In advance of the deadline for Global Design Graduate Show 2022 in collaboration with Gucci, we interview Rebecca D’Eramo, a 2022 graduating student from Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art (BAFA).

Our Global Design Graduate Show 2022 in collaboration with Gucci is open internationally to all art and design undergraduate or postgraduate students graduating in the Academic Year 2021-22 and the deadline to apply is August 31 2022.

See Rebecca’s ARTSTHREAD Portfolio

ARTSTHREAD:Where are you from?

Rebecca D’Eramo: I am from South Africa.

ARTSTHREAD: What is the name, theme, concept and final outcome of your graduate project/thesis?

Rebecca D’Eramo: ‘Those of Ours’, is a collection of works displayed as an installation. I have always been fascinated by the stories and the people in our lives that live before us. With my work, I explore the past of my family through the importance of memory, landscapes, objects and materiality.

Born to a Cypriot mother and an Italian father, I have inherited a fairly turbulent family history. My grandparents grew up in countries at times of significant conflict and from this conflict, themes of movement, displacement, removal and return emerge. With these themes in mind, the materiality of my project became important. Almost the entirety of my work is made up of materials that are used when moving house and are also disposable: mobile and transient.

The subject matter of my work is made up of three differing yet connected visual aspects as well as an audio element of my grandmothers sharing their memories. These three elements are: landscapes, taken from photographs and made with layers of newsprint that are presented in light boxes that are made from cardboard moving boxes; family photographs, made from layers of newsprint