Kitty Dörje was born in Cape Town, in 1975. She qualified as a Graphic Designer in 1997 from the Cape Technikon. Later, she went on to complete her Fine Art Degree to Honours level at Michaelis school of Fine Art, UCT in 2010, majoring in print making. Her creative output is mainly in the field of painting, drawing, print making and video. She has been part of numerous group shows, including This must be the place at iArt (2011) in Cape Town, Continuum at the Cape Gallery (2011), Greatmore Trust group Show at Irma Stern (2009), Proof of Life show at VANSA (2009) as well as a Sticks and Stones exhibition at 38 Special Gallery (2009).
Her video work has been included in the Mixed Tape Mobile cinema in Grahamstown (2009) and been part of the final selection at the One Minute Awards.
WORK EXPERIENCE
2011
Worked at LALELA teaching extra mural classes Imizamo Yethu and Masiphumelele
August 2004 – 2008
Freelance Web design and studied Fine Art part time through UNISA. Major Clients included The Cape Gallery, Greatmore Studios and Spencer Street Studios.
April 2004 – August 2004
Graphic Design for Old Mutual, The Green Room
June 2003 – December 2003
Travelled for 3 months in Bolivia, Peru and Chile
2001 – 2003
Worked as a DTP operator and Graphic Designer for Investment Banks in London
In this period I was able to travel around Europe.
2002
Travelled to Nepal and India and did the 3 week Annapurna trek.
1998 – 2000
Worked as a Graphic animator at Platypus a television production house in Cape Town.
EXHIBITIONS
2017
Dream now, dream not, the annual Winter Solstice Exhibition, The Cape Gallery
2016
Impressions, group exhibition at The Cape Gallery
The Rain Maker, group exhibition at The Cape Gallery
The Shape of Content, group exhibition at The Cape Gallery
2014
Pause; the annual wildlife exhibition at The Cape Gallery
Threshold, annual Winter Solstice exhibition at The Cape Gallery
Recite, a solo exhibition at The Cape Gallery
2012
Remerge, solo exhibition at the AVA
2011
‘Continuum’, group solstice exhibition at Cape Gallery
'This must be the place' at iArt
Exhibited a collaboration piece with Elgin Rusts exhibition ‘Judgement 2011 Case No. 001/05/2008’ at the AVA
2010
Michaelis School of Fine Art Graduation Exhibition
Exhibited in the Greatmore Trust and Irma Stern Group Show. A special exhibition for winter
2009
Greatmore Trust group Show at Irma Stern
Proof of Life show at VANSA
Sticks and Stones exhibition at 38 Special Gallery
INTERVENTIONS
July 2010
Jumping Castle Intervention on the corner of Greatmore and York Street – part of Greatmore Street Festival.
October 2009
Jumping Castle intervention on the corner of Church Square and Spin Street in Cape Town
In these installations I invite children from the surrounding area to play and interact in a public space.
June 2010
Mixed Tape Mobile Cinema at Grahamstown festival
Mobile Cinema is a truck that travelled to 5 public locations in Grahamstown to screen a series of videos.
WORKSHOPS
2013
Drawing workshps at Studio 41
May 2011
Ran a one week One minute Video workshop at Greatmore Studios
2011
Hosted reading groups at Greatmore Studios.
June 2009
One day Drawing movement workshop. |
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Artist: KITTY DORJE
Title: Cement to sea
Size: 45 x 110 cm
Media: Oil on canvas
Price: R 8 500 Framed
Kitty Dörje’s Light House series:
The raw emotion of total exposure is evident in every aspect of this work. The image is torn and reassembled and is almost unintelligible upon the initial viewing. It resembles a flayed skin stretched across a board. The tears cause great, gleaming white striations which dominate the composition. Sutured between the tears the image lies scattered as casual wreckage.
Closer observation of the torn image reveals a lighthouse on top of a rock promontory. No safe haven here – a beckoning light signifies a dangerous coast. A lone figure at the bottom of the rocky promontory has found no shelter from an umbrella inverted by the storm.
The tremulous charcoal lines of the destroyed image search the contours of the form. Dense and meshed line feels out form and the tremours of the emotional space between the forms. There imbues the work with a sense of confusion, an accidental arbitrariness as incident overlays incident interspersed by the occasional stark image – the light house, the figure with an umbrella. Nature has intervened; something dreadful, unaccountable has happened.
This work is as terrifying as Evard Munch’s scream, or the sundered skies in El Greco’s visionary rendition of the apocalyptic scene in the church in Toledo. It is a part of Kitty’s final work for her BA studying Fear in Public Spaces.
Gail Dörje
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