Johan Thom, South African Performance Artist
An important part of an elegant trip is the automobile, and car hire in South Africa is made easy and comfortable. Mobility in this country is necessary and makes for exciting adventures that are simply impossible on foot. There are enormous natural resources worth exploring, and an incredible night life in every town, and all of these add up to a memorable experience. The richness of the land is reflected in the people. With a deeply troubled history, recent years have seen some incredible changes that make for a society in flux, which always makes for a fascinating visit.
For the traveler on the lookout for some interesting local culture that might be off the beaten path, the work of local performance artist Johan Thom. His work is incredibly challenging in content and in form, and he mines the sensibilities of South African consciousness to make an art that is a series of questions and potential liberations.
Having graduated from the University of Pretoria in 1999, he is now a full-time artist and lectures part-time at Tswhane University of Technology in sculpture, interdisciplinary studies, and in theory of art and design. The work of Johan Thom has travelled all over, in South Africa and beyond, and he has won many awards. He was also a participant in the Venice Biennale in 2003, and has very interesting works posted on youtube, thomjohan’s channel. The work is very provocative, and he uses his body to create works of immediacy and intensity. It is also extremely focuses on spectacle, with stunning images and vibrantly theatrical visual metaphors. He asks fascinating questions in his performance work as well as in interviews and formal discussions, and is an artist who is constantly looking at the border between self and community. Certainly he is one to watch in the coming years, for his amazing installation work, which seems to reflect the changes in South Africa’s sense of selves.