RUBBER STAMPED
A finalist in the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, Bongoy uses rubber for his artworks, saying it’s connected to the environment, and Congo, his birthplace.
The tilting Superman logo on a boyish figure cut out of rubber and the flipped logo on another, the pair joined by barely touching hands on a hessian backdrop, are flanked by a shadowy figure made of recycled rubber inner tube pierced by fragments on a rubber backdrop in Patrick Bongoy’s artwork Shadow Self II. This evokes the uneven realisation of the dreams of youth, says the visual artist of the piece, in his new solo exhibition, Ebbing.
“Those flipped logos are me reflecting on when I was young and I wanted to be Superman and someone important to my community. That dream isn’t yet fully [realised],” says the internationally-acclaimed Bongoy, 43. “I have to become that hero who can open conversations between people.”
Opening up conversations in a world stressed by war and exploitation of people and the environment powers his imagination, with which he transforms discarded rubber and other waste materials into the sculptures and tapestries on display in his fourth solo exhibition in South Africa. “Now, more than ever with the turmoil of wars, environmental degradation and pollution, we must [talk] and move towards understanding. A sense of community is escaping and people are far apart,” says the DRC-born artist, who moved to Cape Town in 2013. “That’s why I wanted to open a space of reflection. That’s why I manipulate materials, predominantly rubber, which is connected to the environment and the history of Congo,” says Bongo, who graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa.
“I love working with different textures. I was in fashion in the Congo before I went into fine art. Even though rubber has this darkness and depth, and heavy history, it also attracts movement, and the light plays around it,” says Bongoy, a master at portraying grim and hopeful elements in the same space with his intricate lattices and shapes.
In Ebbing, he surprises with a sculpture of an unconventional dog with an amputated limb and hints of a lion’s mane and stature. A wall-to-wall canvas of silhouetted children is another striking piece on display.
Bongoy — whose works have been exhibited at art fairs and expos from London and Brussels to Istanbul and Chicago — says African art has come to the fore globally.
He is one of the 2024 finalists in the prestigious Loewe Foundation Craft Prize. The winner of a €50,000 prize will be announced in Paris.
“The eyes of the world are turning to Africa and we have been given the chance to be listened to. Now is our time ... to tell the world who we are, our culture, the beauty and the pain,” says Bongoy, who exhibited at the Stellenbosch Triennale, as well as other local exhibitions and galleries.
In tandem with his vigorous work ethic, Bongoy takes time to reflect. Ebbing, he says “is a meditation about our need for mother earth.”
Ebbing is on exhibition at the Old Wine Cellar at Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch until May 12