Ruth Sacks

Ruth Sacks (b. 1977) is a South African artist who lives and works in Johannesburg.^[1] She is currently based at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), where she is a doctoral fellow. She is one of the facilitators of the artist-run project space the Parking Gallery, hosted by the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA) in Johannesburg.

Education

She obtained an MFA from the University of Cape Town in 2007. Sacks is a laureate of the Higher Institute for Fine Art (HISK) in Ghent, Belgium.^[2][3]

Work

Sacks’ work examines historical moments in art, architecture and the applied arts in order to comment on contemporary environments. She works with fictional narratives as a tool for encouraging multiple interpretations of dominant viewpoints. Sacks creates new fictions by revising and adapting existing texts and motifs, alongside developing new ones. Throughout her practice, emphasis is placed on the use of typography, design and language systems. She mainly works with installation, text pieces and performance.

Exhibitions

Sacks has exhibited widely, with group exhibitions including: The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds after 1989 at ZKM |Centre for Art and Media (Germany, 2011), Performa 09, facilitated by the Museum for African Art New York (USA, 2009), Luanda_Pop Checklist at the 52nd Venice Biennale (Italy, 2007) and the 1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Biennial of the Canaries (Spain, 2006).^[4] Recent solo shows have been: 2,000 Meters Above the Sea at the Center for Historical Reenactments in Johannesburg (SA, 2012) and Double-sided Accumulated at Extraspazio in Rome, (Italy, 2010).

Her 3rd artist book, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Seas will be launched this year at the Musee Jules Verne in Amiens, France. Previous books to date are: False Friends, published by Kunstverein Press, Amsterdam (the Netherlands, 2010) and An Extended Alphabet, published by Expodium, Utrecht (the Netherlands, 2011).

References