ROBERTA RICH (SA) - NIE DENY NIE 2018 FRONT GALLERY:

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Nie Deny Nie is a selection of new works created over the last 2 years, during my time in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.

‘These works utilise text and archival material as a vehicle to consider and explore notions of denial and reclamation, particularly within a southern African “Coloured” context both pre and post Apartheid. The exhibition reflects upon historical practices of Apartheid South Africa – its methodologies of classification, forced removals as a result of the Group Areas Act law, as well as my personal relationship to these histories.

Drawing often from experiences of “cross examination” as a primary source of research, I employ Afrikaans, colonial terms such as Coloured, appropriated as Coloured™ in my work as a platform for discussing the complexities of African identity. These practices for me, act as a navigation tool through a complex field of rejection and reclamation of language, to find and ascertain empowering forms of self-determination and positive representation of African identity'.

Roberta Rich's residencies and research over the past two years in South Africa was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts ArtStart program, the Sainsbury Sculpture Grant, established in memory of the late Madeline Olive Taylor through her estate and The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists, both administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA), Assemblage Studios, TwilSharp Studios and Greatmore Studios.


Roberta Rich (VIC) - I'm Cornered

Opening - 5:30 PM - Wednesday, 7th October

Running - 8th October 2015 - 24 October 2015

I’m Cornered reflects on experiences of ‘race’ interrogation I have encountered. Presenting an appropriation of Adrian Piper’s Cornered (1988), I endeavour to re-visit questions posed by Piper, surrounding the contradictory nature of ‘race’ categorisation and construction. “Cornered” at times from both ‘white’ and ‘black’ communities, I similarly draw from my autobiographical position as a primary source of research, exploring how my South African and Australian identity could pass, fail and/or speak. This is attempted through the self-assigned task to perform inter-contextual identity positions (learning Afrikaans) as a means of potentially subverting and negotiating my personal histories of ambiguity and fixity via text and video installations.

Roberta Rich’s practice engages with notions of ‘authentic’ identity construction in contemporary culture. Rich responds to representation and conceptions of ‘race’ with satire and humour in her video, installation and text projects. Rich studied a BFA (2009) with First Class Honours (2010), and completed her MFA with an APA scholarship at Monash University (2013). Rich has exhibited at KINGS ARI, Seventh, Trocadero Art Space, No Vacancy, Techno Park Studios, National Wool Museum and Linden Art Prize 2014. Rich will undergo a forthcoming residency at Assemblage, Johannesburg, South Africa (2016).

www.robertajoyrich.com

image: Roberta Rich, Detail from R. Rich, ‘Appendix G, Ek is ‘n Hoek Vasgekeur (I’m Cornered), performance transcript’, from Oorspronklik, MFA Thesis, 2013.

Photograph by Alycia Bennett

Photograph by Alycia Bennett

Photograph by Alycia Bennett

Photograph by Alycia Bennett

Photograph by Alycia Bennett

Photograph by Alycia Bennett