3. BASTERSAAD
fractal young artist exhibition 2008
The title of this year’s Fractal Young Artist Exhibition is BASTERSAAD, which refers to a hybrid seed produced by artificially cross-pollinated plants to
improve the characteristics of the resulting plants. BASTERSAAD is an exhibition that exists out of artworks that focus on different themes, are made
out of different media and created by artists from different backgrounds and training.The media used in the artworks include installation, painting,
printmaking and photography. BASTERSAAD questions the boundaries of art disciplines and explores technological media together with “traditional”
art media. It ventures between popular and high art, as well as art and design.The theme suggests a new breed of artist, where the fusion of popular
culture and high art takes place.The resulting product, an exhibition compiled out of a mix of styles and media, cultivates a colourful, fresh and
exciting new entity.
4. The association originated in 1999 as a result of younger artists living
in the Free State finding it increasingly difficult to make a living from
the arts and not having a space or sufficient opportunities in which to
market themselves. One of the foremost objectives of the committee
is to promote the arts among the young people of Bloemfontein, and
to involve them in productions, workshops and exhibitions. In addition
As a result of the success of the project in 2007, the Fractal Committee
are hosting the second FractalYoung Artists Exhibition in 2008.The
intention is to make this an annual event.
This year, ????? were received and once again the selection process
was undertaken by members of the Advisory Committee, the Fractal
Fractal, an adhoc committee of the Friends of Oliewenhuis is a voluntary association consisting of six Executive
Members. The committee is dedicated to supporting and enhancing the activities of Oliewenhuis Art Museum
by raising necessary funds and by initiating new projects and ventures specifically geared towards the younger
generation.
5. Penny George
Fractal Chairperson
Committee and other visual art practitioners. The participating artists
for 2008 are Mr PW Burger, Ms Davina de Beer, Mr Victor Geduldt, Mrs
Marjorie Human, Mr Izak Janse van Rensburg, Ms Amelia Raath and
Mr MC Roodt.
The title of the exhibition, BASTERSAAD, was created by the artists and
symbolizes an exhibition that grew from diversity into a unified and
improved future promise.The seven selected artists are either graduates
or students from the Central University of Technology, the Free State
University and one self-taught artist. The exhibition showcases a variety
of exciting artworks in a variety of media, techniques and concepts.
Since 1999, Fractal has hosted a variety of productions with great
success.The Fractal committee propose that this exhibition will deliver
a high standard of creative expression and educational value.We believe
that the success of BASTERSAAD will open doors to future upcoming
artists.
to this, we aim to educate the general public and to awake in them the
desire to preserve and appreciate our national art museum. A love for art
among the community is an investment for art in the future. By means
of various initiatives and the Committee’s involvement, new members
are also gained for the Friends of Oliewenhuis Art Museum.
In 2007, the Fractal Committee initiated the FractalYoung Artists
Exhibition. The project not only provided young, upcoming visual artists
the opportunity to exhibit their artworks at Oliewenhuis Art Museum
but also gave them the opportunity of showcasing their artwork
professionally in a well-established environment. The occasion also
presented them with the opportunity of expanding their knowledge and
experience of curating an exhibition.
The competition was based on a selection process.Artists submitted
proposals, including a Curriculum Vitae and visuals for selection. A
selection panel comprising members of Oliewenhuis Art Museum’s
Advisory Committee, Fractal Committee members and other visual
art practitioners selected the participating artists. In 2007 Ms Nicky
Swanepoel, Graphic Designer and Photographer and Ms Kobie Nel,
Photographer were selected to participate in the FractalYoung Artists
Exhibition. The exhibition was presented in the Annex Gallery in the
Main Building of Oliewenhuis Art Museum. The exhibition was extremely
well supported and proved to be a great success.
6. 16 November 1977
P.W. Burger het sy Diploma in Beeldende Kuns in 2000 by die Sentrale
Universiteit van Tegnologie (SUT) in Bloemfontein voltooi. Hy het sy graad in 2001
ontvang en het in skilderkuns gespesialiseer. In 2006 het hy as ‘n deeltydse lektor in
beeldende kuns by die Sentrale Universiteit van Tegnologie begin werk. Burger bied
gereeld kunswerkswinkels regoor die land aan. Hy is tans besig met sy Meerstersgraad
The Shape Shifter
Mixed media on canvas, 2006
1 200mm X 1 000mm
7. in Kunsfilosofie en Skilderkuns, en gee informele skilderlesse
by Oliewenhuis vir volwassenes in sy vrye tyd. Hy skep ook
kommersiële kunswerke en spesialiseer as ‘n tegniekkunstenaar
vir die versiering van huise en kantore. Burger neem deel aan
prominente uitstallings soos die ABSA Atelier en die Fractal Shed
Your Skin Kunskompetisie.
