Colijn Strydom

Colijn Strydom


 

 

Colijn confesses

that his influences include Mesopotamian Art, Goya, and Reader’s Digest magazine.

Colijn remembers

  • paging through old copies of Reader’s Digest, where he first discovered art and artists.
  • being entranced by Mesopotamian Art, Goya’s ‘Saturn devouring his children’ and David’s ‘Death of Marat’.
  • seeing Diane Victor’s drawings when he was in high school, and how it opened his mind up to what drawing could do.

Colijn questions

  • his male Afrikaner identity, but with a touch of humour and irony.
  • rather than answers.

Colijn has

  • a Fine Arts degree from the University of Pretoria.
  • a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts from the University of Stellenbosch, where he has also taught.
  • lectured at Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT, and The Ruth Prowse School of Art.
  • exhibited throughout South Africa, including his latest solo show at 99 Loop in Cape Town; ‘Dwell in Possibility’ at the Centenary Gallery, University of Free State; ‘Back to the Future I’ at Dawid Ras Gallery; Investec Cape Town Art Fair; and ‘Cape Town Salon 18/19’ at the AVA Gallery, Cape Town.
  • had work shown at The Affordable Art Fair in Belgium with the Dyman Gallery.

 

About  The Bacchae of Buitenkant

The Bacchae of Buitenkant alludes to Euripides’ classic play, The Bacchae, which tells the tale of Dionysus, the god of pleasure, wine, ecstasy and fertility, who takes revenge on Thebes and its ruler, Pentheus. The Bacchae were Dionysus’ followers.

The play is a backdrop against which I explore where and who I am. It addresses gender roles and gender fluidity, which brings an additional layer of autobiography to the work. 

Themes of fragmentation and fluidity are reflected in a combination of image, text, tactility and performance, and a mix of media that includes drawing, painting and photography. 

The photographs arose from a desire to physically situate myself within the drawings and speak directly to my experience. The props featured in the photos are quite humble, and either made of cardboard or sewn by hand.

I make work to discover things, striving to be sincere and self-aware, and often turning to humour. These lighter moments are juxtaposed with contrasting moods and images to produce a dense and complex viewing experience.

More about Colijn here.