(2013 Standard Bank
Young Artist for Performance Art – Anthea Moys. Pic: Suzy Bernstein)
This year, the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards includes a
new award for Performance Art. The first recipient of the Performance Art
award, Anthea Moys from Johannesburg, believes that creativity and risk-taking
is an important generator for initiating newer approaches in engaging with the
arts.
“I think it is just fantastic that Performance Art is being
recognised for the first time in South Africa with this award, since
Performance Art is relatively new here. I see myself playing a role as both an
artist and a teacher in developing new spaces for performance art in South Africa,”
said Moys.
Moys completed her Masters degree at the University of the
Witwatersrand, with a focus on structured play and performance in public space.
Her interest in play finds expression in her work through the staging of
playful collaborative performances.
“I knew since I was young that I wanted to express myself
through the arts, but it took me a long time to figure out if I was a dancer,
an actor or a visual artist. When I was registering for my first year at Wits,
I filled out two forms - one for visual arts, and one for drama. I held them
behind my back, mixed them up, and then pulled one out at random - it was
visual art,” she said.
“One moment stands out for me during my studies when my
lecturer David Andrews told me to stop worrying and to start playing. He was
encouraging me to be more honest with my work. I am a playful person, and he
was telling me my art should reflect who I am. That helped a lot to steer me in
the direction of the kind of performance work that I do,” said Moys.
Her performances aim to foster new connections between
different communities and the spaces they inhabit. They might involve boxers at
an inner city boxing gym, the residents of an old-age home, or the security
guards at an art gallery.
“Although I enjoyed my studies in visual arts I was never
really good at making things and was more interested in creating experiences
that evolved over time and in space,” said Moys. ”I think I really only found
my feet when I went to Switzerland. I was there as part of a programme for my
Masters degree and it was here where I really started experimenting with
performance (alone and with others) in public space,” said Moys. “I love this
art form because it is immediate. It takes art out of the gallery or theatre.
It’s art that uses the body; and I’ve always felt that I am much more
expressive with my body than with my words. I think embodied experiences that
transgress language – which can often divide - are important and this is a big
reason why I do what I do.”
Moys has shown her work at group shows in South Africa, and
abroad, in Sweden, Switzerland, London, Australia, Miami and Berlin. In 2009,
as the winner of the Everard Read Brait Award, she staged her first solo show
in South Africa.
She has been on residency programmes including ‘Infecting
the City’ in Cape Town and the Monash University residency in Melbourne,
Australia. She has been lecturing periodically at the University of
Witwatersrand since 2007 and is currently Vega School of Brand Leadership’s
Creative Development lecturer.
“I think artists have an amazing capacity to make
connections between things that did not exist before. I think that this then
gets people questioning and then opens up a platform for exchange to take
place. I think this changes perceptions and then has the capacity to change the
world,” said Moys.
“Winning this award is a huge affirmation,” she adds. “I
feel braver to do what I want to do and even though I feel a bit afraid, it's a
good kind of fear… Change or an engagement with anything new is usually scary –
but it means that there is risk and where there is risk I feel most alive… so
it’s that good kind of fear…”
The winners of The Standard Bank Young Artist Awards feature
on the main programme of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and receive
financial support for their Festival participation, as well as a cash prize. For
more information on the National Arts Festival, click on the banner advert at
the top of this page.
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