GITHAN COOPOO: Unrealistic Expectations - Cape Town Art Fair

INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR | TOMORROWS/TODAY SECTION | 17 - 19 FEBRUARY 2023

In my practice and public presentations I show a number of sculptures together, choosing no more than one central theme to expand upon at a time. In doing so, each grouping has its own unique perspective shared among the many bodies that make it up. This builds upon the notion that each vessel is one piece of a greater whole; fragmented, but all echoing and engaged in a communal conversation. In past presentations this exchange has centred around my work’s materiality; notions of sensitivity and fragility; and the dichotomy of luxury and counterfeit fashion.

With regard to the above formula, Unrealistic Expectations serves as the rule and not the exception. The clay forms display unique texts and various sentiments that reflect upon the titular trope of the project. Traceable in all manner of relationships (even our personal relationships with ourselves), unrealistic expectations stem from each phase of queer intimacy and desire. This is an emotional landscape given permanency. Littered with relics of lust and anxiety. A piecing together of some of the many cycles and stages of dating, love and the pain of growing apart. Excavated, aged and weathered.

The clay body of the amphora is cited for its historical significance in our shared timeline. The bright and colourful disposition of the presentation and its laboured humour serve to balance and contrast the otherwise uncomfortable and unfortunate nature of the vessels’ statements. These fragile and awkward bodies stand in place for the people and partners whose hearts have birthed them – held in time. Seemingly anthropomorphic objects champion the sentiment from themselves to the viewer that “my body is fragile and time does not serve to strengthen it, but maybe it is more beautiful for being so.”

My name is Githan Coopoo and in my experience love can only be created, not destroyed. Converted from one form to another. Again and again and again.

This show is dedicated to my father, who gave me my eyes with which to see, and my mother who gave me my heart with which to love unconditionally, and then some.

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GITHAN COOPOO

(b 1994 Cape Town, South Africa)

“Clay is very human in its behaviour and I like to highlight that in my work, as well as my love for mythology, ancient civilisations and the gifts they have left us. There is something special about objects that are lost and then found again. They change in their absence. Mythology often allows for an easier transmission of queer ideas in this way. Although I have a kiln, I produce these vases out of air drying clay as I feel this again breaks away from the traditions of ceramic production while still engaging my sculptures in the ceramic cannon of representation, an innately queer act. I actually find it far harder making large forms out of air drying clay, as it is not intended for these purposes – but again, this appropriation is a signalling of the agency I hope to bring about in my work.” 

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. 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 the production of larger-scale works, best described as false ceramics. These works have predominantly taken the form of tiles, vases and handbags which use text to communicate simple but pointed messages of a queer tonality that span from sarcastic to intimate in timbre. As part of the inaugural exhibition for the Norval Foundation x Boschendal Manor House in Franschhoek, Coopoo presented his first solo exhibition, Structural Integrity (2021). Coopoo's presentation with Everard Read Cape Town, The Luxury of Wearing Fakes (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. Coopoo also presented work with the gallery at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair and FNB Art Joburg in 2022, and a solo in Johannesburg in February 2023. In January 2023, Coopoo’s work is included in 4x4, an exhibition of four artists at Eigen + Art Lab in Berlin.

Installation images by Michael Hall