Nicola Fouché

Hermanus

MY - METAMORFOSE-PROSES (2016)

Type of book work: Editioned / printed work
Dimensions: 50 x 250 x 250
Media: Digital Photographic Prints on Epson Draft Paper, Hand-bound into an Accordion-fold Artist's Book with Hand-made Solander Box

Artist's / designer's statements

Accordion-fold artist's book in a handmade solander box, Handbound by the artist. The book and solander box are covered with the artist's studio rags.

My-metamorfose-proses and Hoofstuk II are a glimpse into my engagement with the physical process of painting, taking photographs and book-binding. I explored the analogy between the workings of these processes and the way in which I, as a human being, travel through and articulate my inner responses to my day-to-day experiences.

The artist's book showed itself as a way of gathering all these layered experiences; and the accordian-fold bind provided the possibility of viewing the content like a long, in-depth, inner-and outer journey.

HOOFSTUK II / CHAPTER II (2015)

Type of book work: Editioned / printed work
Dimensions: 20 x 250 x 250
Media: Digital Photographic Prints on Epson Draft Paper, Hand-bound into an Accordion-fold Artist's Book

Artist's / designer's statements

Accordion-fold artist's book in a handmade solander box, handbound by the artist.

Through painting I observed the distinctly layered nature of my life, each translucent layer adding depth to the next layer; the surface and that which lies beneath becoming inseparable. To express this layered experience I photographed the process of brush-to-board-to-turpentine and the accidental marks and 'mess' which these movements left behind. These photographic documents, highly layered in their own right, formed the next layer of my analogy; essentially portraying the ephemerality and fleetingness of my everyday life.

Layered paint to photograph and finally to intricately bound artists' books. The artist's book as object provided a way of gathering all these layered experiences and expressing them as a visual story; the accordion-fold bind provided the possibility of viewing the content like a long, in-depth, inner-and outer journey. The final analogy, like the very nature of these artists' books, is dependent on how you choose to view them; will you combine the various spreads to create an entirely new narrative, or will you unfold the artists' books and journey along their length, or you will you simply flip open the cover, stroke a page or two and then move on?

Artist Education 2012-2015 BA Visual Art (Fine Art), University of Stellenbosch, South Africa Exhibitions 2014 Bank Windhoek Triennially, Namibia. 2015 Barclays l'atelier Top 100 Exhibition, South Africa. 2015 Sasol New Signatures Top 100 Exhibition, South Africa. 2015 Visual Arts Department of Stellenbosch University Graduate Exhibition, South Africa. 2017 Post-Presence: An Instagram Gallery Takeover, San Francisco, United States of America Collections Work held in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Namibia.