Magazine (1994), two Silver Awards for Motion Graphics from the D&AD (1996), a Grand Prix from Epica for Motion Graphics (1996), a Gold Prize for his work on Damien Hirst’s book from The Tokyo Type Directors Club (1998), and a Gold Award and Best of Show award his work on Damien Hirst’s book from the Art Directors club of New York. 5
Willem Boshoff
Willem Boshoff (b. 1955, Johannesburg) is a Johannesburgbased artist known for his tactile and discursive installations, sculptures, prints, and publications. Boshoff’s work is founded on language systems and the mechanisms that serve or control the distribution of information and communication. His work is supported by an obsessive hunger for knowledge and a cursory understanding of linguistics, politics, semiotics, epistemology, etymology, philosophy, botany, musicology and psychology, to name a few.
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Boshoff is most interested in obscure paradigms, idioms, and often ignored pieces of information, and is specifically drawn towards dead or dying languages, new or lost words, uncommon or forgotten rituals, myths, and traditions. Boshoff’s command of linguistics and the production of meaning is presented textually and sculpturally, allowing his audience to access his artworks without needing to understand the underlying codes of his enquiry. A core theme in Boshoff’s work is the idea of knowledge as a mutable and manipulatable package; the manner in which it is produced,
stored, transmitted, and altered or Apartheid regime in KykAfrikkaans destroyed through both written and (1980), a book of concrete poetry oral traditions. His work interrogates that literally scrambles the notion of how knowledge is processed into ideological discourse, and BangBoek dominant (meta)narratives that in which he created his own cryptic dictate the norm, sharing his findings visual language so that his superiors through art and publishing through in the army could not undermine books and the Internet. Much of his true stance on the Totalitarian his time is spent researching and Apartheid government. compiling dictionaries related to the subjects and concepts in his art, Since his first exhibition at the often forming the foundation certain Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1981 artworks, notably Colour Charts Boshoff’s work has been widely (1977), Garden of Words (1982 -), exhibited both locally and abroad. Blind Alphabet (1995 -), Writing that Fell Boshoff has also participated in off the Wall (1997), and Writing in the numerous international events, Sand (2001). representing South Africa at the Havana Biennale, Johannesburg To Boshoff, “knowing that one Biennale (1995 and 1997), São is uncertain is a certainty in Paulo Biennale (1996), and Venice itself”, embracing chance with his Biennale. Amongst the numerous didactic negotiations, recalling the institutions to show his art are conceptual art practices of the the Museum for African Art at the 1960s and 70s, such as the work Smithsonian (Washington), the of John Baldessari, Art & Language, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Joseph Kosuth, Jeffrey Valance, and (Rotterdam), White Box Gallery Fluxus; all using text and language as (New York). Boshoff’s accolades a primary basis for art production. include: Winner of the Ludwig Using wood, readymades, and a Giess Preis fur Kleinplastik by the variety of graphic and mixed media, letter Stiftung (Cologne, 1998), Boshoff’s work also has a social Winner of the Aardvark prize as focus, subverting the establishment top artist at the Aardklop arts in favor of the commonly festival (Potchefstroom, 2000), disenfranchised, exhibited by Golden Loerie Award (2005), and his avant-garde criticism of the a D&AD Global Award (2005). In
2008 Boshoff was awarded and Honorary Doctorate from the University of Johannesburg. Boshoff’s work features in major collections around the world, including: Unisa Art Gallery (Pretoria), BHP Billiton (Johannesburg), IZIKO SA National Gallery (Cape Town), Johannesburg Art Gallery, Jack Ginsberg Collection (Johannesburg), Gordon Schachat Collection (Johannesburg), Sackner Archives of Concrete and Visual Poetry (Miami), Robert Loder Collection (London), MTN Art Collection (Johannesburg), Sanlam Corporate Collection (Johannesburg), The Constitutional Court of South Africa (Johannesburg), The Reserve Bank of South Africa (Pretoria), and The Ferguson Collection (Boston). Willem Boshoff’s art career can be followed in Ivan Vladislavic’s biography Willem Boshoff (Taxi-011, published by David Krut, 2005) and Warren Siebrits’s Willem Boshoff: word forms and language shapes: 1975 – 2007 (Exhibition Catalogue, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg 2007). 7
David Goldblatt 8
David Goldblatt (b. 1930, Randfontein) is arguably an institution in South Africa. He has worked as a professional photographer since the early 1960s, and has developed a seminal oeuvre that can be understood as a critical dissection of South Africa’s society and landscape over five decades. More specifically, Goldblatt has concisely documented the ghostly impact of Apartheid during its peak and in its wake. Known for his lucid brand of humanism, Goldblatt’s images make apparent the unerring vestiges of the South African socio-political landscape. At the heart of Globlatt’s artistic enquiry is an inherent curiosity towards the manner in which values are constructed and marketed, tolerating the interpretation of a dominant moralism that still exists. His dissection of past metanarratives, including the affects and emulation of such power structures today, subtly yet critically unwraps the universal reasonings for Apartheid to have existed.
