Press Release: Tracey Rose

02.24.00

About the Artist

Tracey Rose was born in 1974 in Durban, South Africa and currently lives and works in
Johannesburg, South Africa. She received her B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of
the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1996. She has taught at Vaal Triangle Technikon,
Vanderbijl Park, South Africa and also at University of the Witwatersrand.

Rose's performance, video and installation work has been exhibited extensively in
South Africa, including the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial (1997). Her work has been seen
at the Biltmuseet, UmeŒ, Sweden (1998); Fondiazione Sandretto per l'arte, Turino, Italy
(1998); The Center for Art and Media Technology (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany (1999);
The University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa (1997); and The
New Museum for Contemporary Art, New York, NY (1999). This is her first one-person
exhibition in the U.S.

Often based in performance, Rose's work considers? forces the viewer to
reconsider? formation of identity and the subject of racial politics. Rose inserts
personal narrative into institutional frameworks, exemplified by her well-received project
for the 1997 Johannesburg Biennial when she hired a paroled prisoner to carve stories
into the walls of the South African National Gallery.

Tracey Rose was selected for her ArtPace residency by the March 1998 panel
consisting of Dan Cameron, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Amada Cruz, Kellie Jones, Hans-
Ulrich Obrist and Nancy Rubins.

About the Installation

For ArtPace, Tracey Rose presents a new video installation. In her video, an onslaught of
a boxer's punches is projected onto the gallery's wall. Layered images displace the
location of the viewer and the subject as the boxer moves on and off the screen, in and
out of the cameras multiple views. By filming the blows with cameras embedded within
an actual punching bag, Rose effectively positions the viewer as both the aggressor and
the target. Her filmic inversion simultaneously implicates and empathizes the viewer.
That the blows are thrown by Rose herself further complicates the installation's point of
view. Rose makes physical notions of oppression, questioning whether violence is
projected inward or targeted outward.

With this video piece, Rose deconstructs and reconstructs the role of the individual in
society, juxtaposing internal/external with personal/social. Rose reminds us of the
importance of multiple perspectives, multiple identities and multiple visions in a
changing, moving world.

Tracey Rose was selected for her ArtPace residency by the March 1998 panel
consisting of Dan Cameron, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Amada Cruz, Kellie Jones, Hans-
Ulrich Obrist and Nancy Rubins.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org