Tuesday, June 12, 2012

... mr floating signifier and the deadboyz.

The Death of Beiruth #1
2009
Matt light-jet print
74cm x 107cm
Photography: Oliver Kruger
The Death of Beiruth #2
2009
Matt light-jet print
74cm x 107cm
Photography: Oliver Kruger


Deadboyz Auto Exotica #1 
2009
Lightjet print
74cm x 107cm
Photographer: Oliver Kruger 


Deadboyz Auto Exotica #2 
2009
Lightjet print
74cm x 107cm
Photographer: Oliver Kruger 
Deadboyz Auto Exotica #3 
2009
Lightjet print
74cm x 107cm
Photographer: Oliver Kruger 
Deadboyz Auto Exotica #4
2009
Lightjet print
74cm x 107cm
Photographer: Oliver Kruger 
Deadboyz Auto Exotica #5
2009
Lightjet print
74cm x 107cm
Photographer: Oliver Kruger 
Idol Death Masks Series
... Votive Portrait [umthondo wesizwe]
2009
Thread on tapestry canvas
75cm x 94cm
... Megiddo Marrow
2009
Thread on tapestry canvas
51cm x 59cm

... Jacob wrestling the Angel
2009
Thread on tapestry canvas
51cm x 59cm

Melitta Sphinx
2009
Thread on tapestry canvas, gunshot residue
51cm x 59cm

... Gold Face Sphinx
2009
Thread on tapestry canvas, gunshot residue
62cm x 91cm
... Oh Pale Galliliean! You Have Conquered
2009
Thread on tapestry canvas
109.5cm x 60cm

POST AIDS
2009
Thread on tapestry canvas
50cm x 39cm

05 - 29 AUGUST 2009
EXHIBITION WALK ABOUT SATURDAY 22 AUG 11H00 FOR 11H30
As a follow up to the critically acclaimed solo exhibition “…of bugchasers and watussi faghags,” Athi-Patra Ruga’s upcoming exhibition at Whatiftheworld, titled “…mr floating signifier and the deadboyz,” continues to expand on the themes introduced by the Artist’s chief protagonist Beiruith. Beiruth’s name is derived from a pun around the middle-eastern city of Beirut – a play on the theme of ‘Orientalism;’ but more importantly he is the illusive figure that qualifies the autonomous body against that of the sovereign state. Through the use of craft, performance, video, sculpture and photography, this body of work investigates ideas of displacement and dislocation in relation to constructs of gender, race, identity, intimacy and sexuality. Combining images and popular iconography, Athi-Patra Ruga interrogates the problematic concept of the Utopian ideal within a Western art historical context. The exhibition will be accompanied by a limited edition Artist monograph published by Whatiftheworld.

“The politics of context are at the heart of Athi-Patra Ruga’s artistic practice. Mainstream art production and criticism in South Africa is simultaneously almost obsessed with the semantic inverse of this, the context of politics. Artists and their works are often ruthlessly yet thoughtlessly checked and balanced against a schema of political concerns important (and rightfully so) in other realms of South African society, but suffocating in art. This literal conception of politics may be at the root of our veneration of the notion of context, a fixation so entrenched in our critical culture that it is taken up practically with a sort of sacred awe, treating the conditions of influence and the thematic agendas of a work of art as incontrovertible truths. But what happens to this system when the integrity of context can’t withstand the grind of the alter-contextual, when improper contexts come to weigh on the work so heavily that it becomes something entirely other than itself? Athi-Patra Ruga is one of very few artists working in South Africa today who dare to entertain this question. His work glosses over politics in the quotidian sense, only in order to show that there is something more profoundly political at stake: our sense of historical, physical, sexual and psychological place. ”

Excerpt from Alleys, Ellipses and the Eve of Context
By Anthea Buys

© Athi-Patra Ruga and studio [2006]

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