On this page you will find a series of self-portraits by the artist. These works are process – and – performance-based sculptural renditions of the self.

‘Selfportrait in copper’, 2015, wall-mounted copper cast, 142 x 62 x 80 cm. Photograph courtesy the Goodman Gallery.

This selfportrait weighs exactly 103 kg (my body weight at the time).

This copper selfportrait has anti-microbial properties because it was made from pure copper. The anti-microbial aspect of copper is termed the ‘oligodynamic effect’ and is the reason why many hospitals are switching to brass and copper alloys for all their fittings – for example, brass doorknowbs disinfect themselves approximately every 8 hours. The work was madeby literally pouring the cruxible filled with melted copper onto a fireproof brick surface, leaving it to set and adding stainless steel mounting brackets.

I consider the work in the tradition of Dorian Grey, albeit in modified form: In a compoelte reversal of the protrait of Dorian Grey, here the self-portrait will forever be frozen in the moment, healthy and young, whereas its double – me – will eventually be undone by the ordinary processes of ageing and living.

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‘Selfportrait with skull’, 2016, 3D of the artist and human skull scan cast in bronze, white patina, approx 50 x 15 x 20cm. Edition of 6. Special thanks to and made in collaboration with Dionysus Sculpture Works, Pretoria. (Photograph by Johan Thom).

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‘Selfportrait as an ass’. 2016. Johan Thom. Found objects (donkey’s head in Material One courtesy Dsw Dionysus Sculpture Works ; Concise Oxford dictionaries, signed by my maternal grandfather J.F. Besselaar 1979; reproduction full-scale human skeleton; casts of my hands and feet in Material One & mixed media). Shown here as installed at ‘Foundations and Futures’ – the Bag Factory’s 25th anniversary exhibition held October 2016.