ROUXANNE DAUNCEY

Rouxanne Dauncey was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1981. She currently lives in France after completing her BTech in Surface Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. Dauncey works predominantly in the medium of collage and mix media.

 

Artist's Statement: 

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The recurring theme in my work revolving around feelings of rejection, oppression, anger, loss, innocence, self-worth and identity. My collages are layered with meaning that convey these emotions in a more subtle manner. My books echo these sentiments and ambiguities by creating little stories of memories and experiences. 

 

I studied printmaking at school, which ignited my passion for art, but I have sought solace in art and writing from a very young age. I work with found images and sometimes objects, thread and other mixed media. I’m a hoarder and can’t throw anything away. I form strange bonds with the scraps of paper I collect. I love the excitement of finding treasures, laying them out and then giving them new meaning. It becomes almost therapeutic. Having moved around for most of my life, my belongings, my scraps of paper, cut-outs, pictures and other objects became my sense of familiarity. Always moving with me. I could not hold onto people or places, but I could hold on to my memories by keeping these bits and pieces with me. It gave me a sense of comfort. Each item/image holds some meaning or evokes some kind of emotion in me.

 

Collage became, and still is now, a way for me to express bit by bit what I cannot verbalize or fully understand. I sometimes find it difficult to talk about my work as I’m driven by a variety of emotions when I create these images. The process is organic and an entire piece can often start off with just a small image that I found on the ground. It becomes almost subconscious and only later when I look at the complete piece do I begin to understand what the meaning might hold.