Davina de Beer
Davina has recently, successfully completed her Maters in Fine Arts at the University of the Free State. She works closely with her personal family history.
I work in oil on glossy paper, digital prints, fabriano paper or canvas. I focus on memory and the disintegration thereof, especially of private, family memory. All the paintings are portraits of my specific family members. I also paint over prints of family photos, working with the idea of the distortion of memory and various truths of the past.
The absence of women in the recording of family histories and in world history in general has influenced me these past four years to research my own family and to focus on the Afrikaner women in my family. I use various media (family photographs, oil paint, light sensitive prints and digital prints) to explore the preservation of memory, bringing forth the porosity of memory, but also the importance of the private sphere and of private histories. The discontinuities in memory layer various versions of the past which sometimes meet and sometimes confront each other – in this way the existence of only one truth is contested. By looking at family memories, other aspects of memory come across – conflict, absence, subjectivity, as well as the confluence of the public sphere on the private sphere.
Davina has been a participant in a number of group exhibitions including the Free State Contemporary (Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery), Bloemfontein Nagedagtenis (MA.FA exhibition, Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery . She was the student assistant at the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, and has curated various student exhibitions including the 2008 Masters show. She has also lectured part-time (painting) at the University of the Free State. Davina has also been a committed member of the artist in schools project, facilitating a variety of casting, printing, drawing and craft workshops with the students.
Information courtesy of the artist.