Rainbow Nation by St.John Fuller

Alongside the exhibition, DEBORAH BELL | WILLIAM KENTRIDGE | DIANE VICTOR, we will be launching Rainbow Nation, an iconic South African colouring in book by St.John Fuller. This will take place on the first day of the show on Saturday 10 December at 11am.

We invite you to come and colour-in! There will also be a large mounted work for the public to colour in which will stay up and transfigure after the launch. Fuller will be available to answer any questions about the making of the book, as well as to sign personal copies of the book.

SYNOPSIS

Adult colouring books. Mindfulness practice. A means to escape the worries and anxieties of your day. A way to become still, to increase happiness. In the context of all that ails our nation these beautiful distractions seem like a band aid on a gaping wound. Never far from our thoughts, after dinner conversation among friends naturally gravitates to mutual fears. Physical safety, food and water security, the unreliability of public services and infrastructure. We are confronted by the need all around us as we make our rounds in our cars, windows wound up and doors securely locked.

This work is a commentary on the way that the negative forces plaguing our country are all pervasive. Even when we’re trying to relax, even in the comfort of our own homes we are aware of the dangers and the risks and the need. The question remains, how do we fix it? How do we bring order and harmony and beauty to the fore? How do we move past the corruption, the violence, the anger, the inequality, the fear? How do we come out from behind our burglar bars and our locked cars and bridge the divide? What is the medicine this nation needs?

BIOGRAPHY

In conjunction with his regular work, which is the photography work, Fuller explores other mediums and narratives. This includes creating installations that weave political commentary into them. Often he uses well known objects to make the comment that he wishes to make. Amongst other things he has used playing cards, guard huts as well as passbooks. It is his hope that by playing with the viewers prior knowledge of a given object, that by reimagining it, he will be able to awaken a realisation within themselves.

St.John Fuller was a Sasol New Signatures Merit Award Winner in 2008 and a finalist in 2005, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

St.John Fuller was born in South Africa in 1974, moving to the UK in 1985, in part, to avoid military conscription to the South African army. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree from Southampton University in 1997.

“Rainbow Nation” was conceptualised and presented for Sasol New Signatures in 2016.

The book is available for purchase at: R150.