Jack Ginsberg Centre for the Book Arts


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Alexander Opper

Johannesburg

BURNING ISSUES (2017)

Type of book work: Unique / sculptural book-object (one-of-a-kind)
Dimensions: 3000 x 3000
Media: Paper, milk, fire

Artist's / designer's statements

My artistic practice is based on a radical shift from making architecture towards its unmaking. From an earlier practice-base of doing, to one of 'Undoing Architecture', a practice of architecture-in-reverse has emerged. All my projects are situated in a productive field of tension between art and architecture. They decode and re-present architecture, space and power. Much of my work is based on Johannesburg. It wrestles with the expression and translation of line, boundary and territory, within and between this city's multiplicities of liminal conditions. These ideas manifest through a wide range of media, including language, installation, photography and video.

'BURNING ISSUES' addresses the stubborn hegemony of English in the ongoing South African (SA) colonial project and the glaring suppression of other languages in the current 'education crisis' in SA.

Artist / Academic / Architect

Education

2017 Affiliated Junior Fellow in the PhD programme of the Bayreuth Institute of Graduate African Studies (BIGSAS), University of Bayreuth, Germany.
2001 Master of Architecture (MARCH), with Distinction. University of the Arts (UdK), Berlin. Germany
1993 Bachelor of Architectural Studies (BAS). University of Cape Town (UCT). SA

Awards

2016 Achieved a C-2 rating by the SA National Research Foundation (NRF), valid for the period 2017-2021
2015 Recognition for Creative Research Output. The project Separ(n)ation (my 2013 solo exhibition at Goethe on Main) was submitted for recognition as creative research and was awarded four creative research 'units'.

Exhibitions

2015 Solo exhibition - Uitval: Unfolded. Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). Johannesburg. 4-26 March.
2013 Solo exhibition - Separ(n)ation. Goethe on Main. Johannesburg. 24 Oct-17 November.
2015 Group exhibition - Past Imperfect // Future Present. FADA Gallery. Johannesburg 24 March-1 May.
2015 Group exhibition - GROUP. The Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). Johannesburg. 8-22 April.
2014-15 Group exhibition - TWENTY: Contemporary Art from South Africa. Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. Appalachian State University. North Carolina. USA. 11 July 2014-7 February 2015.

Collections

Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG)
The Jack Ginsberg Artists' Book Collection
Various private collections