Past Residents
Brendan Van Hek
Brendan Van Hek works predominantly in the field of installations. These vary in tone and scale, shifting from minimal or industrial to lush and colorful. His work is influenced by popular culture, literature and the diverse, conflicting and varied sources that affect cultural producers today. Van Hek’s work emerges from elaborate narratives based on the artist’s personal history, fiction or cultural politics. Through these narratives, the artist explores the concepts of race, religion and masculinity, often looking at the social politics around these issues. Van Hek works with materials such as neon, mirror, glass, metal and disco balls. He manipulates the elemental properties of these materials in order to extend and often negate their symbolic potential.
Brendan Van Hek (born 1968, Perth, Western Australia) studied at Curtin University of Technology, Bentley, Western Australia, graduating in 2001. He has exhibited nationally in Australia in various group exhibitions including: Neon, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney; NEW11, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; remix, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. His solo exhibitions include; Some kind of love story, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney; A certain slant of light, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth. He has also developed artwork for a number of public art commissions.
Brendan Van Hek, Lead Heart, 2007, Blue neon and graphite powder, Dimensions variable.
Brendan Van Hek, The Person Who Cried a Million Tears, 2011, Disco balls, white neon, mirrors, glass, and spray paint, Dimensions variable.
Brendan Van Hek, Some Kind of Love Story, 2011, Neon and steel.
Brendan Van Hek, Daydreamer, 2009, Disco balls, mirrors, permanent marker, aluminum, and mirrors, 118 × 236 in. (299.72 × 599.44 cm).
Brendan Van Hek, Untitled, 2010, Hand blown neon and acrylic dish, cables and transformers, 87 × 24 in. (220.98 × 60.96 cm).
Residents from Australia
Past Resident2012: Aeroplastics Contemporary
Frances Goodman
Frances Goodman creates atmospheric and immersive sound pieces that cross the boundaries between visual and media arts and unveil everyday routines, obsessions and social interactions. Her works, presented as installations and sculptures, are influenced by South African society and the countries in which she has undertaken residencies. Goodman’s art focuses specifically on the subject of middle class experience and prejudices; looking at everyday obsessions and superficial behavior (such as fanatic exercise culture and conventions of marriage and beauty) she explores the way individuals respond to our contemporary, highly materialistic society and the idiosyncratic coping mechanisms they develop. Her works reflects a morbid ambiguity of excess and loss; a dislocation between appearance and truth. ‘Beautiful’ or seductive objects, environments and installations are used as a ruse to obscure the primary subject matter, which is often dark, complicated and messy.
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Frances Goodman (born 1975) studied Fine Art at Wits University, Johannesburg. After graduating with an MA at Goldsmiths College, London in 2000, she lived in Antwerp until 2003 where she was artist in residence at HISK. Goodman has given solo exhibitions in South Africa, Belgium and Denmark and has participated in major international exhibitions such as Lust and Vice: From Durer to Nauman at the Kunstmuseum Bern in 2010 and Sphères, at Le Moulin, France in 2009. She has been invited to do a number of residencies, including The Foundation GegenwART Berne, Switzerland, Recollets International Accommodation and Exchange Centre, Paris and Artist’s Work Programme, Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin. Goodman is represented by the Goodman Gallery in South Africa and Aeroplastics in Belgium.
Frances Goodman, Mind On The Money, 2009, Luggage, sequins, thread, speakers and DVD players, Dimensions variable.
Frances Goodman, The Dream, 2010, Satin, silk, sequins, beads, CD player and speakers, 312 × 312 in. (792.48 × 792.48 cm).
Frances Goodman, Fuck Boys, Get Toys, 2012, Riveted Mini Cooper bonnets, 60 × 371/2 in. (152.4 × 95.25 cm).
Frances Goodman, Xanax, 2009, Crystal Beads, pins, needles, steel and polystyrene, 39 × 23 × 19 in. (99.06 × 58.42 × 48.26 cm).
Residents from South Africa
James Beckett
New York City Council District 34, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Alice and Lawrence Weiner, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Hartfield Foundation, Danna and Ed Ruscha
2021
Berni Searle
Past Resident2012: Institut Français
Saâdane Afif
“Saâdane Afif ‘s work stands outside the usual networks of French contemporary art with a career and outlook that is increasingly international. Afif’s sculptures and installations exhibit a melancholic yet festive beauty. They delight in their own materiality and frequently incorporate light, sound, and movement, seducing the audience with a compact spectacle of son et lumière. His works demonstrate a whimsical poetry and robust sense of mortality; ghosts appear with regularity and there are repeated references to the passing of time and the inevitability of death, most clearly manifested in the recurrent motifs of the skull and the ticking clock. A fascination with music and music culture is also discernible in his works featuring microphones, amplifiers, and musical instruments. Many also include music as an active ingredient, particularly in the form of playlists or as outcome of an abstract translation of ideas. Since 2004, music has also influenced the creation and presentation of Afif’s work. At that time, he began inviting writers to create lyrics inspired by his works, a process of artistic delegation that he continues to expand today. Afif describes himself as a particle accelerator, provoking the imagination of others. […]” – Independent curator Zoë Gray
Saâdane Afif (born 1970, Vendôme, France) lives and works in Berlin. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Witte de With, Rotterdam; MOT and Mori Museum, Tokyo; Wiels, Brussels; OPA, Guadalajara; Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin; Documenta 12, Kassel. He is represented by Gallery Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin; RaebervonStenglin, Zurich; Gallery Michel Rein, Paris and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.
Saâdane Afif, Technical Specifications (Poster side A), 2008, Double sided screenprint, 90 × 120 in. (228.6 × 304.8 cm).
Saâdane Afif, La Répétition (Posters), 2006, Screenprint.
Saâdane Afif, Feedback Poster (D.A.T.R&R.C.), 2009, Screenprint, 435/16 × 5913/16 in. (109.98 × 151.89 cm).
Saâdane Afif, Anthologie de l’Humour Noir (Poster), 2010, Screenprint, 473/16 × 6711/16 in. (119.89 × 171.96 cm).
Saâdane Afif, The Fairytale Recordings at Schinkel Pavillon (Poster), 2011, Screenprint, 395/16 × 551/8 in. (99.82 × 139.95 cm).
