Vivien Kohler South Africa, b. 1976

Overview
Vivien Kohler
Vivien Kohler
Vivien Kohler was born in Cape Town in 1976, and now lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. Fascinated by the human spirit's ability to transcend adversity and the unique liminality of post-apartheid South African cities, Kohler's works contrast lived experiences. They depict people mentally detached yet physically immersed in life's detritus, constructing hope from despair and surfacing possibility within arduousness. His works operate as psychological mindspaces, perceiving meaningful images within ambiguous visual patterns.
 
Kohler constructs two and three-dimensional assemblage pieces, appropriating discarded material, painting naturalistic figures, and creating detailed replications of packaging material (a layered visual metaphor signifying transience, migration, displacement). These works articulate the challenging social and economic circumstances that affect those on the periphery. As Kohler states, "My works do not hide the realities of the unfair perception, but symbolically display it in relation to the liberating verdict of the human spirit." Fascinated by humanity's ability to transcend 'the conceptual decay,' he captures with gentle rawness the complexity of the human disposition. His work seeks to illuminate the duality of lived experiences by depicting, with an air of surreality, meditative moments of the individual, mentally cocooned from, yet physically enveloped by life's detritus.
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