Tabita Rezaire

Last updated
Tabita Rezaire
Tabita Rezaire - @marcella ruiz cruz.jpg
OccupationArtist, Yoga Teacher, Therapist
NationalityFrench
Period2015–present
Website
tabitarezaire.com

Tabita Rezaire (born 1989, France) is a French new media artist [1] of French Guianese and Danish descent, [2] "health-tech-political" therapist, and "kemetic" and kundalini yoga teacher. [3] She has presented her work at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, Arebyte Gallery, London, the Athens Bienniale, MAXXI, Rome, and Artspace, Sydney. Her book is Conscience u.terre.ine. (2022) [4]

Contents

Biography

Tabita Rezaire grew up in Paris and studied economics there for her BA, at Paris Dauphine University, doing her final year at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. She travelled to London, to study fashion and ended up doing a master's degree in research in artist moving Image at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. [1] She then lived in Paris, Mozambique, and Johannesburg from 2014 through at least 2018. [2]

In 2017, she was welcomed in residence by MeetFactory in Prague, [5] where she began working with sound. She trained in the use of gongs. [1] As of 2021, she is based in Cayenne, French Guiana.

Work

Rezaire produces videos and digital works in which she frequently includes herself. The body is considered a technology in her work. Many of her works deal with concepts of race, intersectional politics and Afro-feminism. [6]

Rezaire's video work Afro Cyber Resistance [7] (2014) denounces the Western-centric nature of the Internet, and the form of white supremacism that is exercised through network control. It describes the Internet, like the world around it, as "exploitative, discriminatory, classist, patriarchal, racist, homophobic, coercive and manipulative". Rezaire viewed it a "a pamphlet and a call for the decolonisation of the internet." [6]

Her first solo exhibition, Exotic Trade, was held in 2017 at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. [2] In it she showed Sugar Walls Teardown, Hoetep Blessings (both, 2016) and the Inner Fire series (2016–17), which included videos, an installation, and digitally produced self-portraits. She described the experience:

It was a beautiful experience to be given space and the means to exhibit a body of work that had animated me for years. It was very healing for myself: These works were transformational for me. In the process, I realised how disconnected I was from my body. It was hard to accept as I’m very sensual, tactile and confident in my sexuality, always dancing and moving. Yet, I discovered that I was completely disconnected from my body–I didn’t know where my emotions were. I could tell stories of my hurts, but when asked, “So where do you feel this?” I didn’t know. My work was also a journey of reestablishing a connection, a conversation, and also compassion with what is stored in the body, using the body as the technology that it is–to ultimately merge myself with the divine within me. [6]

Rezaire's work has been exhibited extensively including at Arebyte Gallery, London, 2019; Athens Bienniale, 2018; [8] MAXXI, Rome; and Artspace, Sydney.

Other works

Collaborations

She works with Alicia Mersy in the artists duo Malaxa, [9] based in Johannesburg and Tel Aviv. She is also a founding member of SENEB as well as the Johannesburg-based collective NTU, [10] with Bogosi Sekhukhuni and Nolan Oswald Dennis. [11] The latter group presented African plants that allowed viewers access to one's ancestors at Auto Italia in London. NTU also hosts an online platform with one access station in Seoul. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathaniel Stern</span> American artist (born 1977)

Nathaniel Stern is an American/South African interdisciplinary artist who works in a variety of media, including photography, interactive art, public art interventions, installation, video art, net.art and printmaking. He is currently a Professor of Art and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kendell Geers</span> South African artist

Jacobus Hermanus Pieters Geers, commonly known as Kendell Geers, is a South African conceptual artist. Geers lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracey Rose</span> South African artist (born 1974)

Tracey Rose is a South African artist who lives and works in Johannesburg. Rose is best known for her performances, video installations, and photographs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nandipha Mntambo</span> South African artist (born 1982)

Nandipha Mntambo is a South African artist who has become famous for her sculptures, videos and photographs that focus on human female body and identity by using natural, organic materials. Her art style has been self described as eclectic and androgynous. She is best known for her cowhide sculptures that connects the human form to nature.

James Webb is a South African artist best known for his interventions and installations incorporating sound. His sound installations place special emphasis on the sourcing and presentation of the sound clips, as well as the social significance and context of these sounds. Often referred to as a "collector of sounds," Webb is interested in the role that aural events play in our everyday life. The physical presentation of the work, including the installation space and the logistics of speakers, are also deliberate choices for Webb.

Mamela Nyamza is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, curator, director and activist in South Africa. She is trained in a variety of styles of dance including ballet, modern dance, African dance, the Horton technique, Spanish dance, jazz, movement and mime, flying low technique, release technique, gumboot dance and Butoh. Her style of dance and choreography blends aspects of traditional and contemporary dances. Nyamza has performed nationally and internationally. She has choreographed autobiographical, political, and social pieces both on her own and in collaboration with other artists. She draws inspiration from her daily life and her childhood growing up in Gugulethu, as well as her identity as a homosexual, Black, South African woman. She uses her platform to share some of the traumas faced by South African lesbians, such as corrective rape. Additionally, she has created various community outreach projects that have spread dance to different communities within South Africa, including the University of Stellenbosch's Project Move 1524, a group that uses dance therapy to educate on issues relating to HIV/AIDS, domestic violence and drug abuse.