P.W. Burger views artworks as vehicles that have the potential to
question absolute truths and reveal hidden meanings. He explores
its ambiguous nature and surplus meanings in his own work by
making use of symbols. In his painting, The Shape Shifter (2006),
the shape shifter itself is a symbol of how art and science transform
the ordinary into the extraordinary, and thus expanding universal
and natural laws and principles of daily living. In Fall of Babel (2008)
he probes the potential meaning that resides in the polemical
information that viewers derive from the artwork. Burger is
interested in the ambiguous nature of interpretation and continues
to explore different truths that artworks convey.
Fall of Babel
Mixed media on canvas, 2008
1 200mm X 1 000mm
8. Davina de Beer het haar Meestersgraad in Beeldende Kunste in 2008 by die
Universiteit van die Vrystaat voltooi. Sy het verskeie kunswerkswinkels in 2006 en
2007 as deel van die Artists in Schools projek aangebied. Sy was ‘n studente-assistent
by die Johannes Stegmann-kunsgalery van 2004 tot 2008, asook by Departement
Kunsgeskiedenis en Visuele Kultuurstudie by die Universiteit van die Vrystaat. Hierdie
jaar het sy aan verskeie uitstallings deelgeneem, onder andere by die Thompson
Kunsgalery in Melville en die ABSA Atelier in Johannesburg. De Beer vertrek in Oktober
2008 na Sohar in Oman, waar sy kuns gaan aanbied by die Sohar International School.
14 Junie 1982
SPRING, HUPPEL, SPEEL, VAL
Oil on canvas, 2008
8 units of 275mm X 350mm
9. The focus of De Beer’s research for the past four years has been the ruptures that
occur in the continuity of family memories. Her artworks address aspects of memory
preservation that deal with estrangement, anonymity, absence and mortality. She
uses the interplay between exposure and concealment to examine the discontinuities
in history and memory in the private and public spheres.Although she specialised in
painting, she uses various media (family photographs, oil paint, light sensitive prints,
digital prints and installation) to explore the discontinuities and different truths in
memory.The paintings in the White Series focus on the aggression and estrangement
of memory, and explore forgetting as an active element that transforms memories. Her
smaller paintings pursue memory as frail and vulnerable, as if on breaking or vanishing
point.
10. Victor Geduldt kom uit ‘n familie wat in kuns belanggestel het en hom
gemotiveer het om self daarby betrokke te raak.Aangesien hy geen formele
kunsopleiding gehad het nie, het sy familielede se skilderye gedien as inspirasie en
blootstelling tot die skildermedium. Geduldt neem elke jaar deel aan die Shoprite
Checkers Kunskompetisie en skenk gereeld skilderye vir fondsinsamelings vir
liefdadigheid, soos Ons Kinderhuis in Bloemfontein en KANSA. Hy neem gereeld aan
uitstallings deel in Bloemfontein en in die res van die Vrystaat.Tans word van sy werk
uitgestal in Excelcior by die Pelican Art-uitstalling.
Victor Geduldt finds inspiration in the immediate world surrounding him, alert to
anything that will catch his eye.As a child he used to peer through the windows of
art galleries, absorbing influences from mostly South African artists. Images from
magazines, of everyday life, function as inspiration for his ideas.As an accomplished
realistic portrait painter, he enjoys exploring facial expressions of people from different
cultures, but also focuses on issues that he feels is pertinent to his surroundings. He
depicts both the mundane and the violent, and in this sense asking if the violent has
not become part of the mundane. In his paintings he investigates the meaning behind
the obvious, raising questions about the worth of everyday life.
3 November 1973
12. Marjorie Human is tans besig om haar MA
Beeldende Kunste-graad by die Universiteit van die
Vrystaat te voltooi. Sy was betrokke by die Artists in
Schools-projek,‘n gemeenskap gebaseerde kunsinisiatief,
as projek koördineerder van 2004 – 2008. Sy gee ook klas
by Planet Pixl School of Advertising and Photography
in Bloemfontein terwyl sy studeer en aan haar
kunsloopbaan werk. Hierdie jaar het sy reeds aan verskeie
groepuitstallings deelgeneem, onder andere in die
Thompson-kunsgalery in Melville.
Human is interested in the global revival in the practice of
painting. She explores the decorative pattern and pattern-
making processes imbedded in new image-based media.
