The 19th recipient of the Tierney Fellowship at the Michaelis School of Fine Art is Aidan Murgatroyd

The Michaelis school of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town is delighted to announce the recipient of the UCT Tierney Fellowship award is Aidan Murgatroyd.

Aidan Murgatroyd is a Cape Town-based photographer working in documentary and post-documentary modes. Born in 1995 and raised in Botswana, the United States and Dubai, he returned to South Africa where he completed his undergraduate studies at the Stellenbosch Academy. He is currently completing an MFA at Michaelis, University of Cape Town, with Associate Professor Svea Josephy as his supervisor.

His project examines the small town of Barberton in the present paying attention to its colonial and apartheid past, tracing stories of extraction, migration and conflict. The photography project Boom and Bust, Barberton records and constructs truths, myths, deep histories, falsehood, fictions and conspiracies about the town Barberton and about Mpumalanga more generally. The area has attracted diggers, archaeologists, pseudo-archaeologists, prospectors, Zama Zamas, opportunists, conspiracy theorists, ley line enthusiasts, believers in the Anunnaki, pilgrims, chancers, thieves, con men, and his own family, all trying to exploit or embrace some aspect of this land. Aidan’s own history is entangled in this landscape. This body of work which relies on speculative photography, records and documents while it fabricates and constructs the complex, layered and boom and bust space of Barberton. 

Aidan will be attending workshops in October with his peers at the Market Photo Workshops and Wits School of the Arts in Johannesburg in October.