Michael Cheesman

Consumer of chocolate, also an artist & placer of things (curator).

[michaelcheesman]

Inktober 2017 Highlights

A drawing a day for the month of October. Drawn from life, exhibited through Assemblage (A Joburg based visual arts organization). These 31 miniatures let me play a kind of fortune teller game to create a story/narrative.

[michaelcheesman]

2016 Winter School Workbook: ‘Mother Tongue’. 

Featuring writing titled: “In-house: a (partly fictional) dialogue” 

Put together by VANSA, 2017.

[michaelcheesman]

Overtime: Representations, values and imagined futures of 'classical African ART'  A group show curated by Tatenda Magaisa and Katleho Shoro

An engagement with the Wits Art Museums African Art collection that resulted in an installation of its textile collection examining the museums' acquisition choices over time.

22 February - 23 April 2017

(Process image from installation above)

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Daydreams in Transition 

A small solo exhibition of large paintings and lino prints at Dawid Ras Gallery in Johannesburg.

4-25 February 2017

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Preparation for solo exhibition (Daydreams in Transition)

At Nugget Square Studios in Johannesburg (December 2016)

[michaelcheesman]

Inktober 2016 Highlights

A drawing a day for the month of October. Drawn from life, mostly from the teacups on my desk, but sometimes other places. See the full months on instagram. 

[michaelcheesman]

Untitled (Cecilia Jane Bowler/Modderfontein)

Exhibited as part of a group show titled Clash at the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios in Fordsburg (JHB) in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University (UK).

A series of 16 small framed works created out of a found, deconstructed painting by a W. Bonsall which has been worked over with text and carved lino stamps. The text and images used are taken from an archival family image of what is suspected to be a young Cecilia Jane Bowler, a image of my own garden and a fax from an unknown family member which details Bowlers journey to Modderfontein from London.

This work forms part of an investigation into my family history, how landscapes are build and developed on a individual level, and how they fit into a larger historical space.

[michaelcheesman]

A drawing collaboration through the postal service.

Handwritten letters are drawn performances on paper, lettering that dances across the page. An artist might write a letter or simply choose to draw a line.

This registry asks creatives to enter into a correspondence with a contemporary that lives in a different city and commit to cycling series of drawings between them through the postal service. This aim is for artists and others to write create and build visual letters to each other, to create presence in the distance between two people.

These drawings should ideally be collaborative in nature, with each participant beginning a drawing before sending it off to their collaborator, beginning a series of additions and changes until both parties feel a piece has reached a saturation point and a new ‘drawing’ is started and put into circulation. The only limitation is that it must go through snail mail and must fit into an envelope (of any size). The registry defines creatives in its most vague sense, and any interested parties are invited to register.

We ask those that enter into correspondence to register with us so that the Quaint & Ungrateful club can follow up on progress/ideas at some point in the future – or collate them, either for publication or exhibition purposes. Lists of individuals we know have drawn/corresponded with each other.

For those looking for collaborators in other cities, we have a classified section where you could advertise for a creative pen pal. Should you choose to submit an ad, please submit your name, contact email, link to a portfolio, the city you are based in and a few words about yourself to [email protected] under the subject title Letter registry: Classified.

 Please see the classifieds at http://quaintandungratefulclub.org/correspondence-registry/classifieds-collaborators-for-correspondence/

Please see the registry form: https://goo.gl/forms/jw7p5BRsc7qyXPat2

Or alternately visit the website: http://quaintandungratefulclub.org/correspondence-registry/

[michaelcheesman]

Surrounded by satin the eyeballs sighed this pied piper had obliviously lied.

(Saturday night procrastinations)

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Research for new work. There is no such thing as a bad response.

Hello. I’m busy doing some research for future work. Taking some time to fill in and share this questionnaire would be really helpful.

[michaelcheesman]

Remainders.

After months it seems someone made a concerted effort to rip them off, though success was elusive...

[michaelcheesman]

Proofing lino. These two seem to make a great couple...

[michaelcheesman]

Spring Breeze cushions are now available.

Made out of my old 2013 pieces these aesthetic delights are easy on the eyes and a comfort for the back. You can buy them for yourself at R200 a piece.

Ask yourself why not? They are limited after all. (for more contact [email protected])

[michaelcheesman]

Inktober 2015 Highlights

A drawing a day for 31 days. These are some of the drawings from the past month that I really like. I tried my best to draw from life and not spend too much time on them.

You can see the whole month up on my Instagram page. Check it out if you have a moment.

[michaelcheesman]

The second installation of my current paste up project, done on the Westcliff steps in Johannesburg.

The first image is of the freshly applied paste ups, the rest are documentation of interactions. I also admit that I’m really excited by the variety of responses so far;  a longer write up of this project will follow at some point.

The project is less tentatively titled “things colonial women say”.

[michaelcheesman]

The beginning of a new project involving paste ups. (July/Aug 2015)

At the moment the project is loosely titled “things colonial women say” and is made up of my own texts inserted into the speech bubbles as well as letting a passing public put words of their own choosing into available speech bubbles and initiating conversations.

Currently looking for more spaces in Joburg to put these up.

[michaelcheesman]

Aneesah Shaikjee and myself in collaboration for a 1 Hour Residency at Ithuba Gallery in Braamfontein as part of ccjoburgglasgowlove​.

The first image is of our stencil spray painted into the gallery window space and the second is our intervention of the billboard outside. (25/07/2015)

Image drawn from the decorative edge found on an antique tea tray and is used in this case as a representation of white predominance in a corporate workspace which finds competent non-white people ‘surprising’ or unexpected.