The son of a prophetess, artist Mohau Modisakeng casts a mystical eye on South Africa’s political and psychological crises, writes
questions of authenticity and commitment, even longevity, but this is how he has always approached things: with unflinching honesty and public self-examination, exposing mind and body for all to see. Eff the consequences.
“A few people who have written about my work have said things that have nothing to do with it. They come with judgments and say they don’t understand why I’m making these objects, making it this way. But that doesn’t mean the work is contrived or coming from a dishonest place. When you approach an artwork, you come in with everything you know and bring it to the artwork, and different people bring different things to an artwork. It’s a very difficult balance to arrive at, where the artist is putting something out and it is understood and appreciated according to how he intended it.”
Modisakeng uses large format photography, film and performance (and very often his own form) to explore the meaning and impact of the black body within South Africa’s dark history, especially the early-1990s, when the artist was a little boy and all this shit was going on that he didn’t really understand but he definitely felt.
It was during this time that his older brother was murdered in what appeared to be a politically motivated act of betrayal. At his graduate show years later, at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, Modisakeng made a large-scale version of the okapi knife that killed his brother. He also made large-scale snuff boxes. Snuff, apart from its obvious uses, is also burnt as an offering to spirits and ancestors during meditation and mourning. The exhibition was entitled Ukufa Unezindaba, which means “death has many revelations/stories”.
Modisakeng began working with large format photography during his Masters degree. Now he uses it as a form of sculpture wherein he doesn’t have to concern himself with the dense planning and gathering of raw materials involved in traditional sculpture. In his photos, he himself becomes the sculpture and he brings in other elements — props, clothing, body language — to symbolise and express meaning. He captures these images on camera — very often in the form of a triptych — and there you have it: still, rigid and representative forms, just like a sculpture.
In the triptych Metamorphosis (on display at WHATIFTHEWORLD gallery in Woodstock), he is a man that turns to dust and transforms.
“In my work I’ve been dealing with how history, or the events of history, still affect us to this day,” he says. “The narrative of South African history up to this point has been about transformation, overcoming the past, this movement from one these come through in images, visions and weird connections.”
About a year before the Marikana massacre, Modisakeng took a photo of himself in a black robe, squatting, holding a machete. It was supposed to symbolise a process of mourning. Following Marikana, he saw a photo of miners as they waited to be addressed. They were squatting, wrapped in blankets and holding either sticks or machetes.
“It’s scary because it’s not something I’m in control of,” he says of this apparent presentiment. “I think these two things relate because I’m generally thinking about history and violence and the nature of politics in South Africa, and seeing that they repeat themselves. I’m not necessarily having a premonition though. It’s more about being in tune with the way history repeats itself.”
Modisakeng, whose soft, gentle manner defies or even compliments the somber nature of his work, is, for now, preoccupied with bringing his artistic gifts together with the gift that was apparently passed onto him through the mystery of his mother’s blood.
“When the spirit is suppressed, when the environment is negative, as it is in South Africa right now, people tend to gravitate towards the spiritual. Defining the social context based on religion and spirituality, that’s a connection which is very difficult to make,” he says. “I’m trying to figure it out.” LS
• Visit timeslive.co.za/ sundaytimes/lifestyle for a slideshow of Modisakeng’s work