Belinda Blignaut. A Girl is a Gun (from the Scarry Scarry Night-series). 2012 ongoing.
Blood on Fabriano. 590 x 420mm.
Emerging in the mid 1990s, Belinda Blignaut (b.1968) was one of the group of young Johannesburg-based conceptual artists whose work served as a commentary on the social and political uncertainty of South Africa, often in antagonistic or, at the very least, critical terms. Antibody, her first solo show, was held at Everard Read Contemporary in 1993. Subsequently, she exhibited at the 1994 Sao Paulo and 1995 Africus Johannesburg Biennales. After an hiatus of almost fifteen years, Blignaut returned to the art scene in 2009 and participated in a few local projects as well as two important international exhibitions, No Government No Cry (2011) and Newtopia: The State of Human Rights (2012). In 2012 she also curated the group show, A Shot To The Arse, at the Michaelis Galleries in Cape Town.
Twenty years after her first, blank projects is proud to host BLOWN, the much awaited second solo exhibition by Belinda Blignaut.
Through a varied series of works and actions created and documented over several years, Belinda Blignaut has been processing issues around social constraint and transformation, with the body at the centre of all; an emotional response to a political world.
Adapting available materials and processing immediate surroundings, she hopes to translate the ways we cope. Her work is often body canvas, a quiet visceral investigation into violence through action and documentation.
Surfacing in blown is a desire to resist the effects of institutionalized culture and the constructs of sophistication we have become - how good we are at concealing messiness, the natural body, and intuition.
It is significant that BLOWN is the most extensive showing of Blignaut's work since her absence from the art world for over a decade. The exhibition will include seminal works from the mid 90's as well as a more recent survey of her production.
That Blignaut is practicing now, for the first time since the beginnings of this country's democracy, suggests that there is a revived urgency for protest. In her own words, "I've come to believe we have one story to tell and keep finding different ways of telling it."
Twenty years after her first, blank projects is proud to host BLOWN, the much awaited second solo exhibition by Belinda Blignaut.
Through a varied series of works and actions created and documented over several years, Belinda Blignaut has been processing issues around social constraint and transformation, with the body at the centre of all; an emotional response to a political world.
Adapting available materials and processing immediate surroundings, she hopes to translate the ways we cope. Her work is often body canvas, a quiet visceral investigation into violence through action and documentation.
Surfacing in blown is a desire to resist the effects of institutionalized culture and the constructs of sophistication we have become - how good we are at concealing messiness, the natural body, and intuition.
It is significant that BLOWN is the most extensive showing of Blignaut's work since her absence from the art world for over a decade. The exhibition will include seminal works from the mid 90's as well as a more recent survey of her production.
That Blignaut is practicing now, for the first time since the beginnings of this country's democracy, suggests that there is a revived urgency for protest. In her own words, "I've come to believe we have one story to tell and keep finding different ways of telling it."
WHY I MAKE
BecauseICantTurnBackBecauseIUsedBloodSweatAndTearsBecauseO
fTheTearsBecauseOfTheBloodBecauseImTiredOfWaitingBecauseOf
tenILiveAndWorkInIsolationBecuaseThisIsWhatIWonderDuringTh
eRestlessNightsBecauseOfTheNightBecauseOfTheTimesBecauseIt
sTimeBecauseOfProcessBecauseToHurryProcessIsSlowSuicideBec
auseIWonderIfAnyoneWillEverSeeThemBecauseIhaveToWaitToBeIn
vitedBecauseICantAllowDoubtBecauseICantStopBecauseIWontSto
pBecauseArtIsNeverFinishedBecauseOneWorkIsPartOfAllWorksBe
causeIStillBelieveInTheManifestoAndManifestingItBecauseUbu
webIsASchoolBecauseTheArtistChangesBecauseTheArtistCanModi
fyAWorkAtAnyGivenPointBecauseTheStoryNeverChangesBecauseEv
erythingRearrangesBecauseOfChanceBecauseIWontBeAdjustedToS
ickValuesInLifeAndArtBecauseHumansMatterMostBecauseArtKnow
sItsLifeBecauseItProcessesLifeBecauseItsStickyAndMessyBeca
useActionShiftsBecauseArtIsAFireBecauseIStillBelieveBecaus
eItsTheOnlyVoiceIHaveBecauseIHaveSomethingToSayAndItBurns
