JODY PAULSEN Pushing Thirty

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Bridget Nicholson
6 years ago
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1 JODY PAULSEN Pushing Thirty Woodstock, 7925 T +27 (0) #smacgallery #jodypaulsen #pushingthirty #smaccpt

2 JODY PAULSEN Pushing Thirty (or) You ll Grow Out of It As his first solo show, Pushing Thirty is what Jody Paulsen describes as a millenial approach to becoming an adult. Beneath its playful veneer lies a nuanced meditation on aging that situates time as a material commodity inherent in Jody s production. Born in 1987, Jody will be 30 in October this year. He is the definition of a millenial; the generation born after 1982 who came of age at the dawn of the new millennium. Yet in this show we do not see a sentimental coming of age story, but are rather presented with Jody s means of understanding the contemporary culture that informs his practice. I ve never thought about making work that looks laboured Jody confesses, suggesting that his interests lie more in the intersecting processes of patterning and composition. In retrospect however, he adds that the works themselves reveal the love of hours of solitude evident in their production. These represent the past five years of my twenties he says speaking of his enormous collages; listening to podcasts, watching series and glueing spots. To grasp the productive impulses that sit beneath the pop sensibilities of his large felt-based assemblages one can begin by tracing the development of Jody s early work at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT where he majored in printmaking. His early exploration in repetition and multiples gave rise to the overriding sense of pattern that has come to be a distinctive marker of his work. Jody cites Cameron Platter and Julia Rosa Clark as early influences which helped him realise the potential of installative ceremony in his arrangements. Unlike his peers who at the time were experimenting with a clean, minimalist aesthetic, his early work presents the beginnings of an ongoing affair with maximalism where the material spills off the surface of each work, exploding into the gallery in a chaotic revelry that celebrates colour, composition and pattern. This genesis is an important part of Pushing Thirty because it orientates the thematic relationship between time and material that underscores the exhibition. But Jody is quick to point to the fact that the process is controlled because otherwise you re throwing away your time. Therein lies the key to the exhibition; Jody s maximalism is about controlling the expression of his materials and not letting them chaotically dictate the direction in which the work moves. Now, at the brink of Pushing Thirty his material labour comes to reflect the consequence of time. It is not the subject of this new body of work, but rather the means that Jody uses to situate himself at its center. To merely see these works in the terms set by their surface would be to undermine the socio-political nature of their content. Instead it is necessary to see them as the extension of how Jody locates the self as fictional character within the exhibition as a whole. In Emotional Ninja, Jody uses this protagonist to explore the way in which millenials approach adulthood and relationships in your twenties where you fall harder but at the end you don t really change. Here we are confronted with an inner voice that parodies the millenial experience as a way of making sense of the emotional conflicts of youth. Jody is careful to emphasise that these works are honest more than confessional. Maybe you can call it sharing... but it s not Tracey Emin he says, adding that I m not the only 29 year old watching Netflix, mainlining Afghan Kush, sometimes afraid to go outside referencing the title piece of this show. This is an important distinction because it presents the flipside of millenials relationship to social media where people are far more confessional on Instagram or Facebook than they are in real life. Jody sees the work as an embodiment made in the spirit of now that reveals a parody of himself as the perennial millineal coming to terms with living and aging through this mediated existence. These are elaborate memes coded by experience and imbued with personal significance. I m not a political artist Jody maintains, but sometimes I read The Economist or meet somebody that sends me on a tangent. Evidencing this is his series of illustrated coat of arms, which subvert the fascist LGBT laws of countries such as Uganda and Jamaica. Appropriating these insignia, Jody turns them into a utopian vision of a homotropical paradise that celebrates rather than derides sexual differences. Similarly, the celebration of the self finally comes together in his series of photographic compositions where the audience is given a glimpse of Jody s body in the flesh. Adorned by his hand-cut fabrics, in a felt filled jungle, we see his figure abstractly performing the character described in his textual murals. Inhabiting the space between object and subject, his form now physically embodies the work as a living testament of time. Pushing Thirty is the first installment in the chronicle of a self professed millenial and his negotiation with the boundaries of age and the limits of making. By Matthew Partridge Jody Paulsen was born in 1987 in Cape Town, South Africa, where he continues to live and work. He specialised in Print Media during his undergraduate degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, at the University of Cape Town. On graduating in 2009, Paulsen was awarded the Katherine Harris Print Cabinet Award. In 2012 Jody Paulsen received the Jules Kramer Departmental Scholarship Award and went on to complete his Masters Degree with his solo exhibition What You Want, Whenever You Want It in Notable group exhibitions include: After the Thrill is Gone: Fashion, Politics and Culture in Contemporary South African Art, curated by Andrew Hennlich, a traveling exhibition starting at Richmond Centre for Visual Arts, Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, USA, in ; Anyway, The Wind Blows in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2015; The Night Show in 2011 in Cape Town, South Africa; and the Sasol New Signatures Award in Pretoria, South Africa in He exhibited at MiArt in 2014, Milan, Italy and START Art Fair in 2014 in London, UK. He has also collaborated with fashion designer Adriaan Kuiters presenting numerous collections at Mercedes-Benz Cape Town Fashion Week and, in, as part of the Generation Africa fashion show at Pitti Uomo in Florence, Italy. Recent group exhibitions include UPSTART/STARTUP at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg in, as well as Young, Gifted and Black, curated by Hank Willis Thomas in Johannesburg, South Africa, in Paulsen is currently continuing his collaboration with fashion designer, Kuiters, and presented numerous collections in both Europe and South Africa this year.

