Vian Esterhuizen

Drawing

My artistic practice explores the complexities of connection, vulnerability, and perception through conceptual, multidisciplinary work. Operating within Neo Faux Conceptualism—a movement I founded—my art often takes the form of systems, provocations, or thought experiments that question ownership, authorship, and meaning.

At the heart of my work is an interest in thresholds, barriers, and boundaries—not just physically, but socially, intellectually, and emotionally. I view a barrier as something rigid and impassable, a threshold as something passable but with resistance, and a boundary as something crossable yet socially or structurally enforced. These metaphors shape how I approach both the content and structure of my work.

My practice often engages with technology, law, and institutional structures as mediums in themselves. I use tools like copyright, open-source platforms, and speculative documentation to subvert systems and generate new forms of meaning. The work may appear as interactive installations, provocatively ambiguous texts, or intellectual property claims as artworks—but what unites it is a durational, concept-driven process rooted in ambisurdity: the tension between logic and absurdity.

While my work may appear playful or antagonistic, it aims to create space for unexpected reflections. It’s often unclear who the work is “for” until it’s encountered—and even then, discomfort and contradiction are part of the invitation. My current focus is on perverting systems and embracing ambisurd methodologies as a way to cultivate critical hope and praestalgia: nostalgia for a future not yet known.