Published 24 November 2020 in Blog
Javett-UP facilitators discuss their favourite works currently on display at the art centre. This is the start of an ongoing series sharing personal views of the artwork on display at Javett-UP.
In his book, Ways of Seeing, English art critic, novelist, painter and author, John Peter Berger wrote, "If we can see the present clearly enough, we shall ask the right questions of the past."
He said, “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.”
For the young facilitators at Javett-UP, the environment in which they spend their days, hosting guided tours, participating in workshops, public programmes and events, gives them the opportunity to interrogate the different artists’ perspectives on display.
Boitumelo Makousu Noxolo Waiza
In this issue, Boitumelo Makousu and Noxolo Waiza share some of their favourite artworks with us and explain what resonated with them. They reveal their viewpoints within the context of their own upbringings, while trying to gain a better understanding, not only of what inspired a particular piece but also the world in which the artists lived - how it impacted their viewpoints, helped them make statements, impart messages and tell stories through their works.
The artworks discussed below were created by renowned female South African artists and are linked through their portrayals of South African women - revealing their past and their present, leaving the viewer to consider their future.
Boitumelo Makousu:
Gladys Mgudlandlu, Fields, Woman and Cows (1964). Gouche on paper. Courtesy Javett Family Collection.
"As an intern, I had a lot of time to spend with all of these works and trying to understand their stories and interpret them in my own way, while still speaking to the truth of what the artwork is trying to show us. One artwork that definitely grabbed my attention was a piece from Gladys Mgudlandlu titled, Fields, Woman and Cows.
With this work, the colors that she used, the textures that she created within the artwork itself, really struck me. When I look at the artwork, aligning it with the title, for me, as a young woman, it gives me satisfaction, or rather wisdom, to see a woman working on land, a woman taking a leadership position. The place where the focus is individually in the artwork itself, it's blooming, it's colorful, it's vibrant.
To me, it's a reflection of what happens if women are empowered, if women are leading, that is something that is most likely to happen. And for me, I see it as something that's revolutionary. I see it as something that inflicts something into young women or anyone, even, whether you're old or very young. It has that wisdom that no matter which field you are in, you are a woman and your cattle, your cows, are your African wealth, so it just touches me."
Helen Sebidi, Untitled (2001). Mixed media on canvas. Courtesy Spier Arts Trust.
"Another of my favorite works is definitely Untitled (2001) by Helen Sebidi. This work has really touched me in terms of the technique that was used, the vibrant colours that were used within the mixed-media canvas itself. It has so many African cosmologies, and we see a lot of females in the artwork.
Women are life-givers, they are game-changers, they are mothers, they are sisters, it is generational.
Within this work, we see so much symbolism and illustration of the ways of life; with the woman with the dog; the fabrics and the hides that the women are wearing, it gives you such a beautiful textured, rural scenery, and it takes me back. It reminds me of when I go back to the rural areas, where you find the elderly woman educating the young woman. Information, knowledge, wisdom is being passed on from generation to generation, from woman to woman. So, with the work itself, it's beautiful."
Noxolo Waiza:
Penny Siopis, Patience on a Monument (1988). Mixed media on canvas. Courtesy William Humphreys Art Gallery.
"My favourite piece from the 101 Collecting Conversations: Signature Works of a Century exhibition is Patience on a Monument by Penny Siopis. It carries a lot of history, however, one can come into the space and still put it into context today regarding women in South Africa.
Even today it's not often that we see women on monuments and there's currently still a lot happening around women in South Africa such as; GBV, rape, gender pay-gap and so on. It's focused on history and I feel like both the young and older generation of women in South Africa can relate to it. The average South Africa woman can relate to it without feeling like it's overwhelming them, or that they need to be experts of art history to enjoy it.
I also love how the longer you look at it there more things you notice...
and how from afar it just seems beautiful, as she's sitting on this pile ‘cause it's vibrant and colourful, but as you get close, you get hit by a wave of rich South African history. It's also my favourite because it goes beyond apartheid when it comes to South African history. It's almost like a timeline of different historic events in South Africa."