Our Contemporary Art Honours student Cara Biederman speaks about her studies, inspiration, and passion
Meet Cara Biederman, a 2023 BA graduate in Contemporary Art from Cape Town Creative Academy. Cara is now furthering her studies with an Honours degree in the same field. She shares insights into her practical experimentation and the research that informs her artistic practice.
A: As I approached the end of my undergraduate degree, I started feeling less-than-normal levels of uncertainty about my future, and found myself considering an Honours degree at CTCA. I knew already that I deeply love the institution, and that it has fully shaped my artistic practice, so I applied. I was very excited to approach writing a mini-thesis that could relate to both my paintings and my theoretical interests, and to build a cohesive body of work. Being able to balance practical and theoretical work was a stimulating challenge for me, and I felt ready to pursue it this year.
Q: How do you stay inspired and motivated in your artistic journey?
A: I think that it’s very important for me to do nothing in order to stay inspired. And I don’t mean that in a lazy sense, where I stay at home in my bed. I mean it more in a way where I need to come to the studio, listen to music, sketch, look at paintings online, and talk to my studio mates. And then I have the strength to paint and remain motivated. In the time that I don’t paint, I’m rebuilding that creative muscle. If I were to just keep going, without having time to think, I would get painterly-burn-out.
A: I’m a figurative painter, so I always know that I’m going to be depicting people, which makes it easy to rule out subject matter like landscapes and still lives (snooze!). This year I’ve chosen to draw on themes like historical paintings, the male gaze, and nudity. I chose these themes as I think I’ve been exploring them subconsciously since I started painting, so it feels apt to pursue them intentionally. My work includes many nude women, with bodies that feel more deformed than how they actually look. Before this year, it was any image that caught my eye. This ranged from paintings of my exes, to paintings of school shooters, to paintings of Anne Frank. I was very inspired by the internet, and how images are simultaneously losing their meaning, and becoming hegemonic in online spaces.
Q: What do you hope to convey or achieve through your art?
A: I hope to achieve a sense of resonance with the women who view my work, as well as a healthy dose of confusion and a feeling of ambiguity. I think ambiguity is the main goal for me, to be able to make something that a viewer instinctually identifies with, but makes them wonder what I’m actually trying to say. Which is mostly a secret (to the viewer and even to myself).
A: I’d like to see myself making paintings on a much larger scale than I already am, and to see my subject matter evolve into more pointed ideas. In the same breath I say this though, I’m also hoping to just paint whatever comes to mind (duality of man etc.), and to embrace the ebbs and flows of my subjects. I would also like to start getting people to sit for my paintings, so that I can depict them in real time.
Q: What advice would you give to someone considering a degree in Contemporary Art?
A: I would say, do it. The Contemporary Art degree has helped me in so many ways, both interpersonally and intrapersonally. It’s a degree that inadvertently teaches you about yourself (in a both wonderful and unsuspecting way), but also assists you to build your own artistic practice. You get the skills and knowledge to maintain this practice after graduating, and while in the degree, you create a community of young artists. This community will one day be the backbone of the artworld, and without CTCA, I wouldn’t have built this sense of family. So, be open to the degree, and you will reap the fruits. Being close-minded makes for boring art.
Q: How do you see the role of contemporary art in society today?
A: Because most of the art we see is online, artists these days have the power to reach an incredible amount of people with their work. Contemporary art in our society today has the power to enact social change, and to shift viewer’s worldviews (for better, or for worse).
Cape Town Creative Academy offers the only accredited postgraduate programme in South Africa that specialises in Contemporary Art: the BA (Hons) CA. This degree is uniquely designed for graduates aiming to enhance their conceptual thinking, artistic practice, and research skills. It provides an essential foundation for those looking to elevate their academic and professional standing in the field of Contemporary Art.
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