Robin Rhode
Tension
Robin Rhode
Tension
English, Italian
2016. 232 pp., 443 ills.
clothbound
30.80 x 23.00 cm
ISBN 978-3-7757-4160-6
A mastery of illusion
The most recent survey of the South African performance artist
The Berlin-based artist, Robin Rhode (* 1976 in Cape Town), engages in a variety of visual languages such as photography, performance, drawing and sculpture to create arrestingly beautiful narratives. Coming of age in a newly post-apartheid South Africa, Rhode was exposed to new forms of creative expression motivated by the spirit of the individual rather than dictated by a political or social agenda. This new publication emphasizes the creative influence of the Italian Art movement Arte Povera during the early sixties and seventies on Rhode’s hybrid street-based aesthetic. The creative dialogue transformed urban landscapes and interior spaces into imaginary worlds, compressing space and time, as two-dimensional renderings become the subject of three-dimensional interactions by a sole protagonist. Rhode’s work reveals a mastery of illusion, a rich range of historical and contemporary references, and an innate skill for blending high and low art forms.