his unwillingness, Barker's conscription papers eventually arrived and he would find himself back in Pretoria at the Voortrekkerhoogte military base. Those who refused the service were jailed, so if he was to leave he had to be discharged. Over the course of two weeks he choreographed and played a part that eventually led to his being declared unfit for service due to mental instability. Upon his arrival home, Barker was disowned by his parents, and having to make his own way moved to Johannesburg to be an artist wholeheartedly. Education On his arrival home and the completion of his high school studies, Barker pursued his arts education at the Pretoria Technikon, starting a diploma in Fine Art in 1981 before going on to study towards a BA in fine art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. At Michaelis, Barker would begin to question the art making paradigm at school level. Politically, South Africa was undergoing its most turbulent moment thus far, to which Cape Town, according to Barker seemed indifferent. For a sculpture project under the supervision of Michaelis' Neville Dubow, in which students were required to sculpt an "extension of their bodies", Barker absconded from the trend which would see his classmates creating physical extensions and instead opted for the performative. Barker chose instead, to dress up as his lecturer and have his classmates throw tennis balls at him, creating an extension of the man as a tennis court, which Dubow understandably found displeasing. After two years in Cape Town, he would return to Gauteng without his degree and be conscripted into the South African National Defence Force. After his short tenure at the SANDF, and having practiced for a period of time, Barker went on to pursue an honorary postgraduate degree in Fine art at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Marseilles, France in 1998, all the while creating and adding to a body of work that has maintained its social and political relevance in his home country and abroad. Career and work Barker's name has become synonymous with a rebelliousness and recklessness, mention of which can be found in the accounts of several of his contemporaries, friends and those who would become his audience. Often cited as having a "sex, drugs and rock n roll" approach to fine art, his persona had become a very prominent add-on to his artistic