Chris Soal

Chris Soal (b. 1994) is an award-winning emerging artist living and practicing in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Chris Soal’s artistic practice explores ways of working sculpturally with pre-existing materials; thinking through space, form and light while highlighting the histories embedded in these objects. Specifically thus far, the materiality of “manufactured debris” – disposable objects created for a single utilitarian purpose. Their accessibility has made them invisible to our eyes, but through the “repetition of the singular,” these objects take on new forms and textures. Materials gain artistic value in the moment of “unveiling”, where the viewer recognises them for what they are, allowing these objects to be perceived anew. Consideration and sensitivity to found material and the histories embedded within objects has allowed for a specific focus on their location within the city of Johannesburg and the socio-political, economic and geographic implications of this.  These material concerns express themselves in various strands leaving the studio; in sculptures, installations, wall-reliefs, drawings, and video works.