3 Pushing Thirty 230 x 290 cm

4 Snake Pit 207 x 156 cm

5 Bad Homosexual x 234 cm

6 Future Lovers White Shirts and Black Ties 187 x 237 cm

7 The Love Algorith x 353 cm

8 Crimes of Faggotry 184 x 159 cm

9 Donatella ver-jay-zee x 225 cm

10 Fugly Flower 120 x 102 cm

11 Heartburn 193 x 173

12 Homoexotica: The Real Housewives of Disney 287 x 425 cm

13 Uganda 185 x 169 cm

14 Homotropica 194 x 185 cm

15 Love Comes 169 x 180 cm

16 Marni s Boyzclub x 186 cm

17 Wallflower at the Orgy x 144 cm

18 Mirror Man (Green) 168 x 188 cm

19 Mirror Man (Red) 168 x 188 cm

20 Burberry Birds Burberry Carrier Bag in Bronze with Exotic Birds 59 cm (h)

21 The Flaneur Jimmy Choo Carrier Bag in Bronze with Exotic Bird 81 cm (h)

22 The Museum Tote Saint Laurent Tote in Bronze with Exotic Birds 61 cm (h)

23 Flaneur 2017 Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper 59.5 x 84 cm Ed 1/5 +2AP

24 Mirror Men 2017 Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper 59.5 x 84 cm Ed 1/5 +2AP

25 Self-Portrait with Flowers 2017 Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper 59.5 x 84 cm Ed 1/5 +2AP

26 Self Portrait (III) 2017 Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper 59.5 x 84 cm Ed 1/5 +2AP

27 Self Portrait (II) 2017 Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper 59.5 x 84 cm Ed 1/5 +2AP

28 Self Portrait (I) 2017 Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper 59.5 x 84 cm Ed 1/5 +2AP

29 Abstract (I) 2017 Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper 59.5 x 84 cm Ed 1/5 +2AP

30 Abstract (II) 2017 Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper 59.5 x 84 cm Ed 1/5 +2AP

31 The Cruiser (Floral) x 149 cm

32 The Cruiser (Jungle) x 182 cm

33 We ll never have Jamaica 200 cm (d)

34 The African Fag Map x 315 cm

35 The Singleton Years (Blue) 187 x 171 cm

36 The Singleton Years (Red) 187 x 171 cm

37 The Singleton Years (Yellow) 187 x 171 cm

38 Tinderella 147 x 114 cm

39 Prints Charming 139 x 138 cm

40 Love Fern 121 x 102 cm R (Sold ) (Selling price inclusive of VAT)

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JUNE 2017 LADUMA NGXOKOLO - www.maxhosa.co.za FASHION DESIGNER CULTURAL ICON INNOVATOR LADUMA NGXOKOLO is one of Africa's finest, most innovative fashion designers, cultural icons and an innovative entrepreneur.