Angelique Bougaard

Bougaard (b. 1993 in South Africa) is a Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary artist who engages with language and identity construction in the context of a post-apartheid South Africa. Working fluidly between sculpture, sound, installation and artisanal papermaking, she allows the conceptual demands of the work to dictate the medium. Her practice speaks to her ‘Coloured’ identity, challenges notions of loss and explores the multiplicity of realities inherent in the Coloured experience in South Africa.

Bougaard uses explorations of language, childhood games and artisanal papermaking to speak about hybrid identities in post-apartheid South Africa. In particular, her work deconstructs and re-examines notions of Coloured identity, unpicking the cultural traces and practices that have been, and still are, associated with Colouredness today. Ideas of reimagination and renewal are central to Bougaard’s practice. Her work brings forward stereotyped perceptions and transforms existing narratives and perspectives, enabling her to reinterpret and expand upon traditional narratives and give voice to marginalised stories and perspectives that have been overlooked or erased. By highlighting narratives from the Kullid community and other marginalised voices, she aims to contribute to a future where these stories are acknowledged and valued. Themes of healing, loss and memory are explored through mending and therapeutic processes such as stitching and papermaking, where broken or fragmented pieces are brought together to form something new. Bougaard explains, ‘I think there's always going to be an issue of whose history is actually being correctly recorded and whose perspective is being represented.’

In early 2023, Bougaard completed a Master of Fine Arts degree (Cum Laude) at the University of Johannesburg, exhibiting her final body of work in a solo show at the Origins Centre Museum at the University of the Witwatersrand. She previously held a solo show at Constitution Hill in 2021 as part of her Honours in Fine Arts. Her exhibitions include presentations with Guns & Rain, the Sasol New Signatures Award exhibition, and other group exhibitions. She received the Merit Award for Sasol New Signatures in 2019, and her work is held in several private collections internationally.

Contributors: Bulelwa Kunene (A Gathering) and Banji Chona (Traces and Transitions)

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