Graduates 2022

The Annual Final Year Student Exhibition of the Department of Fine Arts | 2022 Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery: Monday – Friday: 09:00 – 16:00 | Sasol Library, University of the Free State, 205 Nelson Mandela Drive | +27 (0)51 401 2706 | dejesusav@ufs.ac.za

Siobhan Swart

Melancholy and Flight

I

have found that a longing for comfort has generated a need within me to explore concepts related to heaviness and lightness as metaphors of fantasy and reality. This exploration is rooted

in mental health, specifically anxiety disorders, depression, and childhood trauma. In my art I investigate how we, as a human species, can create alternate realities as a tool for coping and escaping our lived realities. In my abstract drawings, photographs and etching I purposefully find myself ‘portaling’ into imaginary worlds, propelled by anxiety and a sense of dread. Inspired by natural shapes and forms, I try to show a shift from the perception of insects as strange or gross to something with enriched

meaning and layers of curiosity. A peculiar change from reality to fantasy becomes apparent when one gazes at these insects up-close. This change demonstrates the constant engagement and impermanence between fantasy and reality or lightness and heaviness. One cannot exist without the other. By exploring the emotional response to mark-making suggestive of insects and other natural components in decay, I attempt to highlight light aspects through experiences of flight and explore the idea of escapism from the heaviness of reality.

William Shaer

Interface and Interplay

A

rt is inherently tied to the human experience. Through its being and processes it can be considered an extension of the mind. It is this connection that I explore in my

studio and in my work. My work is undoubtedly informed by my being-in-the-world, my place in the world. My work explores the experiences of inheritance and expectations connected to my being, resulting in an investigation into being in itself. The art I create tells me something about myself. It confirms insecurities and confronts biases. It is this reaction I aim to confront my viewer with — a self-reflection. The artworks featured in my body of work further explore the ideas of mediation and bricolage through the

use of a varied stratum of materials and mediums. I address the ideas of tradition and inheritance through the use of familiar furniture objects such as chairs and doors. I also address the ideas of death and rebirth through the reanimation of dead material such as bone, wood and horns.

Mia Visser

Viscous Bodies

M

y artworks in the series Viscous Bodies reflect on the

naturally exclusory boundaries of material bodies and the binaries of the sexes as things that resist change,

control or manipulation, but my mind can detach itself from these constraints. Through line constructions, symbolic colours, and materials I contrast the concept of fluidity with that of viscosity.

Though our physical bodies are limited our cognitive minds can detach from our bodies in a space free from boundaries or material matter. Between these boundaries of the material and abstract, form and formless still lie much liminal space that I find is important to investigate further.

Lilian Elizabeth Brink Traces of Time

T

hroughout the final year of my art degree I became intuitively and cognitively drawn to the concept of time and the changes it induces within everyday life. My fascination with time

and change stems from an exposure to palaeontology through my late father (1957-2019), who was a palaeontologist. I explore and habitually engage with materials that possess characteristics that metaphorically connects to themes of temporality (time, process and change) within my art practice. Snakeskin, paper and glass has become prominent materials in my practice as they visually connect to these themes, as well as allow me to interact with time on a more direct level. However, while working with such fragile

materials (glass can easily fall and shatter, while snakeskin and paper are very delicate) I found myself exposed to unpredictable moments and accidents. Yet, I chose to welcome these accidents, since they form a natural part of everyday life, and rather observe its significance to my conceptual art practice.

Jorien Krapohl Looking In / Out

I

grew up on Witplasie, a farm in the Karoo in the Northern Cape, where dogs always surrounded us. We always had canines on the farm, not just as companions but also as work and guard

dogs. In South Africa, it seems that the primary motivation to adopt a dog in the country and in the city is to protect and act as alarms. To most people that work with or share their lives with dogs it is clear that they are more than alarms or guards. In my art, I explore how dogs are guardians; edges, barriers and doorways.

Dogs can be barriers in everyday life, where they may function as barriers between ourselves and potential danger. In Art Historical contexts dogs are typically depicted, in historical group portraits paintings for example, in the foreground; between the viewer,

and the people depicted in the painting. What interested me is that it seemed that dogs mediated as both barriers or doorways between the viewer and the people in the painting. They seem to keep the viewer out as well as lead the viewer deeper into the painting. In my mixed media artworks I explore dogs as a doorway or barrier by engaging with dogs on walks and when we work on the farm.

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