The Power of Art

Apartheid Art

South Africa was a society divided into colonizer and native, white and non-white, citizen and subject, employed and indentured, free and slave. The result was a fragmented national identity symbolized and implemented by the white minority government's policy of racial separation.

Countries & their Cultures Available at: http://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/South-Africa.html [Accessed on 09/11/2011]

The subject of apartheid is a highly complex one; this was such a cruel and malicious time in history, a time where our inhumane dispositions really transpired. In my opinion, this was also a time that marked the ‘importance’ of culture, people felt so strongly attached to their culture which then resulted in them  enforcing rules to elude the possibility of cultural diversity. The white minority saw their culture as their identity and the thought of losing their identity was inconceivable, I will expand on this subject in later blogs.


The power of Art

Art became a vehicle for socio-political opinions; it was a way of transporting how the majority of people felt at this time, it was a way of liberating speech, and expressing culture - without anyone being directly persecuted. Everything that quantifies ones culture was snatched away from the oppressed people; they were fundamentally robbed of their identities, their beings, art gives us insight to this ordeal. To me, the beauty of art is that it can be interpreted differently by each individual; we are entitled our own opinion, this is significant in this time of coercion.

The Butcher Boys -Jane Alexandra

Available at: http://anarchistcoloringbook.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/the-butcher-boys/ [Accessed on 25/11/11]

This sculpture above was created by Jane Alexandra, a South African artist; she was seen as an artist that focused on portraying not only the political issues but the deep seated psychological difficulties South Africa faced. I studied her work and found this particular piece of work the most intensely moving, visually, I would say that it is very disturbing however intellectually I think it is ingenious. She creates life size sculptures so that when the viewer is confronted by this piece of art, they feel as though it is real. Alexander does a brilliant job in evoking emotions out of the viewer; even looking a picture of the sculpture gives me a sense of unease. The artwork represents the brutal dehumanizing reality of the apartheid era, the butcher boys look like animals - this represents the barbaric way people were treating each other at the time. Their mouths are forced closed; this resembles the absence of free expression of the oppressed people, the lifeless colour shows the intensity of their eradication from society, they are no longer human.

Jane Alexandra – Man with TV

This piece of art depicts the current situation in South Africa; the man represents the previously disadvantaged black man. The African man is given a suit which I take to be symbolic of authority but he is given little guidance. I get the feeling that he is rather misplaced in society, he doesn’t know what to do with his ‘power’ because he is only used to being powerless and immobilised. I can’t help but recognise that this ‘situation’ as a fairly current one. I spent 2months in Cape Town where I often saw this scenario, a black male in the city centre wearing a suit and tie but not quite fitting the role. I think it is because people find it very hard to break away from their demeaned sense of self. I don’t think giving someone a suit and a high paid job can really repair the inequalities of the past.

http://www.artthrob.co.za/01mar/images/alexander01a.jpg [Accessed on 25/11/11]




 

Gerard Sekoto: Song of the Pick

Gerark Sekoto became South Africa’s first black artists to have produced an artwork featured in a museum collection. The Johannesburg Art Gallery brought his ‘’Yellow Houses – Sophia town’’ in 1940. On the contrary, Sekoto had to pretend to be a cleaner in order to access the gallery and view the painting himself.

The art work represents slavery in South Africa, the alignment of the workers shows a loss of identification, they all look the same, there is no individuality and they are seen as merely labours. In the background we can see a white male who is telling them what to do; this clearly shows the white minority power. The scene created in this work of art is one in which I saw on a daily basis, what I found unusual was that everyone referred to their maids and workers as girl and boy. For example, garden boy or kitchen girl. When I first heard this I found is quite amusing and somewhat disconcerting, however once again over time I became accustomed to it. In my opinion, this artwork resembles the disillusionment of culture; it signifies an extensive loss of culture and individual expression.

http://myfundi.co.za/e/Gerard_Sekoto [Accessed on 09/11/11]

I think studying Jane Alexandra and Gerard Sekoto (to name the few) works allowed me to understand more about the apartheid era and its effects on South African culture. Art invited me into the core political dynamics that South Africa went through; this helped me understand the people and their culture. I studied art intensely for 4 years and I can say that without it, I would have had a reduced cultural understanding of South Africa.