Artist Focus: Sitaara Stodel
- Anelisa Mangcu
- Nov 11
- 2 min read
Our Artist Focus this week celebrates the remarkable artistry of Sitaara Stodel.
Sitaara Stodel (b.1991) is a Cape Town-based contemporary artist working across mediums of photography, collage, video, and printmaking. For the artist, moving house was a constant event throughout her life. Stodel recalls moving house forty times in her lifetime. During childhood, the artist, her sister, and mother moved into properties which they could not afford; which resulted in regular evictions. Since Stodel moved out of her familial home, the habit of constantly changing address has continued into her adult life. This unusual state of being finds expression within the artist’s work.
Her pieces are created using other people’s family photographs that she collects at antique stores and markets. Through her work, Stodel curates her own memories of childhood and beyond using scenes of interiors and exteriors of houses, pets, prized home possessions, and landscapes. In the artist’s collages she is constantly tearing, cutting and putting back together these domestic scenes in an attempt to remake these memories. Stodel puts these artefacts back together using gold thread to represent the preciousness of memory. The artist also captures her own ideals of home into these scenes too: fresh flowers, framed artworks, houses with sea views and shiny cars.
Following her 2014 graduation from Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town), Stodel was awarded the prestigious Tierney Fellowship, granting her the opportunity for further her practice and mentorship. In the years that followed, Stodel has taken part in number of shows across Cape Town, including at the Zeitz MOCAA, SMAC Gallery, Smith Gallery, Gallery MOMO, and Everard Read and has been involved in education on an ongoing basis. Currently working in the Michaelis photographic department as the technical officer of photography, Stodel is highly accomplished across multiple analogue photographic methods, and this experience has been key in shaping her various approaches to image-making.
Artwork Details:
Sitaara Stodel (b.1991- )
Family Reunion, 2021
Found photographs, gold thread, and gold vinyl on linen
Framed: H91.5 x W121.5 x D3 cm
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