These values, acting as alibi’s to oppression and degradation, are still etched into the landscapes, personalities, and architectures of the present. Goldblatt captures this oscillation of power and history, tolerating a brief yet poetic insight into the context of people’s lives before and after Apartheid. His images are rooted in conflict and dissent, evoking palimpsest-like portraits of Apartheid, subtly enforcing an engagement with the consequences of our morals, truths, and norms. From this context he communicates how frivolous certain separations in society can be, specifically regarding issues of class, race, and status. Goldblatt’s depictions of a stillfragmented, yet somehow cohering South African landscape have been widely dispersed and exhibited extensively abroad and locally, notably being the first South African to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York in 1998. Aside from his prolific career as a photographer,
Golblatt has been actively involved with community developments and cultural establishments. Most notably in 1989, as an attempt to introduce photography to disadvantaged communities and bridge the often-elitist artistic and cultural rift between rich and poor in South Africa, Goldblatt established the Market Photography Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg. Over the years this school has contributed enormously to the development of South African photography, and South Africa’s position as a dominant player in the world. Amongst its alumni are some of South Africa’s greatest talents, including: Jodi Bieber, Zanele Muholi, Sabelo Mlangeni, Musa Nxumalo, and Nontsikelelo Veleko. Goldblatt has exhibited at the acclaimed Documenta 11 (2002) and Documenta 12 (2007) exhibitions in Kassel, Germany. His Retrospective, David Goldblatt – Fifty-One Years, was exhibited worldwide, including a show at the Johannesburg Art
Gallery (2005). He is represented by the Goodman in Johannesburg and the Stevenson in Cape Town, with multiple solo exhibitions and publications from both galleries, including TJ: Some things old, some things new and some much the same (2010), In Boksburg (2009), and Intersections Intersected (2008). Amongst his numerous accolades, Goldblatt is the recipient of the 2006 Hasselblad award, the 2009 Henri Cartier-Bresson Award, and the 2010 Lucie Award for Lifetime Achievement. He has received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the University of Cape Town (2001), and an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from the University of the Witwatersrand (2008). He features in many collections across the globe including The Victoria and Albert Museum (London), The Biblioteque Nationale de France (Paris), The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Modern Art (New York), and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 9
Warwick Kay 10
Warwick Kay is a Graphic Designer and Illustrator currently based in Cape Town. In 2004, Kay graduated from the Durban University of Technology in Graphic Design (Cum Laude), and was resultantly awarded “The Designer of the Year�. After his studies, Kay movedon to work under Garth Walker at Orange Juice Design, now known as Mister Walker, where he gained six years experience in the design and advertising industry. Alongside his prolific design and illustration work, Kay is actively involved in the South African art community, often taking part in exhibitions, featuring in Juxtapoz Magazine. Kay regularly tours South Africa with his band called Fire Through The Window, readily photographing his adventures through the countryside.
