Tel: +27 11 834 9181
Fax: +27 86 552 8465
Email: info@bagfactoryart.org.za
Postal address: 10 Mahlatini Street · Fordsburg · Johannesburg · 2001
Physical address: 10 Mahlatini Street · Fordsburg · Johannesburg · 2001
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Archives
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THE BAG FACTORY LOOKS FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN 2014
Welcome to the Bag Factory’s website. This year we are looking forward to pouring out more creative energy from the studios. On behalf of the Artists’, Staff and Board of the Bag Factory we wish you a fabulous year and success in your ambitions, dreams and projects.
UPCOMING ON OUR VISITING ARTISTS’ PROGRAMME
For the first quarter of 2014 we will be hosting four artists from around the world. As part of their residencies these artists will be networking, creating and workshopping with artists and communities in and around South Africa. We are still confirming our fourth artist from the UK, but Thonton Kabeya (DRC), Anna Christina Lorenzen (Norway) and Alberta Whittle (Scotland) will be joining us in the upcoming month. The three artists are supported by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.
Thonton Kabeya
Thonton Kabeya will be joining us from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Recently Thonton’s work has drawn on the fragility of humankind and of children in particular, represented by the use of the egg shells on some of his sculptures and in his paintings. His motto is summed up in a transformation: “From Fragility to Power, metamorphosis of creation.” He analyses, with simplicity and candor, the thought that humankind remains fragile.
Thonton practices the techniques of collage, with the use of egg shells and candle wax in his work. In a recent work entitled NO BODY Thonton installed a series of portraits on a public wall, exposed to the environment. (See right.) As the pieces, exposed to rain, direct sun and wind, they changed, slowly losing their colour and form. The wroks, through their transition, questioned ‘are these portraits of victims of Tribal conflicts? Of war, rapes? Global warming? Economic crisis?’
Anna Christina Lorenzen
Based in Norway, Norwegian/German artist Anna Christina Lorenzen co-founded a studio-collective, Bergen Ateliergruppe (BAG) in 2008, which today houses 16 professional artist studios, a project space and regularly organizes workshops, shows and discussions. In 2012 the studios joined the Triangle Network as a partner by conducting BAG Artcamp, an international artist workshop at their Studios in Bergen in 2011.
No stranger to triangle workshops, Anna has participated at Wasanii in 2011, attended Networked, the International Conference for Triangle Arts Partners in London in 2011, and visited South Africa for a Visiting Artists Programme at Greatmore Studios, Cape Town in 2012.
Anna’s art emerges from a core interest in drawing as a purified and universal form of visual art, but she does diversify into other artforms such as performance art, printmaking, textile work and video/photography.
Alberta Whittle
Alberta Whittle is originally from Barbados, and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2002 with a Tapestry degree.According to AN Website – Artists Talking ‘Although initially finding the transition from student to graduate a struggle, bringing with it a burgeoning disillusionment with art and uncertainty as to the direction of her practice, the consequences of these difficulties were positive; the expansion of her practice, looking to different mediums for inspiration. Two years of steady momentum-building culminated in the confidence to finally “make things” again.
‘Apparent in Alberta’s practice is the permeation of political circumstances into the work. Media debate around Britishness, citizenship and ID cards led to a creative interest in these issues, through which she explored her own ideas of national identity, and her personal feelings of isolation as an immigrant living far from home.
‘Alberta’s attitude to being an artist is optimistic: “the variety and breadth of opportunities for artists today really excites me, and I feel more ambitious and positive about realising my goals”.’
Works for sale
The Bag Factory was privileged to be a provided a stand at the 2012 Joburg Art Fair with supported from the Gauteng Province. This year artists at the Bag Factory produced a series of 50cm x 50cm works on high quality canvas.We still have a number of works available for sale.
These works are viewable on the slide show on the top right of this page.The commission for the sale of these works will contribute towards our efforts to purchase and renovate our building.
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Reproduction prints available from shop
Original Artworks available from shop