Her painting practice calls to mind the obsessive, labour
intensive acts of craft that are integrated with every
day life. She uses pattern and decorative symbols out
of everyday surfaces, such as printed textiles, wallpaper
and graphic design as an abstract communication
“language”. In her latest work she explores specific motifs
out of South
African popular
culture, like the
springbok and the rose.
The springbok was once a
powerful symbol of
popular culture and part heraldry, but is currently
degrading to a nostalgic and kitsch image, used in
retrograde design. In her paintings Human strips the
springbok of its power and signifies its decadent nature
by the use of springbok skulls, which also refer to the
17th
century Dutch Still Life theme, vanitas. Human also
reduces the Victorian roses that were imported into the
South African fashion through colonial influence, to their
skeletal structure, and build them up again turning them
into flowers with a hybrid character. By using decorative
surfaces that seems to portray changing and conflicting
cultural identity constructs, she tries to translate a sense
of uncertainty about the promises of bliss made by
superficially constructed appearances.
23Desember1981
14. Izak Janse van Rensburg het by Planet Pixl School of Advertising and Photography
in Bloemfontein studeer en werk tans as grafiese ontwerper en fotograaf. Hy het van kleintyd af
in die skepping van kuns belanggestel en gepoog om sy kreatiwiteit te ontwikkel. Hy het in 2006
en 2007 aan studente-uitstallings van Planet Pixl by Oliewenhuis Kunsmuseum in Bloemfontein
deelgeneem.
Izak Janse van Rensburg tries to convey his experience of life by combining documentary and fine
art photography. He explores the meaning behind the everyday, trying to catch something fresh
and unsuspected on film. He enjoys taking photographs that suggest a narrative and incite people
to think outside their frame of reference. He believes that a photographer needs a bit of luck and
a lot of patience to wait for the moment to take a perfect shot.
14 Augustus 1987
???
Photographic print, 2008
???mm X ???mm
15.
16. 26 Augustus 1985
Amelia Raath het haar BA Beeldende Kuns-graad in 2007 by die Universiteit
van die Vrystaat ontvang en is tans besig met haar Meestersgraad in Beeldende Kuns
by die Universiteit van die Vrystaat. Sy het aan verskeie uitstallings deelgeneem, soos
die Sasol Nuwe Handtekeninge Kunskompetisie in 2007 in Pretoria en die Studente-
uitstallings in die Johannes Stegmann-kunsgalery in Bloemfontein in 2005 - 2008.
Sy was ook betrokke as kurator by verskeie uitstallings in die Johannes Stegmann-
kunsgalery, soos By-Passing Catherine in 2007 en die Vierdejaarstudente uitstalling in
2008.
17. My Little Pony has been a part of Amelia Raath’s life since she can remember.They
bombarded the toy market during the 1980’s and are still popular toys in the 21st
century. She experiences them as ambivalent in nature, as they serve her inspiration
– as muses – and at the same time as “her little demons”.This uncanny interplay
between the polar opposites of demons and muses changes the apparently light-
hearted My Little Pony toys into something more sinister. In her paintings she
uses the My Little Pony as subject matter to play with different themes, like the
apocalyptic horse.
PAPYRUS SCROLL
Mixed media, 2008
???mm X ???mm
FALLING
Mixed media, 2008
???mm X ???mm
18. M.C. Roodt is ‘n kunstenaar wat in die Noord-Kaap gebore
is en tans Beeldende Kuns by die Sentrale Universiteit van
Tegnologie in Bloemfontein studeer. Sy monodrukke, Summer Mu,
Psychiatrists’s Chair en MyTV Does Not See Me is onlangs by die
permanente versameling van die Nasionale William Humphrey-
kunsgalery in Kimberley ingesluit.
M.C. Roodt works in a variety of media and experiments
frequently with the characteristics and limitations of such media.
His work examines the structures and paradigms embedded
within the legacy of western determinist reasoning. His work,
as medium-specific investigation, can thus be paralleled with
the function of thought as binding “medium” in the mentioned
worldview. Currently Roodt is investigating the proposition that
the classification of intangible thoughts, abstract emotions and
behaviour changes their context by associating them with a pre-
existing model which was not an intrinsic part of the processes
that led to their inception in the first place.This impartial
model de-humanises the individual through classification and
reassembles identity to form a mere sum of biologically measured
and understood fragmented parts.The nature and outcomes of
such conceptual and linguistic structures presupposes an impartial
reality free from cultural and personal identity. Roodt probes at
what effects this has on the process of reciprocity.
25 Julie 1986
DSM FREEDOM CHARTER
Mixed media on crochet, 2008
1 580mm X 2 000mm
