Catalogue > At random

The title of the film, Iseeyou, comes from the slogan of the first multi-racial trade union in South Africa. It is a meditation of the relationship of visibility to work. Exploring public monuments to work and workers in Johannesburg, it looks at how these have been celebrated in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa through public art. The film suggests that this celebration is a way in which the conditions of work, and often the abuse of the rights of workers, is justified through the promotion of a work ethic.

Simon Gush was born in 1981 in Pietermaritzburg, and is currently based in Johannesburg. He was a laureate at the HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in Ghent, Belgium, in 2007/8 and a Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts Fellow at the University of Cape Town in 2011. Solo exhibitions have taken place at the SMAK (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst) in Ghent (2010); and West, Den Haag, the Netherlands (2010); in addition to Stevenson Cape Town (2009, 2010 and 2013) and Johannesburg (2009 and 2011). Notable group exhibitions include My Joburg at La Maison Rouge, Paris,and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (2013); Present Unlimited, Sofia Contemporary, Fabrica 126, Sofia, Bulgaria (2012); Mind the System, Find the Gap, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium (2012); Connections, Kunsthalle Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland(2011); the 2009 Luleå Summer Biennial, Sweden; and .za: Young Art from South Africa at Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena (2008). Alongside his artistic practice, Gush has collaborated in founding and facilitating a number of alternative temporary exhibition platforms, most notably the Parking Gallery, Johannesburg.