Nazeer Jappie
Nazeer Jappie (b. 1998) is an artist and educator living and working in Cape Town, South Africa. His work navigates imaginary and speculative spaces in which real world matters can be explored. These spaces typically frame themselves outside of time, and with subjects that are abstracted forms of real world representations. His practice spans across drawing, painting, performance, video works, and sound installations. The work investigates matters of death, war, apocalypse, deception, reproductions, and the digital age.
Jappie’s paintings often draw inspiration from current affairs, music, and poetry; making use of language in ways that create ambiguity and confusion or otherwise abstracting, subverting and deliberately censoring meaning. Cypress trees, shadows and semi-abstracted forms in isolated rooms or vast landscapes stand as placeholders for the aftermath of violence. Through this use of symbolic imagery, he aims to soften the reality of death and our understanding of it.