Alison is an accomplished artist and scholar of South African art, with a multi-disciplinary research praxis focussed on exploring epistemologies of art. Alison obtained her PhD, titled Beyond the Readymade: Found Objects in Contemporary South African art in 2016. She completed her Master’s degree in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004 with distinction. Her praxis includes making artworks that critically engage with the discourses and institutions of art, and analysing modernist and contemporary African artworks that challenge inherited, western discourses of art. These interests inform her approaches to teaching and the educational work that she does with with diverse audiences in the art museum.
Since 2022 Alison is an Associate Professor in Art History, in the Division of Visual Arts, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg. Before taking up her professorship, she taught visual art, art history and art education at University level for over 16 years.
Alison has participated in numerous group exhibitions in South Africa, Switzerland and Australia. Alison was a finalist in the 2003 MTN New contemporaries Award, and has participated in artist’s residencies in Basel and Melbourne. She has published scholarly work on contemporary South African art, and developed education materials for engaging with art for Wits Art Museum.
Artist's statement
“In my artworks I utilise found objects to explore the meanings we attach to things, as well as the nature of collections and collecting. I am interested in the relationships of subjects and objects, and the capacity of objects to hold multiple meanings, especially as they move through different social fields. The field of art production and display is one such field which influences the ontology and thus the possible meanings of objects. This current interest in objects is informed by my earlier works in which I interrogated the institutions of art, as powerful institutions that to a large extent determine cultural value and influence cultural production. Included in this interrogation was a questioning of the relationship of the artist, artwork and audience in the field of exhibition. I explored these issues through parodying different museums’ conventions of collecting, archiving and display, and through inviting audience participation in the making of interactive artworks in the gallery.”
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