Hope Street, Richmond, Northern Cape, 7090, South Africa, 2013
Item date(s): 2016
Abrie Fourie
Size: 120mm
Type: Accordion fold Sub-type: Photo book Theme(s): Personal visual narrative
Place publication: Berlin Publisher: The artist Exhibition 2017
Reference note: As an artist keen to explore diverse and alternative avenues, though I specialise in photography and digital media, I prefer not be bound by a specific genre. Rather, I see myself in broader more flexible terms, focusing on finding ways to best express or investigate ideas, experiences and concepts, whether personal, political or universal.
Working in response to the immediate environment and culture, my usual process involves collecting found-images from the real world creating visual metaphors that trigger shifts in perception. In this way the random, ephemeral and mundane are deconstructed and transmuted. Rather than arrive with a preconceived idea, I assimilate first-hand perceptions, and find inspiration through networking and interaction with a particular environment. Moreover, to a certain extent, my process undermines artistic autonomy and ownership. In this regard I enjoy entering into collaborations where the boundaries between individuals blur and expand into less predictable, more interesting artistic territories. Projects thus develop a life of their own.
In this way, I combine perennial themes and interests, with my own and others' spontaneous perspectives and experiences. Essentially I am interested in moments, forgotten, remembered or unnoticed, in images that are able to trigger the collective consciousness. My work is the telling of known and unknown stories, personal and public, visual narratives that speak about metamorphosis, rebirth and the ephemeral, infinite nature of life.
300 x 120 x 40mm
Oblong and Z-fold leparello with photographic prints presented as a slide show. The images from the book are panned across the screen. Single channel HD projection, no audio
Duration 33 minutes
Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/176805211
Password: Hope Street
Exhibition notes: 'Booknesses: Contemporary South African Artist's Books'.