Mary Sibande is a South African artist based in Johannesburg. Her art consists of sculptures, paintings, photography, and design. Sibande uses these mediums and techniques to help depict the human form and explore the construction of identity in a postcolonial South African context. In addition, Sibande focuses on using her work to show her personal experiences through Apartheid. Her art also attempts to critique stereotypical depictions of women, particularly black women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martine Syms</span> American artist (born in 1988)

Martine Syms is an American artist residing in Los Angeles, specializing in various mediums including publishing, video, installation, and performance. Her artistic endeavors revolve around themes of identity, particularly the representation of the self, with a focus on subjects like feminism and black culture. Syms frequently employs humor and social commentary as vehicles for exploration within her work. In 2007, she introduced the term "Conceptual Entrepreneur" to describe her artistic approach.

Hope Gangloff is an American painter based in New York City who is known for her vividly-colored portraiture.

Ann Hirsch is a contemporary American video and performance artist. Her work addresses women's sexual self-expression and identity online and in popular culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penny Siopis</span> South African artist from Cape Town (born 1953)

Penny Siopis is a South African artist from Cape Town. She was born in Vryburg in the North West province from Greek parents who had moved after inheriting a bakery from Siopis maternal grandfather. Siopis studied Fine Arts at Rhodes University in Makhanda, completing her master's degree in 1976, after which she pursued postgraduate studies at Portsmouth Polytechnic in the United Kingdom. She taught Fine Arts at the Technikon Natal in Durban from 1980 to 1983. In 1984 she took up a lectureship at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. During this time she was also visiting research fellow at the University of Leeds (1992–93) and visiting professor in fine arts at Umeå University in Sweden (2000) as part of an interinstitutional exchange. With an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University, Makhanda – Siopis is currently honorary professor at Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town.

iQhiya is a network of young black women artists based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. They specialise in a broad range of artistic disciplines including performance art, video, photography, sculpture and other mediums.

Nona Faustine is an American photographer and visual artist who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goodman Gallery</span> Art gallery founded in Johannesburg, South Africa

Goodman Gallery is an art gallery founded in Johannesburg, South Africa by Linda Givon in 1966. The gallery operates spaces in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and London. It represents both established and emerging artists who are regarded as having helped shape the landscape of contemporary art in Southern Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senzeni Marasela</span> South African visual artist (born 1977)

Senzeni Marasela is a South African visual artist born in Thokoza who works across different media, combining performance, photography, video, prints, textiles, and embroidery in mixed-media installations. She obtained a BA in Fine Arts at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1998.

Adama Delphine Fawundu is a Sierra Leonean-American multi-disciplinary photographer and visual artist promoting African culture and heritage, a co-founder and author of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora – a journal and book representing female photographers of African descent. Her works have been presented in numerous exhibitions worldwide. She uses multiple mediums to create works with themes about identity, utopia, decolonization, and stories of the past, present and future. She is a Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University.

RaFia Santana is a non-binary American artist, musician, and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work ranges from animated gifs to self-portraiture, videos, and performance to editioned clothing and electronic music exploring gentrification, the millennial mindset, mental health, and the lived black experience. They use the internet as a medium to share their artwork, empower black and brown communities, and challenge ideas of solidarity and alliance. She had exhibitions and/or performances at the Eyebeam, AdVerse Fest, SleepCenter, Times Square Arts, International Center of Photography, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Babycastles, Museum of the Moving Image and Museum of Contemporary African Disaporan Arts, Roots & Culture amongst many notable venues. Her work has been featured in publications such as Huffington Post, HyperAllergic, Rhizome, ArtFCity, Vogue, Teen Vogue and Salon. They have participated in panels, performances and discussions such as Cultured Magazine, "Late at Tate Britain", Creative Tech Week NYC, Afrotectopia at Google NYC, NYU, "Black Portraitures IV: The Color of Silence" at Harvard University and International Center for Photography. Their music is released through Never Normal Records.

Lebohang Kganye is a South African visual artist living and working in Johannesburg. Kganye is part of a new generation of contemporary South African artists and photographers born shortly before or after Apartheid ended.

Buhlebezwe Siwani is a multidisciplinary artist known for her work in performance art, installations, and photographic stills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valletta Contemporary</span> Contemporary Art Gallery

Valletta Contemporary (VC) is an independent exhibition space in Valletta, Malta. Established in April 2018, the gallery is situated in a 400 year old former warehouse in East Street, very close to St. Barbara Bastions and Lower Barrakka Gardens.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ford, Eleanor (1 February 2018). "Artist Profile: Tabita Rezaire". Rhizome.org.
  2. 1 2 3 douw (2017-05-17). "EXOTIC TRADE: Cultural imperialism, decolonisation and the Internet / Tabita Rezaire - ART AFRICA". Art Africa Magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
  3. ↑ "Fellow - Tabita Rezaire". Digital Earth. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  4. ↑ "Tabita Rezaire Conscience u.terre.ine". Les Presses du Réel.
  5. ↑ "MeetFactory - Artists-in-Residence". www.meetfactory.cz. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Nestor, Hattie (31 January 2018). "Tabita Rezaire: 'Reclamation allowed me to glow into my blackness, womanhood and queerness'". Studio International Foundation.
  7. ↑ Rezaire, Tabita (December 2014). "Afro cyber resistance: South African Internet art". Technoetic Arts a Journal of Speculative Research. 12 (2) – via Researchgate.
  8. ↑ Selvin, Claire (1 October 2018). "Here's the Artist List for the 2018 Athens Biennale". ArtNews.
  9. ↑ "Tabita Rezaire (RA / FR)". Meet Factory.
  10. ↑ "NTU – futurelab/africa". futurelabafrica.org. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  11. ↑ Institute, Dutch Art. "Tabita Rezaire". dai. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.