Usha Seejarim

Usha Seejarim was born in 1974 in South Africa. Seejarim earned a B-Tech degree in Fine Art from the University of Johannesburg in 1999 and a Master's degree in Fine Art from the University of The Witwatersrand (WITS) in 2008. She is a conceptual and socially engaged artist who is well recognised for her interpretations of everyday, domestic, and found objects such as safety pins, wooden pegs, irons, and brooms. Her work has a distinct Dadaist influence, and her compositions are the result of recurring acts of marking-making that allude to themes related to time, chance, space, and displacement.

Seejarim is arguably best known for creating the 2 m tall beaded portrait of Nelson Mandela that served as the backdrop for his funeral in 2013. She has created a number of public commissions, including Figures representing articles from the South African Freedom Charter in 2008, the red wings outside the Radisson Red Hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg, which celebrate women's agency through two composite angel wings that resound with ancient winged mythological figures and incorporate hundreds of steam irons, the type used by domestic workers, and the artwork for the facade of the South African Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2008.

Her work is held in public and private collections, including the Iziko South African National Gallery (SANG), in Cape Town, South Africa; the South African Foundation for Contemporary Art (SAFFCA), South Africa; the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Johannesburg, South Africa; Fondazione Fiera Milan, Milan, Italy; and Artbank, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Her awards include the SCAC Marestaing & The Secular Solidarity Association Sculpture Award at the Dak'Art: African Contemporary Art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal, and the Tomorrow's/Today Prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa, both in 2018; the Ampersand Fellowship Award, New York City, USA, in 2003; and the inaugural MTN New Contemporaries Exhibition Award (joint winner) in 2001, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Seejarim has participated in a number of group exhibitions including The Red Hour curated by Simon Njami, for the Dak'Art: African Contemporary Art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal in 2018; Twenty: Art in the Time of Democracy, a travelling exhibition, curated by Gordon Froud and presented at the University of Johannesburg in Johannesburg, South Africa, Turchin Centre in Boone, USA and the Beijing Biennale in Beijing, China in 2015.

The South African artist continues to live and work in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sources:

ttps://latitudes.online/artists/usha_seejarim [Accessed 14 August 2024]

https://nationalartsfestival.c... [Accessed 14 August 2024]