Johann van der Schijff

Johann van der Schijff holds an MFA in new media from Academie Minerva, Hanze University for Professional Education, in Groningen, The Netherlands. He also holds an MFA in sculpture from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT, and a BFA from the University of Pretoria. Born in Pretoria, van der Schijff is a senior lecturer in new media at the Michaelis School of Fine Art where he is involved with implementing and teaching new media as part of the undergraduate fine arts programme. Van der Schijff, whose sculptural/new media works have been exhibited nationally and internationally makes use of new media in a way that emphasizes interactivity and accessibility. In 2007 he won the fourth annual public sculpture competition held by the City of Cape Town for his bronze, steel, and aluminium participatory sculpture, Arm Wrestle Podium. Exhibited on the patio of the Association for Visual Arts in Church Street, Cape Town, this work attracted a great deal of local interest for its participatory nature which actually engaged the public in arm-wrestling. In 2006 van der Schijff had his first solo show at Bell-Roberts, Power Play, which also was of a highly participatory nature and openly invited the viewers to participate and become an integral part of the show. Johann van der Schijff lives and works in Cape Town.