Bio:
Simon Gush is an artist and filmmaker living in Johannesburg. His work examines the relationship between work / labour, subjectivity and land. He completed a postgraduate certificate (Fine Art) at the HISK, Ghent and a MA (Sociology), University of the Witwatersrand and is currently completing a PhD (History) at Rhodes University. Solo shows include, The Busiest Airline in Africa, Stevenson, Johannesburg (2021); S.G., 59 Joubert Street, Johannesburg, Sala10, MuAC, Mexico City (2020); Welcome to Frontier Country, Stevenson, Cape Town (2019); Al final del trabajo, Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City (2018), After Work, Galerie Jette Rudolph in Berlin (2015); 9 o’clock at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown (2015); Red, Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg (2014); and 4 for Four, S.M.A.K., Ghent (2010). Biennales include: Biennale: für aktuelle Fotografie, Ludwigshafen (2017); Dakar (2016); Bamako (2015/17); Montevideo (2014) and Lulea (2009). Group shows include: Every leaf is an eye, Göteborgs Konsthall (2019); African Mētrópolis. An Imaginary city, Maxxi, Rome (2018), Meditations on Place: Four Perspectives; Four African Cities, Cleveland Museum of Art (2018), Recent Histories – New African Photography and Video Art, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm (2017) and Afriques Capitales, La Villette, Paris (2017). Film screenings include: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; ICA, London; Tate Modern, London; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin; Palais De Tokyo, Paris; and in a number of film festivals such as Sharjah Film Platform 3, International Film Festival Rotterdam, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and Visions du Réel
Education:
currently
PhD, History, Rhodes University, Makhanda
2019
Master of Arts by Research Report in Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
2008
Post Graduate Certificate, Hoger Instituut van Schone Kunsten (HISK), Ghent, Belgium
2003
Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Fellowships:
2016
Tierney Fellowship for Photography, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
2011
Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts Fellowship, University of Cape Town
Solo Exhibitions:
2022
How To Fix a Lift, Stevenson, Cape Town (in collaboration with Bridget Kenny)
Welcome to Frontier Country, Diez Gallery, Amsterdam
2021
The Busiest Airline in Africa, Stevenson, Johannesburg
2020
SG, 59 Joubert Street, Johannesburg, Sala10, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City
2019
Welcome to Frontier Country, Stevenson, Cape Town
2018
Al final del trabajo, Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City
2017
The Island, Stevenson, Johannesburg
2016
Nightfall, Stevenson, Johannesburg
2015
9 o’clock, Fort Selwyn, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
Workplace, Stevenson, Johannesburg
After Work, Jette Rudolph, Berlin
Red, Ann Bryant Gallery, in conjunction with Red Assembly, African Critical Inquiry Programme, East London
Red, ArtEC, Port Elizabeth
2014
Red, Goethe-Institut gallery, Johannesburg
2013
Work, Stevenson, Cape Town
2011
Representation, Stevenson, Johannesburg
2010
4 for Four, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunsten (SMAK), Gent
4 for Four, Stevenson, Cape Town
1st and 3rd, West, Den Haag
2009
Sidestep, Stevenson, Cape Town
Sidestep, Stevenson, Johannesburg
Film Screenings and Festivals
2021
Open City Film Program, Nu Metro, Johannesburg
Stevenson and Chill, Stevenson, Amsterdam
2020
Sharjah Film Platform, Sharjah
Rethinking Economics for Africa Festival, University of the Witwatersrand, (online)
2019
Simon Gush, Wilden, Wolf Kino, Berlin
Avant-Noir, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
2018
Affinities or the Weight of Cinema, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
2017
Avant-Noir, ICA, London
Focus South Africa, Vision du Réel, Nyon
Encounters Documentary Film Festival, Cape Town and Johannesburg
Matšatši a …, The Bioscope Independent Cinema, Johannesburg
63rd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen of Sound and Movements, Videobox Festival, Le Carreau du Temple, Paris
Daytime Bioscope, Gallery of the University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch
Carte blanche Visions du Réel, 12e Festival cinémas d’Afrique, Geneva
8º edition CineMigrante International Film Festival, Buenos Aires.