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William Kentridge 12
William Kentridge is one of South Africa’s most popular artists, hailed across the globe for his politically charged animations, from which his now sought-after drawings and prints originate. His drawings can be seen as palimpsests that trace his creative process and filmmaking technique, making his art historically tangible and relevant to the cultural heritage of activism in South Africa. Kentridge’s films can be described as artistic écriture, displaying a sense of fading memory tragically unfolding, where history always repeats itself. A dominant theme in Kentridge’s work is resistance towards any manner of autocratic system or dictatorship. Although much if his subversive material was aimed at Apartheid, some of Kentirdge’s radicalism still echoes in his recent work, albeit more removed from the Apartheid era, adopting philosophical tenets and stylistic traits from other historic resistance movements, such as French and Spanish Romanticism, German Expressionism, Italian Futurism and Russian Constructivism. Social revolution and resistance being the core of Kentridge’s work, the disfiguration and reconfiguration of architecture is used to represent
the ideological landscape of the proletariat, particularly relating to matters of disenfranchisement, control, power, and means of production. The city is used as a symbol for all this, specifically Johannesburg, communicating the duality between right and wrong that exists within all of us. The subjects in Kentridge’s drawings feed-off the brutalized society left in the wake of revolution, exposing contradictions and uncertainties created by uninterested and ignorant orthodoxies and institutions. In this context his work critiques both the era of the old totalitarian state, and the nouveau riche of the present powers that be. Kentridge’s films are the source of many drawings, made using the traditional technique of stop-motion animation. One key difference is that Kentridge uses the same drawing surface for all the key frames in any given scene in a film, successively erasing and drawing until the scene is complete. The remaining markson-paper, with the last key frame being most prominent, form the final drawing. From a philosophical, linguistic, and formal perspective these drawing are layered with meaning and highly valuable.
Using charcoal as his primary medium, one can see traces of previous drawings, remnants of earlier key frames, making his drawings literally and figuratively historical artifacts, conveying a temporal narrative based on erasure. From this foundation Kentridge has constructed his own distinctive visual language and drawing technique, which he uses as a starting point for his prints and works made in other media such as sculpture and tapestries. Kentirdge has channeled the ageold medium of drawing into the realm of multimedia, evidenced by his multi-layered stage adaptations, such as the Black Box, which stems from various roots, delivering various other off-shoots, such as prints, publications, and DVD’s. His ability to cross-polinate various kinds of media, genre’s, crafts, music and literature comprises the antithesis of his gestural drawing style, political acumen, and linguistic deconstruction; all projections and allegory’s fitted and filtered through the formal and historic qualities of art and design. By taking advantage of multimedia Kentridge has become an alchemist
in the field of draftsmanship, effectively merging drawing with performance, sculpture, craft, film, music and theatre. There are a vast amount of publications available on Kentridge, including Firewalker (2011), which is a collection of essays detailing his 2009 collaboration with Gerhard Marx, where the two artists created a ten-meter-tall sculpture at the entrance to one of Johannesburg’s busiest streets. Other key publications on Kentridge include: The Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series (1999), Black Box/Chambre Noire (2006), Flute (2007), Tapestries (2008), Five Themes (2009), and Lexicon (2011), to name a few. Kentridge has also garnered numerous accolades, notably being included into Time Magazine’s Top 100 of 2009 for his Five Themes exhibition, and winning the prestigious Kyoto Prize in 2010 under the category Arts and Philosophy. Other achievements include: The Standard Bank Young Artist Award (1987), The Carnegie Medal (2004), and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand . 13
Michael Macgarry 14
Michael MacGarry (b. 1978, Durban) is a Johannesburg-based artist and designer. As the winner of the 2010 Standard Bank Young Artist Award, he has made a name for himself with his disruptive artworks that are founded on far-reaching and pertinent socioeconomic questions about Africa in lieu of decolonization and the expectation of neo-Imperialism. MacGarry dissects the manner in which Africa is exploited by regional authorities and international power structures, particularly focusing on China’s dominance across the continent and the facilitation of this economic colonization by African leaders. MacGarry proposes that postliberation African governments have allowed the resources of the continent to be plundered, willingly disempowering their own people in favor of enriching themselves through First-World corporate payrolls. Using the phrase “All Theory No Practice”, MacGarry illustrates that at first glance African leaderships may appear legitimate self-governing states, but on closer investigation these governments tolerate unabated exploitation, perpetuating corruption through
the infrastructure left behind by the preceding colonial powers. The fact that African sovereignty speaks of empowerment and emancipation, but at the same time disenfranchises the proletariat is explicitly communicated through MacGarry’s exhibition titles, including When Enough People Start Saying the Same Thing (2008), This Is Your World In Which We Grow, And We Will Grow To Hate You (2010), and Entertainment (2011). Based on the maxim “All Theory No Practice”, MacGarry’s artmaking process is affected by the materialist-immateriality of African political hierarchies, structures and aristocracies, exposing the counterintuitive logic of capitalism on the continent. His use of appropriated or manipulated found objects (objet trouvé) and his knowledge of post-colonial theory effectively conveys a message detailing the questionable acts of the economic elite across the African continent. He presents his findings in a simultaneously seductive and repulsive manner, suggesting that varying global powers have constructed artificial systems posing as the illusion of independence and self-sufficiency.
