Invitation to Gradex '11

Stellenbosch University Department of Visual Arts presents Gradex ’11: FOLD

Stellenbosch University’s Department of Visual Arts Class of 2011 are proud to present FOLD, a group exhibition featuring works from studio practice majors in Fine Arts, Jewellery Design & Creative Metal Techniques, and Visual Communication Design.

The opening reception will be held on November 25 at 19h00, with an opening address by
artist and alumnus Francis Burger, and music by Mr Cat and the Jackal.
Gradex is an annual exhibition of final year students, a diverse group of young artists engaged in critical visual practices. The exhibition is developed in consultation with teaching staff, yet it remains an entirely student-driven initiative, from fundraising to installation and catalogue design. Students organize themselves into teams to manage curatorial decisions, fundraising, marketing and technical installation requirements. The fundraising campaign alone has encompassed a range of creative activities, from fun runs to weekly lunch-a-thons, and the design and sale of collectible t-shirts and mugs. In so doing, the production of the graduate exhibition plays a critical role in their professional practice education.

This year, the class of 2011 have selected FOLD – as noun and verb – as the primary organizing principle and conceptual framework for the exhibition. As the curatorial team observe, “The fold produces a fragile and liminal space – a crease – where all practices briefly meet and interact. The crease signifies a dynamic meeting place that each student encounters daily within the department. It functions as an influential place of joining and separating; of combining and un(folding); a space of reference and reflection. This in-between space opens up for unexpected visual dialogues to be brought together – where new possible meanings may un(fold).”

The exhibition presents the culmination of a wide variety of individual, research-based explorations by 43 students. The interaction between disciplinary focus and multidisciplinary experimentation promises a vital and exploratory exhibition that tests the limits of creative research, as skills and positions fold together and fold back on each other.

The exhibition occupies the Visual Arts building, a historical, refurbished architectural space where the past and the present exist in dynamic interaction. The exhibition acknowledges this building as a shared space of play, production and display.

Visit www.gradex.co.za for more information, and join Gradex’11 on Facebook for regular updates.