2016
Travailleurs, Les Rencontres Internationales, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin
Travailleurs, Les Rencontres Internationales, Gaite Lyrique, Paris
2015
The Film Will Always Be You: South African Artists On Screen, Tate Modern, London
Workers, Les Rencontres Internationales, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin
Monuments and Follies, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam
2014
Workers,Les Rencontres Internationales, Gaite Lyrique, Paris
Metabolizing Labor, Videoholica, Varna
2013
New Narratives, Rencontres Internationales, Palais De Tokyo, Paris
New Narratives, Rencontres Internationales, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Mine – A selection of films by SA artists, Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre, Dubai
2011
Mine – A selection of films by SA artists, Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021
My Whole Body Changed into Something Else, Stevenson, Johannesburg
2020
Sounding the Land, virtual National Arts Festival, Makhanda (online)
Short stories of an instrumental animal, Lab 27, Treviso
Intimacy and Resistance, An intergenerational dialogue on photobooks in South Africa, Galleri Image, Photobook Week Aarhus, Aarhu
2019
Every leaf is an eye, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborgs
2018
African Metropolis. An imaginary city, MAXXI, Rome
Meditations on Place: Four Perspectives; Four African Cities, The Cleveland Museum of Art
Of traps and tropes, Kerkennah #01, Tunisia for the international photography festival, Kerkennah
Both, And, Stevenson, Johannesburg
Art and Football, Goethe-Zentrum, Baku
palm, palm, palmar, POOL, Johannesburg
Een Biënnale van Ideeën, Cultuurcentrum De Steiger Menen
Buiten, public art exhibition coordinated by the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunsten (SMAK), Gent
2017
Recent Histories: Deconstructed Spaces, Surveyed Memories, 11th Rencontres de Bamako
Global Players, Farewell Photography, Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen
Recent Histories – New African Photography and Video Art, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm
Afriques Capitales, La Villette, Paris
The New Parthenon, Stevenson, Cape Town
Madgermanes / Mystery Of Foreign Affairs, Kunstverein Schwerin
Uzoyithola kanjani uhleli ekhoneni, Rhodes University Gallery, Grahamstown
2016
Recent Histories: New Photography from Africa, Walther Collection Project Space, New York
The City in the Blue Daylight, Dak’Art 2016, La Biennale de l’Art contemporain Africain de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal
Katrin Plavčak – Paule Hammer – Simon Gush, Gallerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin
I Love You Sugar Kane, Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius
Sex, Stevenson, Johannesburg
2015
How to live? Visions of the future yesterday and today, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany
Playing with Rules, CBK Drenthe, Assen, The Netherlands
While You Were Out, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Telling Time, 10th Bamako Encounters, African Biennale of Photography, Bamako
Conversations at Morija #2, Morija House, Morija, Lesotho
Drawings in the Sky, ABSA Lumen, Parts and Labour, Johannesburg
2014
500 years in the Future, 2nd Montevideo Biennial, Montevideo
Artists Engaged? Maybe., Next Future Programme, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
This is Not Africa, This is Us, West, Den Haag
D.ART, Dijlefeesten Kunstroute, Mille, Mechelen
Futebol – O Jogo Só Acaba Quando Termina, SESC Vila Mariana, São Paulo
FUTEBOL / Das Spiel hört erst auf, wenn es zu Ende ist, Kunsthaus, Nürnberg
FUTEBOL / Das Spiel hört erst auf, wenn es zu Ende ist, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden
FUTEBOL / Das Spiel hört erst auf, wenn es zu Ende ist, Lichthof des Auswärtigen Amts, Berlin
Nomad Bodies, Royal Academy of Fine Art, Antwerp
Nomad Bodies, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria
2013
Plus Jamais Seul (Never more alone), STANDARDS, Rennes
A Sculptural Premise, Stevenson, Cape Town
A note to a stranger, Public Exhibition, Dias Bar, Cape Town
My Joburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris
My Joburg, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden
2012
Present Unlimited, Sofia Contemporary, Fabrica 126, Sofia
The Loitering Presence of a Rational Actor, Universal Studio, New York
Mind the System, Find the Gap, Z33, Hasselt
If a Tree…, Stevenson, Johannesburg
Evolution de l’Art, Kunstverein (Milano), Milan
2011
Connections, Kunsthalle Luzern, Luzern
what we talk about when we talk about love, Stevenson, Cape Town
Republic, Cape Town City Hall, Cape Town
2010
This is Our Time, Stevenson, Cape Town
Halakasha, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg
From Pierneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Culture Shock: video interventions at the Q.E.T., Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver
2009
If Only I Was More Like You, Amsterdam
Ename Actueel: Hoofdstuk V, Ename
Polyfonie: HISK in Watou 2009, Watou
Lab09, Lulea Art Biennial, Lulea,
Korte Metten, Vooruit, Gent
De Keuze van Koen van den Broek, Indian Caps, Antwerpen
Self / Not-Self, Stevenson, Johannesburg
Bad Moon Rising 3, Boots Contemporary Art Space, St Louis
Test Patterns: Recent Video Work From South Africa, SF Camerawork, San Francisco
Conferences/Presentations:
Work, with Helena Chavez Macgregor and Prishani Naidoo
Soma Summer: Conversations at a distance, SOMA, Mexico City (online), 2020
Land | Labour | Life, with Prishani Naidoo
Sounding the Land, virtual National Arts Festival, Makhanda (online), 2020
Modes of Self-Reporting: The Artist and Social Justice
Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (online) 2020
Artist talk on land and work, with Jyoti Mistry
Every leaf is an eye, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborgs, 2019
A Visible Problem: Images of workers at work on the mines in South Africa,
Critical Entanglements: Colonialism, Anthropology and the Visual Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2019
Panel: The Arts – Ordinary Acts, Extraordinary Promise,
No Innocence This Side of the Womb: Confronting Issues of Equality, Privilege, and Justice, From Syracuse and South Africa, Syracuse University, Syracuse, 2019
Artist Talk,
State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, 2019
Welcome to Frontier Country: Work, Land and Social Inclusion,
Biopolítica y Necropolítica. Vida, Trabajo y Lenguaje: En busca de la episteme de nuestros, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, 2018
City of Labour (Ciudad del Trabajo),
Seminario Permanente de Estudios Sobre la Ciudad, Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México, Mexico City, 2018
Red,
Cátedra Nelson Mandela de Derechos Humanos en las Artes, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, 2018
Al final del trabajo (The End of Work),
Miércoles de SOMA, SOMA, Mexico City, 2018
Panel: Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art,
Iwalewahaus, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 2017
Being Here,
Circulations: the (un)making of Southern Africa beyond and across borders, French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), Johannesburg, 2016
Published Articles/ Essays/ Photo Essays:
Gush, Simon. “A Visible Problem”, Online Catalogue for Affinities, or The Weight of Cinema, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, January (2018)
https://www.nga.gov/features/affinities-weight-of-cinema/visible-problem.html
Gush, Simon. “The Yellow Jersey”, Third Text Africa, vol 5, (2018) https://asai.co.za/third-text-africa/ (Photo Essay)
Gush, Simon, Prishani Naidoo and Ahmed Veriava. “Simon Gush in conversation with Prishani Naidoo and Ahmed Veriava”, in Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art, ed.
Daniela Baumann, Joshua Chaung, and Oluremi C. Onabanjo (Göttingen: Steidl and The Walther Collection, 2017), 322-324.
Gush, Simon. “Photo-Essay: Studies for Red”, Parallax, 22:2, (2016): 132-138, DOI: 10.1080/13534645.2016.1175065 (Photo Essay)
Gush, Simon. “Red”, Ann Bryant Gallery, East London.” Kronos, no. 42 (2016): 48-55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44176041. (Photo Essay)
Curatorial Projects
2006
Founder and curator of the Parking Gallery
2012-13
Co-curator of the Parking Gallery