Helge Janssen

Multimedia performance artist, painter, author, poet, dancer, costume/fashion designer, ex educator (Life Science), upholsterer, dissenter. As a child I was quite 'gender fluid'. My mother died when I was 8 and my father (who worked on the cargo boats between Durban and Cape Town) was mostly absent....and violent. Given the traumas of childhood it is more the miracle that I never became a drug addict or died young. My great aunt taught me to knit when I was /8/9 years old, and I liked playing with dolls. My gran 'mothered' us for five years after our mother died. At 13 our father reappeared and took us to live with him in a house on the sea shore. But we were shipped off to boarding school. Living at the house was a nightmare and I hated hated hated the 'holidays'.
My painting work has its own category. My paintings represent a journey, with various recurring themes (notably the 'african snake' *rainbow serpent*) and 'maps' of 'stations' of 'awareness' as I discovered symbolism to represent a counter current to resist the apartheid regime. From Camus "the Stranger" which had a strong affect on me: 'The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.'

We have, ...

NTSDIII (Biology)
1 year BA art: Pmb University

Space Gallery Cape Town 1977
Performed in an avant-garde play "Southern Oedipus"' by Mikhail Peppas performed at the Tortue Restaurant, Cape Town. 1980
Things Gallery Durban 1985 (paintings/ceramic teapots)
Our House Gallery Durban 1979 (drawings)
On invite by artist Aryan Kaganof of a retrospective of my work (8 paintings on an orange wall, upper gallery) at the KZNSA GALLERY 2002 - his exhibition was entitled 'VIRGINS'
Numerous FASHION SHOWS
Founded the BODY OF DESPONDENT ARTIST '84/87
Gave movement/dance classes to the group which trained twice weekly, created masks/costumes for performances.
Wrote 3 avant-garde plays for the group - performed at the Grahamstown Festival of the same years.
1. 'I HAVE NO!!"
2. 'MASTERS OF CEREMONY'
3. 'DARK CORNERS OF A NEW MIND'
Wrote and performed in 2 solo avant-garde plays:
1: 'BLOOD' - 1988-1990 (COMMUNITY ARTS WORKSHOP/GRAHAMSTOWN/MARKET THEATRE)
2. 'the COME-UPPANCE OF PUNCH' - 1995-1999 - PREMIERED AT THE WINDYBROW ARTS FESTIVAL 1995
COLLABORATED WITH LONG TIME FRIEND ELDON SWALLOW WHO INTRODUCED THE CHARACTER 'NEMESIS' (pro/epilogue) for performances at the BAT CENTRE, DURBAN 1998 AND 1999. Performed at the Grahamstown Festival.
Chilliplum exhibition 2012 Hillcrest KZN
FOUNDED spearhead...