Diane Victor

Diane Victor (born 1964, Witbank, South Africa) is a South African artist and print maker, known for her satirical and social commentary of contemporary South African politics. Victor was born in Witbank, South Africa. She received her BA Fine Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1986. From 1990 to the present, Victor has lectured part-time, teaching drawing and printmaking at various South African institutions including the University of Pretoria, Wits Technikon, Pretoria Technikon, Open Window Academy, Vaal Triangle Technikon, the University of the Witwatersrand, Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg. Quotes The images I am working with are taken from our daily media coverage of recent and almost commonplace happenings in newspapers, on TV and on radio of social and criminal acts of violence and ongoing unnecessary deaths – occurrences so frequent that they no longer raise an outcry from our public, yet they still constitute disaster in peacetime. "Art in South Africa". Art.co.za. Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2025. The portraits are made with the deposits of carbon from candle smoke on white paper. They are exceedingly fragile and can be easily damaged, disintegrating with physical contact as the carbon soot is dislodged from the paper. She was interested in the extremely fragile nature of these human lives and of all human life, attempting to translate this fragility into portraits made from a medium as impermanent as smoke itself. "Diane Victor". David Krut Publishing. 28 February 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2025. The technique of using ash as a drawing medium developed from printmaking. Texture and tone in etching is produced when rosin dust is sprinkled onto an etching plate to create an aquatint. "Little History" Proferssor Karen von Veh, interview with Diane Victor 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2025. Victor made another series of large smoke drawings of farm animals on glass called "Brief Lives", which were displayed in an abandoned abattoir. The glass drawings deal with the loss of body and identity and the nature of the smoke speaks of the transience of life. DAVID KRUT PROJECTS, Brief Lives: new smoke drawings on by Diane Victor. 2011/09/07 (2011/09/23) by Juliet White. Retrieved 28 March 2025. Quotes About Her Victor's smoke portraits explore subjects often overlooked, for example South African prisoners awaiting trial and missing children. These portraits capture individuals caught in a vulnerable moment, an idea reinforced through the impermanent nature of the medium used. "Diane Victor". David Krut Publishing. 28 February 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2025. The fragile and ephemeral process of candle smoke Victor felt was an appropriate medium for the portraits of the primates rendered fragile and impermanent by mankind. Text written by Diane Victor, 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2025. Victor made another series of large smoke drawings of farm animals on glass called "Brief Lives", which were displayed in an abandoned abattoir. The glass drawings deal with the loss of body and identity and the nature of the smoke speaks of the transience of life. DAVID KRUT PROJECTS, Brief Lives: new smoke drawings on by Diane Victor. 2011/09/07 (2011/09/23) by Juliet White. Retrieved 28 March 2025. External links Category:Artists from South Africa Category:Women from South Africa Category:Printmakers Category:Women artists Category:1964 births Category:Women born in the 1960s Category:Living people