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UFS final-year student exhibition underway

24 February 2023 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

web read more — The Annual Final-Year Student Exhibition of the Department of Fine Arts will be open for viewing at the Johannes Stegmann Gallery until 24 March 2023.

The Annual Final-Year Student Exhibition of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of the Free State is underway.

The exhibition, which is on display in the Johannes Stegmann Gallery on the ground floor of the UFS Sasol Library on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus, will be open for viewing until 24 March 2023. The exhibition event is scheduled for 1 March 2023 at 18:00.

Angela de Jesus, Curator of the UFS Art Gallery, says the exhibition comprises artworks made by the final-year Fine Arts students in the Department of Fine Arts. “Each student works with a particular research topic or theme of their choosing.”

This year’s exhibition features the work of Courtney Micaela Parsons, Megan Johns, PK Mohanoe, and Natley Bernardo.

Craft as art

Parsons, who is interested in the notion of craft as art, in particular transgenerational and traditional female crafts, has transformed a found bed into an art object with her work Stitching generational divides.

“The artwork was inspired by a copper bed that belonged to three generations of women in my family. In the artwork, I explore the relationships between these generations and the bonds formed, or the lack thereof, through traditional female teachings,” she says.

The artist feels that her artwork speaks to a wish she has to forge closer ties with her maternal line and nostalgia for moments not had. “The skill of crochet is symbolic of the skills that would have been taught by older generations, which are longed for in my own life.”

Constructing art

About his works on display, named Shoot our shot, Heavy labour, Artist on site, and Artistic labour, Mohanoe says that one of the main aims of his art is to address issues regarding contentious everyday working environments and the challenges that many workers have to face in South Africa today. These include inadequate resources, a lack of occupational health and safety measures, and being poorly paid.

“I am interested in this because I personally had to overcome many challenges in having to work part time while studying full time.”

“I explore this theme and compare it to the labour involved in artmaking and the creation process,” he adds.

Mohanoe explains that his art consists of materials that can be both building and art materials, such as wooden doors, stones, and metal. “I layer, construct, deconstruct, paint, carve, and destroy these materials and document my creative process to emphasise the intense labour that is often hidden behind a final work of art,” he says, adding that he hopes to evoke empathy and encourage appreciation towards this labour by the artist, the worker, and the labouring artist.

Visiting the exhibition, visitors can also look forward to Mohanoe’s Mosebetsi o Phethahetse (image below).

Content 1

Mohanoe’s Mosebetsi o Phethahetse

Mixed media on three deconstructed doors,

metal chain, artists conti suit, wheelbarrow,

boots, stones, bricks & drop sheet

Dimensions vary

Water and the subconscious

Barnardo, who grew up in the Western Cape, was surrounded by water in her early years and longed for it after moving to the Free State.

“I experienced a sense of loss, which initiated my need to return to and surround myself with water. The water is a place of nostalgia for me, where I can experience an overflow of memories and thoughts, because I relate to its fluidity and plurality,” explains Barnardo, who has on display works named Changing mid-stream, Submerged subconscious I, II, and III, Translucent memory, and Fragmentary waters I, II.

She says that the transparent quality of water becomes the vehicle that purifies and clarifies her understanding of her own subconscious mind – a place of reminiscence that allows her to cross the threshold into the subconscious and brings hidden things to the surface.

Also on display is a video installation, named Liminal Spaces between water and the subconscious. Barnardo says she blindly takes video footage underwater, which allows her to discover and rediscover things that were hidden from view. “In doing so, I allude to the latency of images within the subconscious mind,” she says.

Natley Barnardo,

Submerged

subconscious I,

digital photography, 46 x 69.5cm

Art and the self

In her art, Johns is interested in investigating how childhood trauma and abandonment can affect adult life and how it can be the source of obsessive melancholia.

Melancholia, Johns believes, is compared to the constant reopening of an old wound. “In my artwork, the artistic practice of drawing, scribbling, or scratching represents the ‘scratching open of old wounds’. The process of scratching or marring a surface is similar to how scratching a wound mars the skin. These scratches also speak of the long-lasting damage that trauma can bring to memory. I use drawings which are reminiscent of childhood mark-making and scribbling, combining them with old family photographs and objects associated with childhood play,” describes Johns.

She has on display digital drawings and collages on perspex, including Harmonious union, Mother and daughter, and Self-portrait.

There are also two collections of this artist on display, named Puzzle, and Abandoned objects series.

