Kicks and pricks aside, can Brett Murray’s work ever be read ignoring the brouhaha his Spear painting caused? The short answer: Maybe, writes Sean O’Toole.
Okay, so maybe Brett Murray’s new exhibition, Again Again, has a few suggestive protuberances. Some are merely belly buttons, but one is definitely a tottie as they say in Afrikaans. But comrades fearing the slings and arrows of Murray’s outrageous sense of humour need not worry.
There are no gratuitous sexual appendages added to his swollen animal bronzes and steel reliefs depicting comic book characters. And definitely none in his outsize figure paintings of dead tyrants. Nothing in fact that is likely to require a rent-a-crowd outside the premises of the Goodman Gallery in Woodstock, Cape Town.
This begs a question. Has Murray, a self-described “Che Guevara of the suburbs”, been chastened by his experience following the uproar over his 2012 painting depicting President Jacob Zuma with his penis exposed? The short answer: maybe.
Where his previous two shows, both titled Hail to the Thief, shot satirical arrows at the ruling party, Murray’s latest solo sees him return to a more generic brand of political satire.
Take his gold leaf encrusted steel relief Masked, which shows a naked cherub bearing a panga and sporting a thief’s mask. Who is this boy with the small penis? He could be anyone who has ever illicitly dipped a hand in the honeypot for personal gain, be it a politician, a tenderpreneur, a benefits cheat, or even a pavement hoodlum using a xenophobic chant to excuse brazen theft.
Ditto Murray’s anthropomorphic bronze depicting a cartoon pig with Pinocchio-length nose. He, or for that matter she (I checked, no penis), could be anyone who has ever told a lie. This sculpture is also a nifty update of Porky Pig, a pop icon birthed in Depression-era America.
In a show that sees Murray revisit his love of comic book iconography, the meaning of both these works is, however, not entirely generic. Political power, and its “venal abuse” as Murray put it during a speech at his book launch last year, lingers like an eMalahleni smog over his show.
Again Again is on at the Goodman Gallery in Cape Town until May 16
See full review by Sean O’Toole in the Mail & Guardian
PHOTO CREDIT: Brett Murray’s Lying Pig sculpture is also a nifty update of Porky Pig, a pop icon birthed in Depression-era America. (Michael Hall)
