Associate Professor Jean Brundrit

Associate Professor – Photography

Jean Brundrit teaches photography as part of the Fine Art courses offered at Michaelis. She co-convenes the undergraduate photographic courses with her colleague, Svea Josephy. In addition she is the second year convenor for all studiowork courses. Jean teaches students at all levels, from first year to post graduate.

Jean is a visual artist who works with photographic media. She has exhibited in South Africa and contributed to a number of international exhibitions.

Jean’s areas of enquiry are primarily concerned with exploring the environment and identity in relation to visual representation. Her work pertaining to the environment is focused on the impact of rapid climate change and how this is represented in art; as well as the interconnectedness of humans and their relationship to the natural world.

Jean is interested in the advances of visualising technology including photography – in its broadest definition – and the opportunity that this presents in making things never observed before visible. In her present research all three of these areas, environment,  identity,  and the possibilities of technology, intersect.

She is a NRF Rated researcher.

Jean has a mild obsession with pinhole photography.

Conference papers

  • 2025 Co-author on, ‘African Antarctic Artists and Writers Programme (AWP) Pilot at halfway’, Panel #34: Antarctic Arts Residences 1. Participants: Charne Lavery, Kirsten Carlson, Jean Brundrit, Andrea Peña Aguirre (withdrew) and David Waterhouse (withdrew). SC-HASS 25 Antarctica in times of change conference. Online hosted by the Faculty of Law, University of Chile. 7- 9 October 2025.

  • Charne Lavery and Jean Brundrit. ‘Making connections: piloting an Antarctic artists and writers program in South Africa’ (delivered by Charne Lavery). Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Open Science Conference, Pucón, Chile,19-23 August 2024.

  • Jean Brundrit. ‘Over the Horizon: an art project in Antarctica’. South African National Antarctic program (SANAP) symposium, Grabouw, Western Cape (hosted by Stellenbosch University). 27 November – 1 December 2023.

  • Jean Brundrit. ‘Seeing through ice’. SCAR SC-HASS Biennial Conference. Universidade Lusofona, Lisbon, Portugal. 21-24 June 2023.

  • ‘Touching lives: LGBTIQ photographic projects in South Africa’. AAH2017 (Association of Art Historians), Loughborough University, UK. 6-8 April 2017.

  • ‘At sea with the past: reflections on an artwork’. 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. 14-18 August. Peer reviewed and published proceedings.

  • ‘Process only: Photographs in advocacy for Deaf lesbians’, a conference paper. Wide Angle: Photography as public practice forum, WITS, Johannesburg. March 2011.

  • ‘The Lesbian Lived Experience in South Africa’, a visual presentation. Lesbian Lives XVI: Representations of the Lesbian in Art, Culture and the Media. 13-14 February 2009, Women’s Studies Centre, School of Social Justice, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

Chapters in books

  • Brundrit J. ‘Antarctica, Ice, and Photography’ in a Routledge companion to Global 
    Photographies edited by Souter, L and Woolridge, D. Upcoming 2024.

  • Brundrit, J. ‘Speaking out towards full citizenship: strategies of representing complex lesbian identities through photovoice projects in South Africa.’ In Home/Land: Women, Citizenship, Photographies. Edited by Marion Arnold and Marsha Meskimmon. Liverpool University Press. July 2016.

  • Brundrit, J; Ciurysek, S and Mangalanayagam, N. ‘Loughborough International Artists’ Residency: Three responses to place’. In Home/Land: Women, Citizenship, Photographies. Edited by Marion Arnold and Marsha Meskimmon. Liverpool University Press. July 2016.

  • Contribution about teaching photography appearing in Photography 4.0: A teaching guide for the 21st Century: Educators Share Thoughts and Assignments Edited by Michelle Bogre. Focal Press, New York and London. 2014.

  • Distiller, N and Brundrit, J. ‘ M/Other Families: Some Introductory Comments to the Project’ in Lubbe-De Beer, C and Marnell, J. (eds.). Home Affairs: Rethinking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Families in South Africa. Johannesburg: Fanele. 2013.

Articles

  • Eeden-Wharton, Adrienne van, Charne Lavery, Mehita Iqani, and Jean Brundrit. 2025. “Polar Fried Chicken? Tensions between Public Engagement and Fast-Food Marketing in KFC South Africa’s Beyond the Sea Campaign.” The Polar Journal 15 (1): 10–33. doi:10.1080/2154896X.2025.2492484.

