MORNÉ VISAGIE
(b. 1989, South Africa, Lives and work in Cape Town)
Drawing on personal recollections and collective histories, Visagie’s practice follows a sustained meditation on the sea as a physical and psychological landscape. Memories of his childhood on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, are interwoven with historical facts, narratives borrowed from literature and film, and images from art and life. The sea – changeable, inconstant – reveals itself evocative not only of promise and peril but of sensuality and desire. It offers as imperfect parallel the image of the swimming pool and its attendant changing room, evoking a history of the queer body in art and literature. Visagie’s practice finds expression in abstracted interpretations of these motifs, where colour and materiality are primary.
The drowned men and dead seagulls, the familiar rocking of the boat, Visagie’s return to that place – these together became a catalyst to reconnect with the Island, with his childhood and identity, the swimming pool, sea, land, and loss. The Island revealed itself not only as a site of national significance but one charged with personal resonance, persisting in his memory as darkly dreamlike.
The past year has seen Visagie’s preoccupations find a wider resonance with global narratives of migrancy. Where his earlier work proceeded from his biography outwards to consider water as a site and symbol in queer literature, his thematic considerations have since extended to include histories of ocean crossings. Such crossings have been, and continue to be, undertaken by those fleeing war, hardship, and persecution, those who dream of safe haven and hope for a better life.
Drawing on personal recollections and collective histories, Visagie’s practice follows a sustained meditation on the sea as a physical and psychological landscape. Memories of his childhood on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, are interwoven with historical facts, narratives borrowed from literature and film, and images from art and life. The sea – changeable, inconstant – reveals itself evocative not only of promise and peril but of sensuality and desire. It offers as imperfect parallel the image of the swimming pool and its attendant changing room, evoking a history of the queer body in art and literature. Visagie’s practice finds expression in abstracted interpretations of these motifs, where colour and materiality are primary.
In 2010, I visited Robben Island for the first time since I had left my family home there fifteen years before, returning to the places I remembered from my childhood spent on the Island. Arriving at the communal swimming pool, I discovered a flock of dead seagulls floating in the water. The pool, left unkept, mimicked the dark green-blue sea on the other side of the wall. I was twenty years old. Soon after I visited, I read an account of two men, Rijkaart Jacobs and Claas Blank, who were drowned off the Island’s coast in the early eighteenth century. They were sentenced to death on charges of having a homosexual relationship, though the term ‘homosexual’ did not yet exist.
The drowned men and dead seagulls, the familiar rocking of the boat, Visagie’s return to that place – these together became a catalyst to reconnect with the Island, with his childhood and identity, the swimming pool, sea, land, and loss. The Island revealed itself not only as a site of national significance but one charged with personal resonance, persisting in his memory as darkly dreamlike.
The past year has seen Visagie’s preoccupations find a wider resonance with global narratives of migrancy. Where his earlier work proceeded from his biography outwards to consider water as a site and symbol in queer literature, his thematic considerations have since extended to include histories of ocean crossings. Such crossings have been, and continue to be, undertaken by those fleeing war, hardship, and persecution, those who dream of safe haven and hope for a better life.
Education
Current PhD, European Graduate School, Switzerland
2019 MFA, Michaelis School of Art, SA
2011 BA Fine Art, Michaelis School of Art, SA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 Fovntain II (Violet, Antwerp, BE)
2023 A Sinless Season (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2021 Featured Artist: Monumental Exhibition (AKAA Fair Paris, Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2020 BIG ART (Nuweland, Amsterdam, NL)
2019 The Last Colour to Fade (WITW/KRONE, Tulbagh, SA)
2018 Die Bloue Wis (Nuweland, Oosterzee-Buren, NL)
2018 Fovntain (Smith, Cape Town, SA)
2016 There are Gold Flecks in the Lapis (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2015 The Line of Beauty (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2014 Derek Jarman, 1994 (Brundyn+ , Cape Town, SA)
2013 Far from the sea, perhaps... (WHATIFTHEWORLD Cape Town, SA)
2011 Tryst (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
Selected Group Exhibitions & Art Fairs
2023 Zsonamaco Sur Artfair (Nuweland, Mexico City, CDMX)
2023 Winter (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2022 AKAA Fair Paris (Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2021 1:54 London (Nuweland, London, UK)
2021 BIG ART (Nuweland, Amsterdam, NL)
2021 Volta Basel (Nuweland, Basel, Switzerland)
2021 Art Rotterdam (Nuweland, Rotterdam, NL)
2021 1:54 New York (Nuweland, Online)
2020 PEEP SHOW (HOICK, Online)
2020 AKAA Fair Paris (Nuweland, Online)
2020 1:54 New York (Nuweland, Online)
2020 Art Rotterdam (Nuweland, Rotterdam, NL)
2019 AKAA Fair Paris (Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2019 Re-Imagined Realities (Open24hrs, Cape Town, SA)
2016 A New Wave (Southern Guild, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Rhinos Are Coming (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Concerted Efforts (West Space, Melbourne, AUS)
2013 Positive Tension (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2012 Context (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2012 Outside the Lines: An Exploration of Abstract Materiality (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
Current PhD, European Graduate School, Switzerland
2019 MFA, Michaelis School of Art, SA
2011 BA Fine Art, Michaelis School of Art, SA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 Fovntain II (Violet, Antwerp, BE)
2023 A Sinless Season (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2021 Featured Artist: Monumental Exhibition (AKAA Fair Paris, Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2020 BIG ART (Nuweland, Amsterdam, NL)
2019 The Last Colour to Fade (WITW/KRONE, Tulbagh, SA)
2018 Die Bloue Wis (Nuweland, Oosterzee-Buren, NL)
2018 Fovntain (Smith, Cape Town, SA)
2016 There are Gold Flecks in the Lapis (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2015 The Line of Beauty (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2014 Derek Jarman, 1994 (Brundyn+ , Cape Town, SA)
2013 Far from the sea, perhaps... (WHATIFTHEWORLD Cape Town, SA)
2011 Tryst (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
Selected Group Exhibitions & Art Fairs
2023 Zsonamaco Sur Artfair (Nuweland, Mexico City, CDMX)
2023 Winter (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2022 AKAA Fair Paris (Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2021 1:54 London (Nuweland, London, UK)
2021 BIG ART (Nuweland, Amsterdam, NL)
2021 Volta Basel (Nuweland, Basel, Switzerland)
2021 Art Rotterdam (Nuweland, Rotterdam, NL)
2021 1:54 New York (Nuweland, Online)
2020 PEEP SHOW (HOICK, Online)
2020 AKAA Fair Paris (Nuweland, Online)
2020 1:54 New York (Nuweland, Online)
2020 Art Rotterdam (Nuweland, Rotterdam, NL)
2019 AKAA Fair Paris (Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2019 Re-Imagined Realities (Open24hrs, Cape Town, SA)
2016 A New Wave (Southern Guild, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Rhinos Are Coming (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Concerted Efforts (West Space, Melbourne, AUS)
2013 Positive Tension (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2012 Context (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2012 Outside the Lines: An Exploration of Abstract Materiality (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)