GITHAN COOPOO
GITHAN COOPOO, How do you live?
CLAY AND ACRYLIC, 55 x 49 x 15 cm
‘Clay is very human in its behaviour, and I like to highlight that in my work. Each sculpture I create feels like a placeholder for my own body, or a facet of myself. This is met with a love for mythology, ancient civilisations and the gifts they have left us in the form of social and cultural iconography. There is something special about objects that are lost and then found again in their disruption of our linear understanding of time. In a similar vein, mythology often allows for an easier transmission of queer ideas.’
Githan Coopoo is a self-taught jewellery designer and sculptor from Cape Town who works exclusively with clay as a base medium. Originally focused on volume, opulence and fragility, Coopoo’s clay jewellery has shown at Fashion Weeks internationally, including New York, Paris, Nigeria and Russia. He was AKO Foundation Assistant Curator of Costume at the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. In 2022, Coopoo was recognised by the British Fashion Council in their New Wave: Creatives awards category. This category includes a list of the most innovative and inspiring young creative talents from around the world.
Expanding upon his practice, recent years have seen Coopoo create larger-scale works, best described as false ceramics. ‘I produce these iconic forms – vases, handbags and tiles – out of air drying clay and acrylic paint,’ Coopoo explains. ‘Insinuating my sculptures into the accepted ceramic canon while enacting a falsehood is an innately queer act.’
The sculptural forms use text to communicate simple but pointed messages that span from sarcastic to intimate in timbre. Using humour to disable elitism and intellectual inaccessibility, Coopoo’s work is not afraid to wield popular notions of cultural exclusivity in the name of satire. He comments: ‘I work with words and clauses carved into the faces of my pieces because written languages diminish the conversational chasm between myself and my audience. They deepen the sense of relatability and familiarity, with the opportunity to also imbue wholly new meaning and identity to the work.’ As part of the inaugural exhibition for the Norval Foundation x Boschendal Manor House in Franschhoek, South Africa, Coopoo presented his first solo exhibition in 2021. Coopoo’s solo show with Everard Read Cape Town in 2022, explored luxury consumption in both art and fashion, while again being bolstered by base and colourful remarks teetering between the existential and tongue-and-cheek. Everard Read presented Coopoo’s work at the FNB Art Joburg fair in 2022. He began 2023 with a sold-out solo booth at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, as well as two sold-out presentations, in Berlin with Galerie Eigen + Art Lab, and Everard Read in Johannesburg.
GITHAN COOPOO, In Sorrow and Bliss
CLAY AND ACRYLIC, 53 x 37 x 15 cm
‘Clay is very human in its behaviour, and I like to highlight that in my work. Each sculpture I create feels like a placeholder for my own body, or a facet of myself. This is met with a love for mythology, ancient civilisations and the gifts they have left us in the form of social and cultural iconography. There is something special about objects that are lost and then found again in their disruption of our linear understanding of time. In a similar vein, mythology often allows for an easier transmission of queer ideas.’
Githan Coopoo is a self-taught jewellery designer and sculptor from Cape Town who works exclusively with clay as a base medium. Originally focused on volume, opulence and fragility, Coopoo’s clay jewellery has shown at Fashion Weeks internationally, including New York, Paris, Nigeria and Russia. He was AKO Foundation Assistant Curator of Costume at the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. In 2022, Coopoo was recognised by the British Fashion Council in their New Wave: Creatives awards category. This category includes a list of the most innovative and inspiring young creative talents from around the world.
Expanding upon his practice, recent years have seen Coopoo create larger-scale works, best described as false ceramics. ‘I produce these iconic forms – vases, handbags and tiles – out of air drying clay and acrylic paint,’ Coopoo explains. ‘Insinuating my sculptures into the accepted ceramic canon while enacting a falsehood is an innately queer act.’
The sculptural forms use text to communicate simple but pointed messages that span from sarcastic to intimate in timbre. Using humour to disable elitism and intellectual inaccessibility, Coopoo’s work is not afraid to wield popular notions of cultural exclusivity in the name of satire. He comments: ‘I work with words and clauses carved into the faces of my pieces because written languages diminish the conversational chasm between myself and my audience. They deepen the sense of relatability and familiarity, with the opportunity to also imbue wholly new meaning and identity to the work.’ As part of the inaugural exhibition for the Norval Foundation x Boschendal Manor House in Franschhoek, South Africa, Coopoo presented his first solo exhibition in 2021. Coopoo’s solo show with Everard Read Cape Town in 2022, explored luxury consumption in both art and fashion, while again being bolstered by base and colourful remarks teetering between the existential and tongue-and-cheek. Everard Read presented Coopoo’s work at the FNB Art Joburg fair in 2022. He began 2023 with a sold-out solo booth at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, as well as two sold-out presentations, in Berlin with Galerie Eigen + Art Lab, and Everard Read in Johannesburg.
Specialists in contemporary art from South Africa. Established in 1913. South African artists are part of the global conversation. We seek to make their voices heard.