jeanne hoffman

2009/05/05

Marja=berry

Kalevala - Canto 50: The Marjatta cycle: An allegory of the Christianizarion of Finland. Maid Marjatta falls pregnant after eating a lingonberry (marja - Finnish for berry- is a reference to Maria). She gives birth to a son. Since the son has been born out of wedlock, Väinämöinen sentences him to be killed. The infant boy then begins to speak and demands Ukko as his judge. After the infant has witnessed sad details of Väinämöinen's own past and of Väinämöinen's own culpability, Ukko declares the young infant boy as the King of Karelia. In the end Väinämöinen exits the material world, but leaves his kantele (symbol for poetry and literary arts) as heirloom for Finns.

2009/04/27

Where is everyone?

What happens to South African artist if dropped in the middle of Finnish farmland with a crochet needle, circle knitting pens, one blue marker, glue, scissors and one chisel?

I admit, this is a self-styled experiment. I was curious how I would react to 2 months isolated in a foreign landscape.

Draw, walk, knit, eat lingonberries, eat smoked salmon, eat hard dark rye bread that exhausts your jaw muscles, make sauna, draw, crochet, watch Finnish television, use kiitos, hyvaa, no nii in every conversation, count to ten silently and recite the days of the week in Finnish.

There is a wood fired sauna here. The highlight of my day is to build the fire for the sauna - and see how hot I can get it. Personal best: 115°C.

I have, for some time, been chopping at a piece of pine I picked up in the sauna house´s wood store. I now have little sculpture that looks like a maimed russian doll. I am starting on another piece. It is birch this time. It smells wonderful when you cut into the wood.

2009/04/12

Drawings

2009/04/11

kalevala act 1 - Ice dipping

The Kalevala is an epic poem compiled in the nineteenth century from Finnish folklore. Väinämöinen´s search for a wife is a central element in many stories, though he never finds one. One of the brides, Aino, drowns herself instead of marrying him. Her brother, having lost a singing contest to Väinämöinen, promised Aino's "hands and feet" in marriage if Väinämöinen would save him from drowning in the swamp into which Joukahainen had been thrown. Rather than submit to this fate, Aino walks into the sea. However, she returns to taunt Väinämöinen as a shapeshifting water spirit. The name Aino means "only". In the original poems she was mentioned as the "only daughter" (aino tytti). 60 000 women in Finland has been named Aino.

2009/04/09

The Kartano

2009/04/02

Saari Residency, Finland.

I am here for 2 months to work on drawings and a series of installed objects - responses to Finnish landscape.

2008/08/12

Teaching

I am back in Cape Town, teaching third year drawing at Stellenbosch University's Visual Arts department.

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Curriculum Vitae

Tertiary Education

MA Visual Arts (2004-2008)
University of Stellenbosch
Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602
Tel: + 27 21 808 3052

Diploma in Project Management (2004)
University of Stellenbosch Business School, Bellville

Diploma in Digital Design (New Media) (2001)
Concept Interactive, The Waverly, Wyecroft Road, Mowbray 7700
Tel: +27 21 448-8451

BA Fine Arts (Cum Laude) (1997-2000)
University of Stellenbosch
Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602
Tel: + 27 21 808 3052

Current occupation:

·Artist

Other interests:

Kite surfing, Chinese Kung Fu, hiking, reading, experimental theatre and dance, gardening, flower sculpture, traditional women’s carfts and eco-design.

Educational Workshops:

·Collage City: Rethinking urban landscape - Drawing workshops, Rauma, Finland (2007/2008)
·Basic Printmaking workshops, Mills Street Art Focused Community School, Strand. (2005)
·French knitting workshop for learners (ages 5 to 10 years) from previously disadvantaged communities, Sasol Museum, Stellenbosch. (2003)
·Creative recycling workshops, World Summit on Sustainable Development, various locations across South Africa. (2002)
·Creative recycling workshops with Liza Grobler for Grade 10 pupils, Durbanville. (2002)

Artists’ Workshops attended:

·Lithography workshop presented by Inrid Ledent, Belgium (2006)
·Thupelo 2005: International artists’ workshop, Cape Town

Residencies:

2009 - Saari Residency, Turku, Finland
2008 - Raumars AIR, Rauma, Finland
2008 - Frans Masereel Centre for Graphic Arts, Belgium
2007 - Frans Masereel Centre for Graphic Arts, Belgium
2007 - Raumars AIR, Rauma, Finland
2006 - Masereel Centre for Graphic Arts, Belgium

Conferences attended:

·Drawing, another way of learning, 2008, Sint-Lucas Beeldende Kunst, Gent, Belgium
·5th Impact International Printmaking Conference 2007: IMPACT: Slices of time, Tallinn, Estonia
·Session iKAPA 2006 – Mzantsi: (Re)locating Contemporary African Art, Cape Town
·3rd Impact International Printmaking Conference 2003: I-mpact! Working Proof: The impact of prints in a social and cultural context, Cape Town

Public Collections:

· Frans Masereel Centre, Belgium
· Flemish Government collection, Antwerp, Belgium
· Hollard, South Africa
· Spier, South Africa

Collaborations:

·Collage City. Collaboration vir 60 high school students from Rauma, Finland (2008) http://www.collagecityrauma.blogspot.com/
·Afrikan Tähti: Digging for gold (Rauma, Finland) with Liza Grobler (2007) http://www.afrikantahti.blogspot.com
·Various site-specific urban interventions (Cape Town) with Liza Grobler (since 2004; ongoing)

Solo Exhibitions:

·Strange things travel with you. Whatiftheworld, Woodstock, Cape Town. (2008)
·Long words on a hot afternoon. Blank Projects, Cape Town (2006).

