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| GREATMORE STUDIOS / MENTORING | ||
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While many of these young artists are drawn from local and international tertiary art institutions; some have never had any formal art training in their lives. The workshop marks the first time some of the younger artists would have showcased their work to a broader community. Apart from having a safe empathetic space in which to contain their art practice, the young artists have access to a computer laboratory with free internet access, computer training, a library of recent journals and books. All participating artists are encouraged to take advantage of an extensive international network of artists affiliated with the studios. |
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| AUGUST 2008: | ||
Digital Art is a broad artistic discipline, touching on various forms of image making. TAG sat with the five participants of a recent digital workshop and teased out the very different ways people engage with their world. TAG: You arrive at the studios as a recent graduate of Stellenbosch University, an illustrator. Where did this passion begin and where are you taking it now? Aisha Doullie: From a young age my mother allowed me to draw and doodle in the family phonebooks and cook books. I was raised in a very creative home-my mother is a dynamic character and my father use d to compile a tabloid and had a lot of creative minds, writers and poets around our house. My father’s friend Nadia Essop is a fine artist whose work inspired me…For me illustration is about coming back to the essence- it’s about framing things that are important to me and sharing it with the world. Coming to the workshop was an opportunity to experiment and break out of the mould. I left university with a rather negative image of my work- the workshop allows me to take my self seriously and realise that I have something to contribute to the art world. At the moment I am working on a flash animation based on a poem that looks to bring awareness to bergies living on the street. So many people get overlooked in life. I am hoping to use watercolour to capture the movement of my characters. TAG: What do you see as your role of an artist? A.D.: Art should attempt to solve social problems, its about providing another eye into the world. TAG: You are a recent graduate form Cape Peninsular University of Technology ( CPUT), who also studied photography at Frank Joubert School of Art. What is your understanding of imaging making? Tasneem Howa: It’s about looking at things from a different angle...expressing myself decorating cupcakes, to me that is also ‘image making’. I am currently working on a theme called ‘What moves You’. I am intrigued how dress affects people’s perceptions of a person. I am a belly dancer and people find it hard to believe because I often dress in street wear. I have been taking photographs of people performing different dance genres and then using Photoshop, to superimpose my subjects on to very arbitrary backgrounds with no relevance to their performances. I am looking at the links and ‘non-links’ with context and subject. I’ll probably print the work on canvas because I have never done that before... TAG: Landen you have a keen obsession with design. What is it about illustration that speaks to you? Talk us though the process to coming up with a design you are comfortable with. Landen Nothnagel: It’s about taking real life, my dreams and imagination and translating it to a world on computers-it about getting people to step into my world!’ We see the ordinary everyday- illustration is about stepping into a fantasy world. There is a lot of research involved. I often start working, sketching on paper just playing with various ideas. Then I project them onto my computer, vectorise them, neaten them up. Research is very important in the industry. TAG: In your view what is the difference between fine art and illustration. What are you working on at the moment? L.N.: Fine artists work mainly with their hands, I guess I work more on the computer. At the moment I am illustrating a comic book, to narrate the lifestyle of skaters. It is really based on my experience as skater. It is about turning things from the ordinary to the extraordinary, seeing things others do not normally see. I am hoping to use text in the comic. TAG: What is it about the texture of video art that intrigues you? Yerushka Chetty: I like the accessibility of the medium. For my final thesis at Durban University of Technology ( DUT), I read a lot on various film critiques, I studied the history of film in Bollywood, Hollywood…my concerns are with issues of identity, gender and culture. At the moment I am looking at thoughts in their purest forms and how the brain struggles to distinguish between past, present and future thoughts, creating an illusion of reality. I am looking to produce a video performance at the end of this particular workshop. TAG: You have a long relationship with photography. What makes a good photograph? Jacqueline Frier: For me it’s about capturing the moment, often feelings of nostalgia. A good image is visually pleasing and brings out the emotion of a building, person or landscape in a clear way. Frier currently works alongside fashion photographer Gavin Furlong. |
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