b.1983, South Africa

Ernst van der Wal is an artist, researcher, and writer. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Stellenbosch University, where he completed his doctoral studies in 2013. His thesis explored the impact of photographic technologies on the visual representation and archival recollection of trans identities. This is aligned with broader research interests, which include the visual representation of queer politics and intimacies within the South African context. He is an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at Humboldt University of Berlin and an elected member of the South African Young Academy of Science.

His creative practice includes drawing and sculpture, with human-object entanglements being of key thematic concern. He is specifically interested in the tactile intimacies these practices facilitate between human and non-human bodies.