Ironically, by communicating the inner mechanics of Africa’s corrupt political state(s), MacGarry translates a harsh economic reality into commercially viable, saleable objects, effectively fiddling with the seesaw of commodity-exchange and the means of production within the art market. MacGarry is known for the unconventional play between his objects and his films. The objects have an intrinsic role as ‘props’ within the critical narratives of his films, notably End Game, Will to Power, and Race of Man. In the context of the gallery, MacGarry situates his films alongside the objects, causing a dialogue between the visual presence of the screen narrative and physical presence of object statements. In this way, MacGarry executes his postcolonial perspective as a fantasyscape or Science fiction novel, recalling anything relevant to the genre, such as 1980s-style musical scores and Sci-fi illustration, allowing the works to create an idea of the future that already feels dated and antiquated; simultaneously utopian and dystopic.
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Sne Mtetwa 16
Snenhlanhla Mtetwa (b. 1990, Empangeni), better known as ‘Sne’, is a Durban-based Graphic Designer hailing from the Durban University of Technology. Living in KwaZulu Natal for most of her life, Mtetwa grew up in an environment where the importance of art and design in society was not readily understood, which fueled her curiosity and rebellious spirit to explore her creative tendencies. After successfully completing her fourth year of Graphic Design studies, Mtetwa’s considered methods of breaking free from the conservatism innate to the age-old traditions thats she grew up in, thinking outside the proverbial box of stereotypical, orthodox thinking. From Mtetwa’s perspective, communicating through design allowed her to see herself as a canvas, freeing-up the space for experimentation. Mtetwa’s
personal style certainly visualizes this perspective, which is influenced by the Punk Rock of the 1970s, specifically relating to the distinctive music and fashion sense of the movement. Mtetwa has imported these influences into her already layered cultural background, creating a sense of hybridization and fusion in her Fashion Photography, Typography, Graphic Design and Web Design. One of Mtetwa’s personal ambitions is to educate local communities about the value of Design in everyday life, encouraging other’s to employ their ambitions in design. For Mtetwa South Africa is a unique place where designers can produce relevant, contemporary work, and introduce beauty into spaces that would usually be squalid, uplifting the greater community for the betterment of the country.
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Stefan Sagmeister 18
Stefan Sagmeister (b.1962, Bregenz) is a New York-based designer. He is a cultural establishment in the fields of graphic design and typography, who has successfully developed a global iconicity for himself surrounding creative thinking and innovative design over the past three decades.
lecture that he presented in 1999, where he had the details for his talk physically carved with a utility knife onto his torso and photographed, using the image as a poster for the event.
Teetering on the border of the unacceptable, Sagmeister’s work has been branded sensationalist, Sagmeister’s experience stretches sometimes unsettling, mixing as far back to his early teens when the sexual, humorous, cynical, he produced some freelance work and witty to create his own for a left-wing magazine called unmistakable, graphic vocabulary. Alphorn in Vienna. This sparked Other famous works include his interest in the graphic arts, the carnal and brandish tongues leading him to an education at depicted in the Fresh Dialogue Talks the University of Applied Arts poster that he designed in 1996, in Vienna, and later at the Pratt and the strutting, decapitated Institute in New York where chicken running aimlessly in the he was awarded a Fulbright poster for a biennial conference scholarship. Sagmeister’s popularity in New Orleans; both exhibiting grew from his now institutionalized an aesthetic cue from the grunge album cover and poster designs, scene that dominated the early which have created long-lasting 90s, of which Sagmeister was creative and collaborative somewhat of a purveyor. relationships for him, amongst artists such as: Aerosmith, David Sagmeister’s technique has been Byrne, OK GO, Lou Reed, Pat described as having a D.I.Y. Metheny, and The Rolling Stones. approach, using anything from spelling out words with crudely cut Arguably, his most famous work pieces of material, to scarring his is a poster for an AIGA Detroit own body with a utility cutter, to
implementing available materials such as twigs and foliage to make legible type. Stagmeister’s superpower is his ability to communicate conceptual design notions and make them readable to the masses. He does so in-part through parody and humor, but also through the anarchist and rebellious appeal he has in many sub-cultures, specifically with his appropriation of grunge textures and typefaces with its roots in Punk Rock. Sagmeister’s early career saw him having to work for various international agencies including Leo Burnett (Hong Kong) and M&Co (New York). Sagmeister started his own agency in 1993 called Sagmeister Inc’, which pioneered the way that design is perceived by consumers and corporations alike, representing clients from an eclectic range of commercial arena’s, including: the Guggenheim Museum, HBO, the Rolling Stones and Time Warner. Resultantly, his original designs have become much sought-after, overtly cloned, and highly collectable.
