Early life and education
Athi-Patra Ruga was born on 9 March 1984 in Umtata in Eastern Cape, South Africa. He studied fashion history and design at the Gordon Flack Davison Design Academy inStyle and philosophy
Ruga explores the notions of utopia and dystopia of a post apartheid South Africa. Working in printmaking, textiles, fashion, performance, and video, his work explores the body in relation to sensuality, culture, and ideology, often creating cultural hybrids. Themes such as sexuality, HIV/AIDS, African culture, and the place of queerness within post-apartheid South Africa also permeate his work. Ruga uses queerness to delineate appropriate symbols of apartheid's power structure of strict binaries of gender and race and make them more ambiguous. To engage with his work the audiences need to be open, to experience and share. Ruga's performance pieces often raising questions about the public spaces being engaged with, exploring diverse levels of perceptions and reactions of the population encountered. Using fashion and body language in relation to the urban spaces provide a clash between legal and individual freedoms and social norms. Engaging in behaviors that lack a sense of "normalcy" or "common sense" using parameters such as gender, ways of moving, dress and behavior, race and ethnicity in a hetero normative society.Notable works
''Future White Women of Azania'' (FWWoA, 2010–2016)
FWWoA consists of several works, including performance, tapestry, sculpture, video, and photography creating a saga. FWWoA is an allegory of post apartheid nationalism, where Ruga then becomes the "elder" or historian. Creating this constellationary history, drawing references from pre Xhosa history and post apartheid South Africa, tells the history of the non-dynastic line of queens who rule the lands of''Performance Obscura''
''Performance Obscura'', is a performance piece as part of the saga ''The Future White Women of Azania'' (FWWoA, 2010–2016) in which an obscured figure in bright pink tights and red stiletto heels covered from the waist up in brightly colored balloons confronts everyday life. Ruga is confronting public memory, national identity, and history in post-apartheid South Africa, while combining traditions like a funeral march and hybrid and festive''The Naivete of Beiruth'' (2007)
This series of photographs are centered around Johannesburg Central Police Station, called John Vorster Square during apartheid, associated with interrogations, torture, and killing of political prisoners before 1994. Ruga dressed his subject in women's clothing along with a black helmet and long-haired wig. The extravagant garments and dramatic and glamorous poses evoke traditional fashion photography, contrasting with the racist crimes once committed in the building. Among other motivations to produce this work, the artist mentioned the xenophobic attacks that took place in May 2008 (called 5/11 in the vernacular) in townships all over South Africa as well as in the inner city of Johannesburg.''Ilulwane''
''Ilulwane'' was a synchronized-swimming performance inspired by Alvin Baltrop's 1970s and '80s photographs, reflecting on the passage of time in both New York and in the artist's own Xhosa culture. Ilulwane was performed in Cape Town at the Long Street Baths during the''...ellipsis in three parts''
''...ellipsis in three parts'' is a performance that took place in the Michaelis Galleries at theCareer
Exhibitions
2018 * ''Armory Show'' 2018– Pier 94, New York 2017 * ''Queens in Exile'' (2014–2017)- WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town 2016 * ''Athi-Patra Ruga'', Bass Museum of Art, Miami * ''Re(as)sisting Narratives'', Framer Framed, Amsterdam 2015 * ''A Land Without A People...For A People Without A Land'', In Situ, Paris * ''The Elder Of Azania'', Grahamstown National Arts Festival, Grahamstown 2014 *Uncertain Terms – WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town *African Odysseys, Espace culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, France *PRÓXIMO FUTURO / NEXT FUTURE, Programa Gulbenkian de Cultura Contemporânea, Lisbon, Portugal *Public Intimacy, SFMOMA, San Francisco *Brave New World...20 Years of Democracy, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town *The Future White Women of Azania Saga – WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town 2013 *Between the Lines, Braunschweig University of Art, Berlin *Making Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg *Imaginary Fact, 55th La Biennale di Venezia, South African Pavilion, Venice *The Beautyful Ones, Galerie Nolan Judin, Berlin *Films for Peace, Screened Worldwide including South Africa, Paris, London, New York, Sydney *Sharp Sharp, Johannesburg, Gaite Lyrique, Paris 2012 *Making Way, in collaboration with Mikhael Subotzky, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown *Under a Tinsel Sun, The III Moscow International Biennale For Young Art, Moscow, Russia *Neither Man Nor Stone, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town *Ilulwane, solo presentation at Long Street Baths, Cape Town *A SHOT IN THE ARSE, The Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town 2011 * BECOMING: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina, USA * Solo Presentation at VOLTA New York City, New York * A Tribute to Photography, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy * Living as Form Exhibition, New York * Ilulwane – solo presentation at Performa 11, New York City, New York 2010 * From Pierneef to Gugulective, South African National Gallery, Cape Town * Athi-Patra Ruga – The Works, Solo Exhibition FRED Gallery, London, England * For Those Who Live in It – Pop culture Politics and Strong Voices, MU Foundation, Eindhoven, The Netherlands * DADA South, South African National Gallery, Cape Town * X HOMES – Performance Art Series, Johannesburg * The Body In Question IV: La Momma Morta, Solo Exhibition, YOUNG BLACKMAN, Cape Town] * Africa, Assume Art Position!, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy 2009 * A Life Less Ordinary; Performance and Display in South African Art, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham, United Kingdom. at* After He Left, Solo Exhibition, YOUNG BLACKMAN, Cape Town * … Mister Floating Signifier and the Deadboyz – Solo Exhibition, Whatiftheworld, Cape Town * Beauty and Pleasure in Contemporary South African Art, Stenersen Museet, Oslo, Norway * Infecting the City, Cape Town CBD, South Africa * Spot on Dak'Art – 2008 Retrospective, IFA Gallery, Berlin, Germany * Pret a Partager (More than the sum of its parts), IFA Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany * Big Wednesday – Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa 2008 * Peripheral Vision and Collective Body, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano, Italy * Big Wednesday, Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa * …of bugchasers and watusi faghags (Solo Exhibition), Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa * Disguise: The art of attracting and deflecting attention, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa * Upstairs/Downstairs, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa * The Trickster, Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa 2007 * Impossible Monsters, Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa. * Miss Congo, Performance in collaboration with Christopher Martin, Confluence 4.2, DesignIndaba 10 * "She is dancing in the Rain with her hand in the toaster", Performance in collaboration with Christopher Martin, Michael Stevenson Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa * Inj'ibhabha Series, Jaundiced Arcadia / Tales of Counterpenetration, Progr zentrum fur kulturproduction, Bern, Switzerland. 2006 * Doc. no3, Die Naai Masjien – Miss Congo, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo 2005 * Doc. no2, Die Naai Masjien- The Revenge of the 9 ft Ma-Benz and her Toothless Taxi Kings, Elle New Talent Awards / South African Fashion Week. 2004 * Doc. no1, Die Naai Masjien – Familie Fortuin, Elle New Talent Awards / South African Fashion WeekResidencies
2007 * A.I.R., PROGR- Zentrum fur Kulturproduction. Bern, Switzerland. * Kin Be Jozi. August House, Johannesburg, South Africa 2006 * Scenographies Urbaines. Lingwala, Kinshasa, D.R.C.References
External links