Exhibitions

  • ‘OvEspazos Precarios: O fin do mundo (Unsettled Spaces: the end of the World). A solo exhibition. Castelo De Pambre, Palas de Rei, Galicia, Spain. 13 September – 8 November 2025. In association with Do Picho residencies. https://dopicho.com

  • ‘Fluid Time’ in the group exhibition, Followed by nine zeros: experiments in Deep Time, curated by Ernst van der Wal and Clara Babette. Oude Leeskamer, Stellenbosch.10 May – 28 June 2025

  • ‘The Edge’ (2019/2020), in the group exhibition, Vital Signs. 17 September – 17 October 2024. Michaelis Galleries, University of Cape Town South Africa

  • ‘Wave’, in the group exhibition, Pandemic / Praxis / Pedagogy. 4-26 May 2023, Michaelis Galleries, University of Cape Town South Africa. Co curated this exhibition with Dr Kurt Campbell.

  • ‘Over the horizon’, a solo exhibition at the Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town. 2 June – 8 July 2021.

  • ‘City of Cape Town: official queer space’ (2001) curated onto a group exhibition – Photographes- of thirteen women photographers in Le Cellier, Reims, France. The exhibition was curated by Alain Collard and the photographic organisation La salle d’attente. 5 May – 29 July 2018. Photographers included Azadeh Akhlaghi, Elina Brotherus, Melanie Jane Frey, Carolle Benitah, Shadi Ghadirian, Leila Alaoui, Delphine Balley, Laurence Geai, Camille Gharbi, Wilma Hurskainen, Dorothea Lange and Helene Virion.

  • ‘Contemplation’ is part of a group, photographic exhibition celebrating 40 years of international womens days. ‘Journee des Femmes: Le pouvoir en partage (Womens day: the power and sharing)’, curated by the photographic association, La salle d’attente, of collaged photographs on the street, 3 Rue Theodore Dubois (8 March 2017) and second floor of Galeries Lafayette (1-8 March 2017), Reims, France.

  • ‘Shifting Perspectives’ is a diptych colour photograph inkjet printed on cotton paper. Exhibited as part of a group exhibition, ‘International contemporary art exhibition 2016’ at Art gallery Le Logge, Assisi, Italy. 1 – 8 December  2016.

  • ‘No Place’, a solo exhibition at the Wits Anthropology Museum, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 4 May – 3 June 2016. A PDF of the exhibition catalogue is available here.

  • ‘Big Sea’ Book-form artwork. 96 page 21.8 x 15.5 cm. Litho printed, in ‘HOME/LAND’. A three person exhibition with Sarah Ciurysek (Canada), Nina Mangalanayagam (Sweden and Sri Lanka). S’eliyemetaxwtexw Art Gallery, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, Canada. 27 October 2015 – 16 November 2015.

  • ‘Out of Site’, a solo exhibition at the AVA Gallery, Cape Town. 26 August – 19 September 2013.

  • ‘At Sea’, a commissioned artwork exhibited on a billboard in the town of Loughborough, UK. Radar, Loughborough University Arts, Loughborough, UK. 12-25 November 2012.

  • ‘Nature Study’, a solo exhibition at the AVA Gallery, Cape Town. 8 August – 2 September 2011.

Artworks made previously on current exhibitions

  • ‘Portrait of a Lesbian Couple in South Africa, 1995’. A group exhibition, One and the Many. A group exhibition at Javett-UP. 24 July 2025 – 30 April 2026.

  • ‘M/Other families’ project with Natasha Distiller. 2011. A group exhibition,  Motherhood: Paradox and Duality. Iziko South African National Gallery. 30 April 2025 – 23 February 2026.

  • Selected images from ‘Over the horizon’. Group exhibition of publicly sited artwork, Stellenbosch Art Mile. 2 October 2024 – March 2025. Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa.

Artists books

  • Brundrit, Jean (2022) Over the horizon. Published by Antarctic Legacy of South Africa. ISBN 9 780639 719221

Awards

A UCT Meritorious Creative Works Prize  for the art project Over the Horizon in 2023.