about the artist
Seth Deacon is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in South Africa. He received a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa in 2019. His artwork focuses on exploring difference, the disruption of borders and boundaries, and asking questions about what would happen if we could embrace the chaos and porosity that exists between ourselves and the world a little more. He works with a range of media including painting, digital drawing, animation, installaiton and performance. He has exhibited work both locally and internationally. Notable examples of Deacon’s work include the installation Communion exhibited at Spier Light Art Festival and the Kopano convening in 2022 celebrating the lives of victims of hate crimes. He is also responsible for developing the Pocket Queerpedia - an illustrated glossary of LGBTQIA+ terms with Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education.
artist c.v.
Exhibitions, residencies & other creative projects
2023
Plain - group exhibition at State of the Art Gallery
2022
Communion - Installation at the Spier Light Art Festival
(selected works also shown at the Kopano Convention with the Other Foundation)
2017
I hear what you are saying… an interactive performative installation exploring the politics of work performed at Infecting the City
2015
Group show at Assemblage - drawings and paintings
2015
Group show at Galerie Noko - paintings
2015
Collaborative and experimental performance with Alex Trapani: 1 hour residency for ‘cc Joburg’ at Ithuba Gallery entitled I hear what you are saying
2013
If I could put you inside my head for one day, a video work in partnership with Wayne Reddiar, as part of the exhibition Diptych curated by Assemblage
2013
Urban Trails (with the Vuka Ndlovu artist collective) an exhibtion of collaborative public art works
2013
Media Me (with the Vuka Ndlovu artist collective) a collaborative public art project at Infecting the City, a billboard display
2011
The Spaces InBetween (with Wayne Reddiar), artSPACE Durban, South Africa
2010
Group show - Trust Artists John Milton Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom - digital drawing and photography composite
2010
Jabulisa, Tatham Art Gallery; Durban; Margate; Empangeni; Eshowe’s Vukani Museum and Newcastle, South
2008
Artist residency culminating in the Resident artists’ exhibition, Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Fordsburg, Johannesburg, South Africa - drawn animation and digital drawing and photography composites
2008
Group show at Gallery Artists at artSPACE Berlin, Germany - paintings
2008
Solo graduation show (MAFA) at Jack Heath Gallery, Centre for Visual Art, South Africa - paintings, photography, animation
2006
Flat screen, Polvo Gallery, Chicago, USA
2005
Durban Film Festival’s Interface Animation Festival, South Africa
2005
International Tehran Animation Festival, Iran
Workshops, conferences and other creative projects
2021
Feminist Readings in Motion? (2021) - Panel on translating queer terminology in Southern Africa from the ground up for the Pocket Queerpedia - an illustrated glossary of queer terms: a conversation
2021
Panel on tools and techniques at National Conference on Trans and Gender Diverse Inclusive Education by Gender Dynamix
2019
EarthRights School Global Learning Exchange (2019) - week long workshop exchange on popular education, facilitation methods and materials development with organisations from the global South in Thailand
2018
Popular Education Conference - Creative pedagogies in political education
2018
Participant in workshop on creative activism and advocating for the rights of sex workers with SWEAT and The Centre for Artistic Activism
2018
Panel at the Russian Revolution Centenary Festival on Culture and Revolution, specifically on using creativity to foster engagement between young people from diverse backgrounds in Cape Town
2016
Development of paper cut out stop motion workshop with high school learners on the Russian Revolution and using propaganda to understand media literacy resulting in several short animations
2014
Fak’uGesi Digital Africa Conference “Excavating the Ghost from the Meat Covered Skeleton: an aesthetic engagement with technologically mediated medical imagery” Published in the Technoetics Journal in 2015
2019
EarthRights School Global Learning Exchange (2019) - week long workshop exchange on popular education, facilitation methods and materials development with organisations from the global South in Thailand
2008
Facilitated five day stop-motion animation workshop at the Bag Factory (Fordsburg Artists’ Studios). Resulted in short animated film entitled Senanapo, based on a Setswana myth, as well as the acquisition of basic animation skills by participants
Education and qualifications
2009
Master of Arts in Fine Art at University of KwaZulu-Natal with a practical specialisation IIpainting, animation and digital photography centering around the concept of appropriating the gendered gaze. Dissertation was entitled The Desiring Gaze in the Photographic Artwork of Kathryn Smith, Zanele Muholi and the author’s* in which I explored the gendered and/or scopophilic gaze and contrasted the manner in which the artists used elements of fantasy and reality to explore notions of sexuality and violence in a South African context.
2004
Bachelor of Arts Honours (Cum Laude) at University of KwaZulu Natal
2003
Bachelor of Arts majoring in Fine art and English Literature