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Thelma Van Rensburg
Born in Pretoria on the 15th of April, 1969 1992 - B.A Hons. Degree in Physical education at Pretoria University 2002 - B.A Hons. in Psychology at Unisa 2006 - Diploma in Fine Arts, Tshwane University of Technology 2007 - B Tech Fine Arts degree; focusing on the Post modern Identity. Exhibitions:
THE CONCEPT OF THE WORK Where does the self reside and which self does it represent? My work deals with the postmodern identity and the self. The self as masquerade, image and surface effect The performance artist ORLAN says: Skin is deceiving... in life, one only has one's skin...there is a bad exchange in human relations because one never is what one has...I have the skin of an angel, but I am a jackal...the skin of a crocodile, but I am a puppy, the skin of a black person, but I am white, the skin of a woman, but I am a man; I never have the skin of what I am. There is no exception to the rule because I am never what I have(O'Bryan 2007:3). My work explores the malady of fit between identity and image as well as the lack of fit between body and self as described in this quote of Orlan. In the words of Jean-Francois Lyotard: The postmodern would be that which, in the modern, put forward the unpresentable in presentation itself; that which denies itself the solace of good forms, the consensus of a taste which would make it possible to share collectively the nostalgia for the unattainable; that which searches for new presentations, not in order to enjoy them but in order to import a stronger sense of the unpresentable...let us wage war on totality, let us be witnesses to the unpresentable; l et us activate the differences (O'Bryan 2007:4). I therefore also try to explore the unpresentable in presentation as related to identity and gender. The self as masquerade, image and surface effect. Baudrillard's (2007:1) explains the image in his philosophical treatise Simulacra and Simulation (1981) according to four stages: In the first case, the image is a good appearance-representation is of the sacramental order. In the second, it is an evil appearance-it is of the order of maleficence. In the third, it plays at being an appearance-it is of the order of sorcery. In the fourth it is no longer of the order of appearances, but of simulation. In Tseelon’s (2001) book Masquerade and Identities she analyzes masquerade, as an extension and fundamental phenomena of identity. According to her the Oxford English dictionary does not make much distinction between mask, disguise and masquerade in intention or definition (Tseelon 2001:2). According to Tseelon (2001:2): The mask is partial covering; disguise is full covering; masquerade is deliberate covering. The mask hints; disguise erases from view; masquerade overstates. The mask is an accessory; disguise is a portrait; masquerade is a caricature...Indeed even in the dictionary definitions, the word 'disguise' appears in all three. Therefore, masquerade, mask and disguise all share similarities that become obvious 'through a dialectic of concealing and revealing' (Tseelon 2001:3). Tseelon (2001:3) concludes that the masquerade: ...calls attention to such fundamental issues as the nature of identity, the truth of identity, the stability of identity categories and the relationship between supposed identity and its outward manifestations (or essence and appearance). PRESS: Exploration of the 'self' without resolution Pretoria News, February 15, 2008 Edition 1 Runette Kruger Exhibition: Us + I Venue: Fried Contemporary Gallery, Charles Street Dates: Until March 1 In the exhibition Us + I, on show at the Fried Contemporary Gallery, a group of young artists have set about exploring notions relating to the self, in all its complexity, mystery and banality. The artists, each in their own way, highlight the multiplicity and contradiction inherent in the overarching spectre of "self". The distorted images by Thelma van Rensburg show the eerily manipulated figure of a child-woman in canvas after canvas. The images are identical - (sharing a common "identity", if only externally), but present the hidden aspects of psychic turmoil which bubbles under the surface. Relating these child-women to feminist artist Orlan's statement "I never have the skin of what I am", Marais explores the fertile if disconcerting gap between perceived and realised identity as it relates to gender. Back |
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