Published by Skira. Edited by Ashraf Jamal. Interview by Jean Wainwright. Text by Sean O’Toole.
Robin Rhode's (born 1976) stunning, colorful works on a wall in Johannesburg, comprised of a mural, a performer and a photograph of the two, have turned to using the illusion of perfectibility inherent in geometry to tell global stories about displacement and capitalism.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited with text by Uta Ruhkamp. Foreword by Andreas Beitin. Text by Don Mattera, James Matthews, Robin Rhode, Gladys Thomas.
South African artist Robin Rhode’s (born 1976) trademark material is the wall. Influenced by urban music culture, film, popular sports, youth culture and traditional South African storytelling, his works are created on public walls. Rhode’s concern is not with the finished visual statement left behind on the street, however, but the process itself. Consequently, in his visual short stories, he captures the overlap between drawing, performance and sculpture, step by step. With drawing as his starting point, Rhode develops increasingly complex photographic works, digital animations, performances, sculptures and works on paper, which comprise a balancing act between South African history, culture, signs and codes, and the abstract language of European American art history.
Alongside reproductions of the art itself, Memory Is the Weapon also contains an interview, an introductory essay and poems by South African authors to whom his work often refers.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Andrea Bellini, Michele Robecchi.
The Cape Town–born, Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist Robin Rhode (born 1976) engages photography, performance, drawing and sculpture to create arrestingly beautiful narratives that are brought to life using materials such as soap, charcoal, chalk and paint. Coming of age in a newly post-apartheid South Africa, Rhode was exposed to new forms of creative expression motivated by the spirit of the individual rather than dictated by a political or social agenda. This new Hatje Cantz publication emphasizes the influence of Arte Povera on Rhode’s aesthetic, whose creative dialogue also formed during his meeting with the gallery Tucci Russo and his early collaborative efforts with photographer Paolo Mussat Sartor, in which he transformed urban landscapes and interior spaces into imaginary worlds, as two-dimensional renderings become the subject of three-dimensional interactions by a sole protagonist (usually played by the artist or by an actor inhabiting the role of artist).
Published by Wexner Center for the Arts. Text by Catharina Manchanda, Claire Tancons. Foreward by Sherri Geldin.
This limited-edition volume of 1,000 copies accompanies South African artist Robin Rhode's first solo survey exhibition at a U.S. museum, Ohio's Wexner Center. Raised in Cape Town and Johannesburg, Rhode has gained recognition with his playful photography, video and installation works that often reference graffiti culture and combine drawing and performance. Rhode's focus is on the tensions between the liberating energies of the individual's imagination and the confines of media-driven stereotypes and received conceptions of identity. Catch Air features 12 of Rhode's signature photographic sequences related to his drawing/performances, several digital animations, films, videos and an installation of sculptural objects. It also contains eight foldout pages that fully document selected works, including the complete nearly 200-image sequence "Color Chart" (2004- 2006), and a lengthy interview between Robin Rhode and Catharina Manchanda, Wexner Center Senior Curator of Exhibitions.
Published by Hayward Gallery Publishing. Text by Michele Robecchi, Stephanie Rosenthal, James Sey.
Born in South Africa in 1976, Berlin-based Robin Rhode uses the barest of means to comment on urban poverty, the politics of leisure and the commodification of youth cultures. Drawing plays a crucial role in his inventive, witty and playful performances, photographs and video animations, which are often created on the street, and entail Rhode, mimelike, interacting with two-dimensional representations of everyday objects--for example, drawing a candle and attempting to blow it out, or painting a bicycle and trying to ride it. Recently, he has moved toward more abstract forms in paintings and drawings and has also begun to make sculpture. Robin Rhode: Who Saw Who, a generously illustrated volume, is published concurrently with an exhibition at The Hayward, London and introduces a discourse on the dynamic work of this rising young artist.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited by Stephanie Rosenthal. Text by Stephanie Rosenthal, Thomas Boutoux, André Lepecki.
Robin Rhode, born in 1976 in Cape Town, combines drawing and performance to create a sometimes grotesque effect; for example, painting the top view of a bike on a sidewalk and then photographing himself sitting on its seat, legs apart. This volume documents his drawings, photographs and videos.
Robin Rhode: Memory Is the Weapon
Robin Rhode: Tension
Robin Rhode: Catch Air
Robin Rhode: Who Saw Who
Robin Rhode: Walk Off