• The exhibition can also be viewed online here

PK Mohanoe, Heavy labour, Photograph, 60 x 90 cm

Natley Barnardo, Fragmentary waters II, pitt pencil on paper, 52 x 68.5cm

Megan Johns, Harmonious union, digital drawing and collage on perspex, 50 x 52cm

Courtney Micaela Parsons, Stitching together generational divides, Crochet and bed frame installation, 200 x 134 x 193 cm

News Archive

Student leaders 2012/13 announced

2012-08-30

Ready for the task - Sabelo Khumalo, SRC President of the Qwaqwa Campus and William Clayton, SRC President of the Bloemfontein Campus.
Photo: Johan Roux
31 August 2012

The 2012/13 elections for the Student Representative Councils (SRC) of the University of the Free State were completed successfully and show meaningful support for the changes in student governance adopted by students across campuses over the past two years.

The SRC elections at the Qwaqwa Campus were completed on 23 August 2012, while the elections at our Bloemfontein Campus took place on 27 and 28 August 2012.

The SRC Elections at our Bloemfontein Campus showed a voter turnout of 4516 votes (30.8%), with the elections at the Qwaqwa Campuses showing 1753 votes (46%) – both campuses reached the required quorums and the IEA (Bloemfontein Campus) and IEC (Qwaqwa Campus) declared the elections free and fair and announced the results as a true reflection of the will of the student bodies at the campuses.

The full SRC at Bloemfontein Campus now consists of 62% black and 38% white, and 53% female and 47% male members.

In the Qwaqwa elections, SADESMO achieved 46, 38% of the vote, with SASCO, PASMA and NASMO each achieving 30,23% and 8,39% and 14,26%, respectively.

The successful elections at Bloemfontein Campus show that the detailed transformation of student governance introduced by students at the Campus in 2010 and adopted by the university in 2011, succeeded in mobilizing greater participation of students in governance and representation. These changes in the main included a shift to independent candidacy for elective portfolios (12 seats) and organizational candidacy in nine sub-councils that holds ex officio seats on the SRC. Changes also included the establishment of student representative seats in faculty governance and management forums and the adoption of a reviewed Central SRC Constitution. Ex officio seats hold full and equal constitutional authority in the SRC.

Students at Qwaqwa Campus introduced additional portfolios to its SRC, including ex-officio seats for academic affairs, arts and culture, commuter students, Rag Community Service, religious affairs, residences and sports.

A joint sitting of the Campus SRCs will establish the Central SRC 2012/13 on 9 September 2012.

As a further opportunity for participation in and the development of student governance and representation, the current Central SRC herewith also announces its recent adoption of a student governance advisory programme, namely the UFS Student Elders Council (SEC).

The SEC is established as a combined programme between the Central SRC and the Dean of Student Affairs and will consist of selected senior student leaders from all campuses who completed their terms of office, apply and are appointed to the Elders Council by the Central SRC.

The Council will serve as an advisory structure to the Central SRC and other student structures in support of the continuous development of student governance and representation of the student body at the university.

The SEC will advise the Central SRC to be constituted following the constitution of the respective Campus SRCs.

The SRC members at the Bloemfontein Campus are:

President: Mr William Clayton

Vice-President: Mr Bonolo Thebe

Secretary: Ms Karis-Robin Topkin

Treasurer: Mr Pieter Coetzee

Arts & Culture: Ms Chanmari Erasmus

Accessibility & Student Support: Ms Gene McCaskill

First-generation Students: Ms Tanya Calitz

Legal and Constitutional Affairs: Ms Nokuthula Sithole

Media, Marketing & Liaison: Ms Neo Chere

Sport: Mr Tshepo Moloi

Student Development & Environmental Affairs: Ms Thabisile Mgadi

Transformation: Ms Koketso Mofokeng

Dialogue & Ex officio: Associations Council: Mr Anesu Ruswa

Academic Affairs & Ex officio: Academic Affairs Council: Ms Nombuso Ndlovu

Residence Affairs & Ex officio: Residences Council: Mr Johann Steyn

City Residence Affairs & Ex officio: Commuter Council: Mr Michael van Niekerk

Postgraduate Affairs & Ex officio: Postgraduate Council: Mr Fadeyi Akinsuyi

International Affairs & Ex officio: International Council: Ms Tumelo Moreri

Student Media Affairs & Ex officio: Media Council: Mr Jamal-Dean Grootboom

RAG Community Service & Ex officio: RAG Fundraising Council: Mr Jaco Faul

RAG Community Service & Ex officio: RAG Community Service Council: Ms Keneue Mahloana

The SRC members at the Qwaqwa Campus are:

President General: Mr S Khumalo

Deputy President: Mr P T Lenka

Secretary General: Mr D Khethang

Treasurer General: Mr S I Sithole

Media & Publicity: Mr S N Ntombela

Politics & Transformation: Tbc

Student Development & Evironmental Affairs: Tbc Academic Affairs: Mr T Molawude

Arts & Cultural Affairs: Mr T Nkohli

Off-Campus Students: Mr B Mtshali

RAG, Community Service & Dialogue: Ms S F Mlotya

Religious Affairs: Ms D C Khau

Residence & Catering Affairs: Ms Z Mzolo

Sports Council: Mr S Mngomezulu

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