Displaced II Painting

Stephan Erasmus is a practicing artist and curator based in Johannesburg, South Africa. His work is held in various collections: The Bibliotheca Alexandrina Alexandria, Egypt, Johannesburg Art Gallery and ABSA collection, to name but a few. He has participated in countless group and solo exhibitions across the country. In his writing of love letters, Erasmus samples text from various sources such as poetry, music lyrics and biblical text as a starting point. The use of existing text is significant in that it becomes emotional triggers that exist in public and has links to specific emotional conditions or events. For Erasmus it is important that the selected text is transformed into a visual format that breaks away from the act of reading or listening. Moving the reader into an experience of struggle and involvement in the detanglement of the text and the significance of the selected encryption process. The encryption mimics a physical act of writing sorrowful love letters, sewing the letters together to become a web, in which the reader can get lost in. Leading into a self-created prison of words and their meanings.