noah rudolph
Fine Art Diploma
Michaelis School of Fine Art
Specialisms: Fine Art / Sculpture / Art Performance
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
noah rudolph
First Name: noah
Last Name: rudolph
Specialisms: Fine Art / Sculpture / Art Performance
Sectors:
My Location: Cape Town, South Africa
University / College: Michaelis School of Fine Art
Course / Program Title: Fine Art Diploma
About
My name is Noah Rudolph, i am a 26 year old sculptor from Cape Town. I attended the Michaelis School of Fine Art where I was awarded the Michaelis Prize for my 2022 exhibition of 'Sisyphus and the Embodied Journey'.
In my work I have developed a love for the outdoors and the environment, having walked the Camino de Santiago, been a mountain guide in Cape Town and sailed from Cape Town to Malta, my work takes an interest in the preservation or conservation of the natural environment. I find that I am profoundly influenced by and interested in ideas of effort and labour. I have found myself drawn to the myths of my Greek heritage in stories such as those of Atlas and Sisyphus.Though my work tends to be very conceptual though it is heavily based on an interaction with the materials and environments that portray my ideas. I work with fabrics, metals and wood to construct my sculptures that are often worn. for me, the interaction with the environment that I so love must also be expressed through my work and I often find that it is only in the performance of the sculptures in the environment that they comment on that they can best communicate their ideas.
“The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.” (Camus, 1990 53) My work evolves from a personal experience of despair, of being unable to affect change in the world, any action of mine being futile in contrast to those of governments and corporations. In the face of these colossal figures bigger than myself, my work is about acting in spite of this experience, using the opportunity to find and shoulder the burden of this planet’s preservation and protection. Sisyphus is to me the figure of embodied action, labor and toil, and thus acts as the entry point for me to an embodied act of shouldering such a burden. I seek to find and express the beauty of such labor by bringing together an assortment of found objects, fabrics and materials that I use to create the clothes and backpacks of my ambitions. I do this so that I may attempt to embody and perform their purpose, to find value and meaning in what the objects do and what they might bring to the world. Camus explores how in a world reduced to futile exertion Sisyphus must come to grasps with his fate. Sisyphus, with the embracing of his fate is empowered to engage with his world, it is no longer that of the gods, but that of his own. Each repetition is only a part of his journey, the futile act the gods gave him becomes his purpose, his life’s goal, and maybe in the end it is no longer futile. Sisyphus teaches us that we should not fear toil or labor at all. Before his life of singular focus, the avoiding of shouldering any burden left him deceiving and conniving. We each differ from Sisyphus in that we get to choose our own boulder, our own Burden. It is something that gives us an opportunity to conquer despair. Sisyphus does not promise it to be easy, but to show those brave enough to embody their burden more than we can imagine. Sisyphus asks us to choose our own burden, such that, in the face of futility, we may too possibly find the simplicity and beauty in our laboring to achieve it. “This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” (Camus, 1990 55)
Competitions