Two person Exhibitions:

·Room travel (particularly recommended for those who fear high cliffs, robberies and tropical diseases) Whatiftheworld, Woodstock, Cape Town. (2007)

Selected Group Exhibitions:

·Common Ground, Lönnstrom Art Museum, Finland. (2007)
·Paper and me, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town. (2007)
·Cape 07: Open studios, The Bijou, Woodstock, Cape Town. (2007)
·The Collage Show, Whatiftheworld, Old Biscuit Mill, Woodstock, Cape Town. (2006)
·Choice Assorted, Whatiftheworld, Old Biscuit Mill, Woodstock, Cape Town. (2006)
·Die opwindendste tekenuitstalling, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudshoorn. (2006)
·Illustration Nation, Whatiftheworld, 10 Hope Street, Cape Town. (2006)
·New Signatures, Bellville Arts Association. (2005)
·Absa Atelier, Cape Town/ Johannesburg. (2004)
·YDEsire (a collaboration with Liza Grobler), Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, an interactive art event coordinated by Public Eye. (2004)
·Battersea Art Fair, London (2004)
·University of Stellenbosch Staff/Student Prints, Stellenbosch. (2003)
·Gifted, Art-B, Bellville. (2003)
·Micro/Macro, Canadian Printmaking Exchange, Toronto/ Cape Town. (2001-2002)
·Vuleka, Bellville Arts Association. (2001)
·Section 52, Stellenbosch. (2000)
·Absa New Signatures Competition, Bellville Arts Association. (1999)

Art practice: drawing teaching travelling

Drawings on paper make up a significant amount of my output along with objects, installations and lithographs. My primary concern is the conception of drawing as a way of thinking visually. I connect the physical and psychological aspects of drawing with journey. For me there is a direct correlation between travelling across a landscape and the path of a graphic mark which transforms a blank page into an imaginary space: The path of a gesture of one's hand across a page can be traced in the same way we can map our journeys across the landscape of a place.

This points to the central theme of my work: drawing’s capacity as a cultural repository, which asserts the individual’s presence in contemporary urban spaces. I am interested in the sensual-emotional and socio-cultural dimensions of places. From this perspective place are a framework of life branded with personal memories. This play between personal and social, private and public hints at my interest in collaborative arts projects in the fields of education and interdissiplinary research.

I have been involved at various educational institutions during the last 7 years. Since 2006 my time has been divided between teaching 1st and 3rd year drawing at the University of Stellenbosch, travelling and completing my dissertation (Drawing near: inscribing urban spaces - 2008) towards an MA in Visual Arts.

Travelling, teaching and research has become an integral part of how I function as an artist. It provides focus for my visual and academic reseach, which explores the interconnections between drawing and our everyday 'journeys' in and through urban spaces.

Travelling and working in different locations moves between two poles: that of nest-builder and nomad. In my work I build temporary shelters for thoughts - wandering from one place to another, collecting observations, experiences and meaning. I tend to understand this notion of travel as a gesture that enables one to re-view one's position emotionally, socially and politically within a particular geographical locality. In this sense drawing can be used as a tool which allows the mind to wander along the more distant paths of memory and imagination to return with a more acute awareness of the present.

2008

This year was marked my my first large solo exhibition - Strange things travel with you - and the completing an MA in Visual Arts.

I returned to Rauma, Finland, for a second project with Raumars artists in residency programme. The workshops with learners culminted in an exhibition Kollaasikaupunki at Galleria Gylich. Next I spent 3 weeks at the Frans Masereel Centre near Antwerp learning some techinical things about colour lithograpy and making prints for a collection of prints curated by Norman O´Flynne (Cape Town).

The second half of the year a was absorebed in facilitating the 3rd year drawing module at Stellenbosch University´s visual arts department.

2007

During 2007 my time was divided between teaching 1st and 3rd year drawing at the University of Stellenbosch, completing my dissertation (Drawing near: inscribing urban spaces) towards an MA in Visual Arts and travelling. The travelling part was mosly research for the thesis which explores the interconnections between drawing and our everyday 'journeys' in and through urban spaces.

I spent a month in Antwerpen at the Frans Masereel Centre printing colour lithographs on their large offset press. During this time I slipped away to the Venice biennale for a week. I was also fortunate enough to attend Impact 5 international printmaking conference in Tallin, Estonia.

Toward the end of the year Liza Grobler and I collaborated on an urban intervention project in Finland (http://www.afrikantahti.blogspot.com/). The collaboration formed part of a group exhibition "Common Ground: Raumars 10 years" at the Lonnstrom Art Museum in Rauma. Afterwards I stayed on for the Raumars Artist's residency (http://www.raumars.org/). My residency in Rauma was dominated by workshops with school groups which explored relationships between drawing, communication and psychogeograpies. The drawing communication projects culminated in an exhibition of my collaboration with the Finnish students at Galleria Gylich (http://www.vuojoki.fi/) in May 2008.

These experiences have reinvorced my interests in collaboration and exchange. During 2008 I intend to focus more intensively on collaborative visual arts projects in education and interdisciplinary research.