Sagmeister became the author of his first book in 2000, titled Made You Look: Another selfindulgent design monograph (practically everything we have ever designed including the bad stuff), which catalogued the work done at Sagmeister Inc. Solo shows showcasing Sagmeister Inc.’s productions have been hosted in Zurich, Vienna, New York, Berlin, Japan, Prague, Cologne, and Seoul. Recently, Sagmeister partnered with designer and Art Director Jessica Walsh to form a new studio, now called Sagmeister & Walsh. He regularly delivers lectures to the graduate department at the School of Visual Arts in New York and has been appointed as the Frank Stanton Chair at the Cooper Union School of Art, New York. Amongst his accolades are four Grammy Nominations for Album Cover Art, including H.P. Zinker’s Mountains of Madness (1995), the Once in a Lifetime box set by Talking Heads (2005), and Everything That Happens Will Happen Today by David Byrne and Brian Eno (2010). 19
Guy Tillim
Guy Tillim (b. 1962, Johannesburg) is a Johanesburg-based photographer informed by the genre of ‘struggle photography’. He is a member of the photographic collective Afropix, with crucial documentary experience during the culminating years of Apartheid, making him a key contributor to photojournalism in South Africa since the late 1980s.
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Tillim has become famous for his surreal and stirring photographs shot in areas of war, unrest, and turmoil; photo essays that are more reminiscent of non-fiction novels than they are of sensationalist photojournalism. Despite being a freelance photographer for the local and foreign media, including Reuters and Agence France Presse, Tillim’s work differs vastly from conflict photography in that his lens never settles on the archetypal ‘media event’ bound for the headlines. Tillim’s work tends to focus on the stillness of spaces, where political borders and in-between spaces created from the ashes of colonial and post-colonial influence reveal more than the central point of attention itself. From this foundation, Tillum emphasizes the interims and
intervals in Africa’s socio-economic adolescence, exposing the political challenges on the African continent, countering the stereotypical expectations of the first-world. His photographs communicate the greater context within the violence of everyday life in Africa, evidenced in key series’ such as: Avenue Patrice Lumumba (2008), Congo Democratic (2006), and Jo’burg (2004). His style can be described as quiet yet monumental. From photographing refugees in Angola to child soldiers in the Congo, Tillim finds grace in the most hostile of places, where moral and cultural decay seem to be the norm.
certain ideological clues, whilst serving as aesthetic devices that verges on the painterly; a kind of photographic ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’. His photographs contain an iconic hush, imbuing a distinct luminosity in which he captures the tragic and disparate, creating a slowing of time, an objectivity that sinks into the subjectivity of the lens, accentuating gestures, impressions, and textures that are easily ignored, finding beauty in the seemingly banal.
He was included into the Phaidon publication titled Vitamin Ph (2006). His personal publications include: Roma, città di mezzo (2009), Avenue Patrice Lumumba (2008), Congo Tillim’s images are born from the Democratic (2006), Petros Village aftermath of violent revolutions and (2006), Jo’burg (2004), Leopold and the gist of disillusioned independence, Mobutu (2004), Kunhinga Portraits interrogating long-debated notions of (2003), and Departure (2003). Tillim emancipation and transition, capturing has represented South Africa at the gravitas of third world instability the São Paulo Bienal (2006), and in the most poetic and nuanced exhibited in the acclaimed Africa manner. Tillim crafts the semiotic Remix (2007). He has been awarded and philosophical tensions inherent the Prix SCAM (Societe Civile des to the withering power structures Auteurs Multimedia), the Roger Pic that compose his subject matter (2002), the Higashikawa Overseas into enlightening political statements. Photographer (Japan, 2003), the Leica This subject matter is amplified by Oskar Barnack Award (2005), and Tillim’s signature technique of filtering the Robert Gardner Fellowship in and refracting light, allowing his Photography by the Peabody Museum images to draw ones eye towards at Harvard University.
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What makes me african? T +27 (0)72 6580 762 C +27 (0)83 6894 461 us@rookeandvanwyk.com www.rookeandvanwyk.com