US Art Gallery in collaboration with the Cape Town Month of Photography presents an exhibition of work by

Thinus Mathee, Katarina Balgavy and The Stellenbosch and Cape Town Institute for Photographic and Multimedia Studies

Opening Friday 5 October 2012 18:30 │ Exhibition closes on 31 October 2012
US Art Gallery
Corner of Dorp and Bird Street
Stellenbosch

Thinus Mathee
MySky
The sky is often used as an interesting background element within the genre of landscape photography. Most often is just there, the background for the subject matter that can extend from the foreground to the horizon. The photographer explores the process of foregrounding the sky, with the specific emphasis on cloud-filled sky, to create a visual liminal experience which is somewhat "removed" from the typical landscape context. This removed and in-between state addresses the notion of spirituality, the inner and outer coexistence of the natural and the spiritual.  The familiarity of the clouds provides enough visual context to retain a sense of identification, whereas the removed, distant, vastness and lack of visual proportion could conjure a sense of awe towards the nonentity. The photographers’ understanding of his immediate, personal and finally created visual experience is informed by theoretical perspectives such as liminality and the sublime. The cloudscapes are digitally stitched panoramic exposures of cloud vistas which excludes any visual reference to the earth. They become visual representations of backlit cloud formation moments within the celestial dome.

Katarina Balgavy
In the Way of Dance
“Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself.”  Havelock Ellis.
Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death. Following the work of French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty the dualism and separation of mind and body is called into question as our primary way of existing in the world and is ultimately rejected in favour of an intersubjective conception or dialectical concept of consciousness. What is characteristic of his account of perception is the centrality that the body plays. We perceive the world through our bodies; we are embodied subjects, involved in existence.
References: Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Trans: Colin Smith. Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge, 2005)
Our subjective and objective perception is translated in our existence. Performance itself translates the characteristics of life and existence. Dance turns out to be a model path for thinking itself; dancing and dance-seeing are a kind of knowledge of the sensory effects of movement in general. For philosophy to reflect on contemporary dance means for it to exploit the resources of dance and search for an expanded concept of thought that can surmount the Cartesian dualism. This cannot succeed in opposition to rationality, but only in dynamic approaches to thought capable of opening new contexts of meaning. Performance as form of expression, art and discipline in a way of being. In the Way of Dance Series follows and reflects a Dancer in its Movements of contemporary Dance. 

Biography
Born 1985 in Vienna, Austria. Lives and works between Cape Town and Vienna. During her studies of Multimedia Arts in Vienna she was working in the Creative Industries in international Projects of New Media Design, Photography and Film. Now working as a Photographer in the fields of Contemporary Art, Fashion and Architecture. Her works are translated into philosophy researching the perception of spaces and existence. She held Exhibitions of Avantgarde and Contemporary Photography in Paris, Cape Town, Prague and Vienna.
 
 

photo: Henk Smook

Die Stellenbosch en Kaapstad Instituut vir Fotografie en Multimedia studies
The Stellenbosch and Cape Town Institute for Photography and Multimedia studies
Illusionscapes
The Cape town- and Stellenbosch Institute for Photography and Multimedia, offers top-of-the-range courses in Photography, Video production, Graphic design, Photoshop, Web design and Photo-& TV. Make-up.
The main campus is situated in Stellenbosch. The Cape Town Institute for Photographic and Multimedia Studies (CIPS) will operate from 2012 at Century City. Both of the campuses offer various courses in Multimedia.
Short courses and workshops for the working individual also available.

2012 will be the 17th year of The Stellenbosch Institute for Photographic and Multimedia Studies (SIPS). and was founded by Charl Edward Best in 1994.

Each year a different theme is chosen by the full-time students. Each week a shoot is arranged around this theme to help the students produce a versatile portfolio. The students themselves arrange the shoots (Including props and styling) allowing them the opportunity to experience the hard work that goes into organizing shoots but also the feeling of accomplishment with the end result. This year the students chose the theme Illusions.

For more information visit www.sips.co.za or www.ctips.co.za  and www.facebook.com/digitalphotoschool
email bestsips@iafrica.com or phone 021-8871938/ 0824409199

 follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook |  

Copyright © US Art Gallery, All rights reserved.
US Art Gallery
Corner of Dorp and Bird Street
Stellenbosch University
Our mailing address is:
Private bag x1
Stellenbosch University
Matieland
Stellenbosch
7600

Curator: Corlia Harmsen
+27 21 808 3489
corliah@sun.ac.za
website

  from this list |