Two former Fine Art students have been selected, together with three other South African artists, for the prestigious 54th International Art Exhibition, 2011 Venice Biennale. The event began on 4 June and will run until 27 November 2011 in Venice, Italy…
Two former Fine Art students have been selected, together with three other South African artists, for the prestigious 54th International Art Exhibition, 2011 Venice Biennale. The event began on 4 June and will run until 27 November 2011 in Venice, Italy. DUT alumni Berry Bickle, a Zimbabwean national and Siemon Allen will showcase their work at the event.
The South African exhibition, titled ‘Ideal Narratives in Contemporary South African Art’, features four local artists whose work explores a range of realities, memories and fantasies. The artists produce imaginary truths or rather ideal narratives that reflect on South Africa. The Venice Biennale is an international forum for artists and curators to share and engage.
Allen said: “I am an artist whose current work is in many ways rooted in interests that go back to my childhood in Durban. I always loved artifacts and had a boyhood stamp collection and lots of records old and new that I would arrange in grids. I have also always been interested in media and newspapers – the particular combination of photojournalism and story.”
He uses a great deal of aesthetic choice and manipulation of source material in architectural installations and displays to show off his collections. His inspiration comes from discovering rare records or reading about a piece of lost history and the incredible range of mass produced graphic artworks over time.
Allen is fond of making digital prints, has a searchable data base web site as a project and builds large-scale display structures using a range of construction techniques. He also works with non-traditional materials and has done quite a few pieces using videotape as a raw material to weave large panels that are then configured into room-size spaces.
“I feel very honored that people find the projects interesting and join me in my fascination with history as told through these visual artifacts. I am grateful that my projects allow me to dig up and share things that might otherwise be lost or overlooked,” he said.
Allen described DUT as an excellent place to learn how to merge technical skills with conceptual rigor. Upon completion of his studies he worked as an art fabricator. He said his skills served him well during his teaching career and in his involvement with fabricating large scale sculptures with his wife, sculptor Kendall Buster, and in realising his own work.
His collection is currently on exhibition at the Kranert Museum in Illinois, United States and will be on show at Goodman in Cape Town in September.
