Against the Grain, which opened at IZIKO South African Gallery last night (14 August), profiles five sculptors from the Cape. Working for many years in mostly difficult conditions with little support, these artists have produced imaginative and skilful works of art. Against the Grain questions their exclusion from the South African canon as well as the marginalisation of black African wood sculptors within the broader discourse of contemporary African art.
The exhibition, curated by Mario Pissarra, features the works of:
Isaac Makeleni (b. Vasco, Cape Town, 1950; d. Nyanga East, Cape Town, 2008)
Ishmael Thyssen (b. Jan Kempdorp, Northern Cape, 1953; l. Retreat, Cape Town)
Shepherd Mbanya (b. Queenstown, Eastern Cape, 1965; l. Khayelitsha, Cape Town)
Timothy Mafenuka (b. Gugulethu, Cape Town, 1966; d. Khayelitsha, Cape Town 2003)
Thami Kiti (b. Crossroads, Cape Town, 1968; l. Khayelitsha, Cape Town)
The Western Cape presents an interesting challenge to the dominant discourse of wood sculpture. A region not known for trees, it has produced a dissipated ‘movement’ of wood sculptors. This was indirectly acknowledged with SANG’s Images of wood: Work from the Western Cape exhibition in 1992. However, the exhibition lacked focus and was effectively three exhibitions in one: a survey of wood sculpture including occasional works by artists better known for their work in other media; the SANG Liberman doors; and an Invited artist programme (most of who were from the KZN). Consequently what the exhibition failed to do was to separate the artists for whom wood was their primary choice of media from a wide, interesting, but ultimately unfocused exhibition of work (mostly) from the Western Cape.
Wood sculptors in this region, more specifically the five artists selected for this exhibition, have faced particular challenges. Firstly, they have struggled to access quality material, often making use of wood that better resourced artists would not work with, affecting the scale and volume of their work. Secondly, they have been faced with an unsympathetic environment to exhibit. Unlike the ‘Venda’ artists who received numerous national and international invitations to exhibit, or the KZN artists who are supported by the African art centre, wood sculptors find themselves in a nowhere land – neither ‘art’ nor ‘curio’. Thirdly, they have been working in relative isolation as wood sculptors. While they have all had the benefit of fellow artists as peers and have been part of artists’ organizations and informal networks, this ‘support’ has seldom included artists working in the same medium as themselves. Despite these factors these artists have persevered over several decades, producing a body of work that deserves greater critical and economic success than it has hitherto generated.
WHERE & WHEN:
Iziko South African National Gallery l 15 August – 17 November 2013
Sanlam Art Gallery l November 2013 – February 2014
INFO:
via Against the Grain: ASAI (Africa South Art Initiative)Â
