Gordon Froud

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Born in Johannesburg 1963. Graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in 1987 with BA (FA) Hon and a Higher Education Diploma. From 1982 until 1988, participated in various student exhibitions including the New Signatures Competition. 1992- 96 PPC Cement Sculpture Competitions. 1993 – 1997 Volkskas Atelier Award Competitions. 1994 – 1997 Kempton Park Art Competitions. 1993 until present, have curated various group exhibitions in South Africa and internationally. 1996 – 2002 participated in group exhibitions internationally including “Groundswell” – London, the 6th International Bienalle of Cairo, Egypt. 1997 attended the 2nd International Plein – Aire Workshop in Poland and the Ampersand Foundation Fellowship to New York. Between 1989 and 2003 have participated in more than 100 shows locally and internationally. 1999 to 2002 ‘Transmigrations’ exhibition has travelled to Los Angeles and Mexico and then went on a nationwide tour of South Africa. 2000 Deptford X – London. Cite des Arts – Paris, France. 2001 – African Window Museum – Pretoria Solo exhibition. 2002 – London Cow Parade. Solo show at Mind’s eye Gallery Pretoria 2002, Solo show at Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg 2002 and participated at the “Fantastic Rubbish”exhibition at the World Summit, Johannesburg. 2003 – Grime and Clean at Klein Karoo Kunste Fees, Oudtshoorn. Returned full time to SA in July 2003. Lost and Found 2 at artb, Belville Cape Town - August 2003 and Johannesburg at Merely Mortal Gallery in October 2003. Established gordart Gallery in November 2003. Various group shows in SA, Aardklop 2004, Group show at Oliewenhuis Museum in Bloemfontein. KKNK 40x40x40n- 2006, Aardklop 2006. KKNK 2007 curated and showed on 4 shows. Judged SASOL Wax in Art Competition, JAG 2007. Have shown on nearly 20 group shows this year. 2008 Completing Master’s in Technology Degree at the University of Johannesburg on the topic of Modularity, Repetition and choice of material as strategies in the work of selected SA sculptors. The main aim of this study is to see how meaning can be constructed through these three strategies. 2008 I have shown on more than 20 exhibitions this year including the Eskom lighting Competition. 2008 Commissioned to construct a 12 x 8m steel mobile for the Baragwanath Taxi Rank. 2008 Attended ‘Juventude’ sculpture workshop in Maputo – Mocambique representing South Africa. Judged SASOL Wax in Art Competition as Presiding judge for 2008.

1988 Merit Award for Sculpture – New Signatures Competition. 1995 2nd prize Kempton Park Art Competition. 1995 Merit award - Volkskas Atelier Competition. 1996 – 3rd Prize – Kempton Park Art Competition. 1996 – Merit Award – PPC Cement Sculpture Competition. 1997 – Ampersand Foundation Fellowship to spend 3 months in New York. Absa Gold Medal for contribution to the arts 2005.

Work in public collections: ABSA Bank. Pretoria Art Museum. UNISA Art gallery. Sandton Civic Art Gallery. Carfax Experience. Cite international des Arts – Paris. South African National Association of Visual arts. South African Broadcasting Corporation. Café Barcelona – Pretoria. Sydney Russell School in London. Dept of Science and Technology CSIR – Pretoria. Mobile commission – Baragwanath taxi Rank, Soweto.

PROJECT

Titles (1) The Holey Book of Alice
(2) Extracts of Alice
(3) Manhattan Unfurled
Medium (1) Found text and images reworked
(2) Found text and images reworked and edited
(3) Mixed media and found images on paper
Dimensions (1) 50cm x 60cm x 60cm
(2) 12cm x 12cm x 12cm
(3) 28cm x 676cm double sided concertina fold
Edition (1) Unique Artist’s Book
(2) Unique Artist’s Book
(3) Unique Artist’s Book + edition of 5 smaller versions printed on Hanemuelle paper
Price (1) R 1, 500
(2) R 500
(3) R 4, 500 or R 2, 000 for the edition

Books 1 and 2
The Holey Book of Alice and Extracts of Alice

A version of Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland published in 1958 by Splendor Books and illustrated by MAJARA has been the victim of interaction or intervention resulting in two 'new' versions of the original publication.

I made use of various sized hole saws and used these to literally 'edit' the book by removing circular sections of image and text. The result is a book object that can no longer be read as a comprehendible narrative since the narrative is interrupted. The book object becomes an interesting sculptural object whose three-dimensionality is enhanced by steel cables that pierce the pages and hold the book upright in the round, and allow individual pages to be seen or paged. This pierced book became the holey book of Alice, playing on the tradition of Holy books and the visual pun of a book of holes.

For the second book, the largest circular pages from the Holey Book of Alice were used. These were shuffled, centrally pierced and threaded through a steel cable forming a circle. The pages can be moved on this circle (thus paged) but are only snippets of the original and are thus not a complete narrative. Each page is a circular byte of the original text and image, forcing the viewer to try and make connections through random clues - the object becomes a sculpture with the book as the medium.

Book 3

For this intervention, I took an existing book of drawings of the East and West sides of Manhattan by Matteo Pericoli entitled Manhattan Unfurled (published by Random House in 2001) and I drew over the drawings, thereby creating my own imaginary landscape. Some sections of the original drawings were edited out with white ink and many other sections were drawn into with black inks, pens, charcoal, china markers and brushes to alter them. At some points it is difficult to tell my drawing from the original as the intervention appropriates the style of the artist and similar-sized marks and pens were used. At other points, the interventions are very much more like my own style of drawing and tend to float over the originals. The book is a concertina-folded one with drawings on both sides that measure 676 cm when unfurled. The book is bound in cloth and fits into a cloth slipcase. The original is signed by the artist Matteo Picoli and is dated from 1998 – 2000. It is countersigned by myself and is dated 2008 - 2010.

All of these books extend my interest in the use and alteration of found objects as material for the construction of meaning in my work. I acknowledge the authorship of the text and images by the writer and artists.