Janet Ranson

SOTA Selective

I live quietly in my beloved Cape Town, using research as a wonderful reason to walk on the mountains, in the wind among the fynbos, or to meander in the city centre like a gleeful flaneuse. I gather impressions and sketches, returning to the studio to stir up a mess and see what emerges. I embrace a society where culture is fluid and art really can make a difference in our lives. My background as a workshop-trained artist has always created tension between the individual and communal practices and functions of art. Our 'wannabienale' in Cape Town (2009) led me to more questions about the role and function of art in development, skills exchange and transformation. I write, teach, draw cartoons and make crazy and comforting clothes; I like to play with both 'high' and functional art forms. My themes are existential questions, social concerns, a vague sense of environmental desperation. I love both the philosophy and the materiality of art: drawing, painting and agglomerations of matter. I find drawing and painting are useful ways to tease out meaning from the chaos of information around me. I am tickled by human foibles, and like to poke fun at science, pseudo-science and superstition (my own included). Pools of paint seem to point to a zen-like place where all of this makes sense.

biography

Selected Exhibitions:

Solo Exhibitions
Half Light Alliance Francaise 2010
As Luck Would Have It 2007 GCG Gallery
Behind the Sky 2006 GCG Gallery
Abundance 2005, 38 Special
Breaking In/ Breaking Out 2002, Greatmore Studios
Emergence 2001, Greatmore Studios
African Dreams Porthgwiddon (St Ives)1994

Group exhibitions of painting and sculpture, Cape Town, St Ives, Botswana, Nairobi. Including Human.Earth, Cape Town and Potchefstroom, 2011, Great Walk and More, Woodstock, 2010, Who Are They Really, Cape Town, 2008
Works in private collections, SA, Germany, UK, USA and Botswana National Gallery.

2008 - 10: Teaching Visual Art, Design, Grade 10 –12 Icon Independent
2007: Wrote Art From Rubbish and Materials for Making Art for CUP
2006 - UNISA
2003- 6: Juta Investigating Arts & Culture (Grades 4 – 9) textbooks and teacher guides. I am most proud of my insistence on sourcing and using examples of work by African and South African artists in these books.
2001 Curated exhibitions at Greatmore Studios, 38 Special, Good Hope Art Studios
1998 – present:
Serve on Thupelo and Greatmore artists’ committee.
Attended international workshops in Cape Town, Malmesbury, Kenya and Botswana.
Facilitation of workshops for various institutions.
Write and design resources for teachers and artists.
1993 – 4: Penzance School of Art
1992 – 4: Tate St Ives 'Art's Up' workshops

interview

What is your favourite film of all time?!
Men in Black (of course)

What music are you currently listening to and why?
Winston Mankunku’s ‘Jika’ because it was featured at the Cape Town Jazz festival, because it reminds me why I love South Africa, and because it makes me feel young again.

Which living artists do you most admire and why?
So many: Naomi Frears, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Kay Hassan, David Koloane, Colbert Mashile, Minette Vari, Johannes Phokela,Jane Alexander, Nandipha Mntambo,and of course Marlen Dumas. They each have an individual vision that remakes the world for me

Which deceased artist do you most admire and why?
Pierre Bonnard – pure sensuous appeal, and he lived a real painter’s life.

Which exhibition that you have visited made the greatest impact on you and why?
St Ives Tate’s modern British painters – made me want to paint.

What is the question you get asked most frequently about your work and how do you answer it?
What kind of work do you make?
Answer:‘Personal, existential and environmental. Ideas from literature and my own observation are drawn and rendered in paint, multi-media or scrap sculpture.’

What/ who inspired you to be an artist?
A sense, from early childhood, that my own view was somewhat unusual.

Can you tell us about where you make your art and what if any, the significance of this location is
My studio is at home, as I enjoy being able to work at any time of the day or night. I do need company too, so I like to teach part-time, and meet artists friends to sketch, draw and TALK. My husband and children are also artists, so our whole home is filled with projects in various states of progress.

What do you like most about being an artist?
Endless surprises.

What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?
Horton, the life-size mammoth, made of mud and living grass, in the forest in Kenya.

What are your plans for the coming year?
Currently pursuing a series of collages about cross-cultural influence. These include musings on the delights of cheap plastic imports and gardening. Solo show of paintings by the end of the year. Projects with young artists.