Innovator scoops up art award
CONCEPTUAL artist and sculptor Usha Seejarim took home the Tomorrows/Today Prize at the recent Investec Cape Town Art Fair.
The mother-of-two grew up in Lenasia, south of Joburg, where art was not the most revered subject in school, but her love for it started young.
“As a child I used to draw a lot and get complimented. I went to a public school in Lenasia, and back in Standard 6 we had a choice between Arabic, typing, home economics and art. For me it was a default choice, because none of the others interested me.”
Seejarim enjoyed art so much that in Standard 8, the one year the school chose not to offer it as a further subject, she almost opted to fail on purpose just so that she could take the subject the next year when it was back on offer. “I was upset because I really wanted to do it. Moving to another school was not an option.”
She did manage to continue with her love affair with art when she finished high school.
And after many years of honing her craft, her work centres on the everyday routine of things.
“I have always been interested in and fascinated with what we do every day. Not the special things, just the ordinary things. When I was a student I collected bus tickets while travelling and I made work using that.
“Then I used toothpaste and toothbrushes, because that’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning. I am interested in the routine of what we do.”
As life continued to change, Seejarim got married and became a mother, and realised just how much the routine of life was so preoccupied with the gender of things.
“I became very much aware of the woman side of my identity. I suppose it’s just how my own lifestyle or my own life and activities have changed, and I think it has to do with having kids. When you have a child you become aware of the importance of being a woman and what that means.”
For the fair she exhibited her installation titled Cow’s Head.
The Tomorrows/Today section is a curated section of solo presentations by artists who are set to be the leading names of tomorrow. The works showcasing contemporary African art were selected by fair curator Tumelo Mosaka. The section was open to artists working beyond the continent for the first time this year.
Seejarim explained the thought process behind her installation: “In 1999, I made one work which is one part of that installation. I joined together an iron and a hanger and called it a cow’s head. It’s in reference to a work (sculpture) that Picasso made called Bull’s Head, and he had put together a bicycle seat and bicycle handles. It’s a famous, iconic work. Anybody who knows that knows it’s a bull’s head, so I have subverted that and made it a cow’s head with domestic objects, and I’ve made it female.
“But these objects are already genderised in a way; you look at an iron and immediately associate it with a woman; why is that? We live in a time where domestic chores are shared and yet it’s like a woman’s job to do the ironing.”
She said the installation allowed people to interpret it in their own way.
“So now all the objects together become a herd, but cows and women also have a relationship – in Africa there is a strong association to lobolo, for example. In Eastern cultures the cow is sacred – a female is sacred, so there are layers of references. One visitor thought it (the installation) looked like uteruses and another said the hangers spoke of abortion; that was not my intention, but it has those clear references.”
Seejarim added that many superficial efforts were made, but it was never enough. “There is a worldwide awareness that women aren’t represented enough.”
The arts in schools are also not given the necessary attention; especially in government schools, the arts were not a priority, Seejarim said.
“They take it out of the curriculum or there is not enough training, and as a result we have an arts-illiterate audience. Then we complain that there are not enough people going to galleries, and it affects the whole system.
“If we don’t have people visiting the galleries, then we don’t have art collectors to grow the industry. But if we aren’t educated in the basics of art, it’s never going to happen.
“What the schools don’t realise is that it’s not one or the other. The right brain and the left brain work together, and in fact, if you stimulate the right brain, the left brain works better. So if you want to do better at maths, do art.”
To young artists who are ready to take their creativity on as full-time careers, Seejarim said: “It starts with education.
“Find places where you can study art; there’s a lot online if you can’t find a centre. Just the practice of drawing, if one had to make a drawing every day, within a year your drawings would be amazing, but surely that’s not enough.
“Connect with people in the industry; start small, then move to bigger centres where there are more resources.”
Seejarim’s prize includes R50 000, and one of her pieces has been bought by the Fondazione Fiera Milano as part of its collection in Italy.
Installation symbolic of women, lobolo