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.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Solo Exhibition | Date and Title to be announced soon

SELECTED PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS

2021 - Open House, solo exhibition, Everard Read Circa, Cape Town. 2020 - The Spectacle, group exhibition, The Fourth, Cape Town; Kernel, Group show put together by artists, Cape Town; Apartment Vol.2, group show, The Fourth, Cape Town; Nostalgia, Daor Contemporary, group show, Cape Town; Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Smith, Cape Town. 2019 - Unsettled, Solo presentation at Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Smith, Cape Town; Two Trees, A Collaborative exhibition with Rosie Mudge, Smith, Cape Town; Rocks, group exhibition, Gallery Gallery, Johannesburg; Rendezvous II, group exhibition, Smith, Cape Town; Voices and Choices, group exhibition, Women’s Jail Constitution Hill, Johannesburg; To Thine Own Self Be True, group exhibition, Kelvin Corner, Cape Town; Borderlines, group exhibition, The Third Dot, Mauritius; Outside, group exhibition, RK Contemporary, Cape Town; #FREESPACE, group exhibition, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town; The Main Complaint, group exhibition, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town; FNB Joburg Art Fair, Smith, JHB; Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Smith, Cape Town. 2018 - No Ordinary Woman, group exhibition, PH Center, Cape Town; Close Encounters, group exhibition, SMITH, Cape Town; Shady Tactics, group exhibition, SMAC, Cape Town. 2017 - [in] appropriate, group exhibition, PH Centre, Cape Town; Marked – A Photographic Print Group Show, group exhibition, Eclectica Print Gallery, Cape Town; Displacement – A group show with other Tierney Fellowship, 99 Loop, Cape Town; Art Meets Camera: Closer than ever, group exhibition, MOMO, Cape Town. 2016 - Emerging Artists, group exhibition, Art in the Yard, Cape Town; Bad Habitus, group exhibition, JNR Muller’s Gallery, Cape Town; 2015 - Proposal, group exhibition, 6 Spin Street Gallery presented by JNR, Cape Town; Return to Sender, group exhibition, Centre for African Studies Gallery, Cape Town; Greatest Hits, group exhibition; Awarded the Tierney Fellowship Award. 2014 - The Domestic Odyssey, group exhibition, AVA, Cape Town; Awarded the Cecil Skotnes Scholarship award from the Michaelis School of Fine Art; Awarded Scholarship from the Centre for Curating the Archive for materials. 2013 - Sasol New Signatures Art Competition Top 100, group exhibition, Pretoria Arts Museum, Pretoria; Deans Merit list at the University of Cape Town; Chosen to participate in the Sasaol New Signatures Competition.