July 28, 2006
By Ndaba Dlamini
A SOUTH AFRICAN born artist living in London, Johannes Phokela, is currently visiting the country and, to give art lovers an insight into his life and art, he held a lecture at the Johannesburg Art Gallery where he is exhibiting his new and recent works in memory of his former mentor and teacher, Durant Sihlali.
The exhibition, entitled Johannes Phokela: Translation, Phokela's first major show in South Africa, 20 years since he left the country, and will run until 1 October. The exhibition features 18 of his artworks and more are yet to arrive from Belgium.
Interviewed at the Johannesburg Art Gallery's (JAG) auditorium, a relaxed Phokela said the majority of his work on exhibition are reworks of Old Master paintings.
Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals
"The artwork on exhibition goes back three years and reflects my fascination with iconography. Most of my work is a contemporary take on Old Dutch and Flemish Masters where I take on what is perceived to be Europe's grandiose history of art as a medium to convey values and ideals represented within a global context of cultural elitism."
Born in 1966 in Soweto, Phokela began his visual arts career at the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) Art Gallery in Newtown under the guidance of Sihlali. He subsequently moved to London where he studied at St Martin's in London and at the Royal College of Art where he was awarded the prestigious John Moore's Painting Award. He began painting as a professional artist in London in 1993.
Staying in London and being immersed in a different culture prompted Phokela to look closely at social ethics, an element which has manifested itself in his art. This is reflected in his painting The Trustafarian, an allegory of an upper middle class young people adopting a self-conscious counter culture lifestyle.
The painting shows a severed hand and dreadlocked head with a credit card lying beside what Phokela describes as a still painting – a reflection of how class has been completely wiped out in modern UK.
Phokela also pays particular interest to the charity organisation, Comic Relief's Red Nose Day, when people wear plastic red noses which are available, in exchange for a donation, from shops.
His focus on the red nose developed into a series of paintings which centre on the concept of a "giver and receiver". Enterprise, the only sculpture on show depicts three human skulls with a red nose transfixed to their nasal cavity with gold, silver and bronze nails. The message Phokela tries to brings across is that charity into the Third World is mostly enforced.
"This concept began as a joke when I remembered one incident where I bought a red nose and it fell off when I tried to fit it onto my nose. That's when I found out that the noses where not designed to be worn by people with a flat nose like mine."
For Phokela, settling in the UK brought about a clash of values. He remembers an incident during his student days at the Royal College of Art when his class had to do a live painting of a naked woman. He reluctantly acquiesced to do the painting but "just had to refer to (his African) culture" which inhibits displays of nudity.
However, Phokela says he has been accused of being a victim of white liberalism by his peers from South Africa living in the UK. He attributes the use of characters of key protagonists in Northern European settings because he wanted to do "something different".
Phokela explains that he is fascinated with iconography. "I usually like to research on mankind's icons like Che Guevera and explore why they have been elevated into that position."
Since his move to the UK, Phokela visited South Africa a number of times during the 1980s and 1990s when there was a lot of violence in the townships. These visits were deeply etched in his mind; that is why some of is work contains elements of "cuts and stitches". Currently, he says he is exploring the social and political climate in post-democratic South Africa.
Turning to his relationship with Durant Sihlali, Phokela said he met him in South Africa when he was teenager in the early 1980s. Sihlali stayed a few blocks from his home in Soweto, he says. "He was like a father figure and his work influenced me a lot. He actually opened up avenues for me."
Sihlali passed away in 2004 and is remembered for capturing the experiences of black people in a humane way. He taught art at the groundbreaking Funda Centre in Soweto at a time when teaching arts was rare within the black community.
Asked what would be the best contributing factor to the development of visual arts in previously disadvantaged communities like his home place, Soweto, Phokela says visual art should be introduced as a subject in all schools and, like maths and history, and taught to students to make them better artists".
For more information on Phokela's solo exhibition, Johannes Phokela: Translation, at JAG, contact Tshidiso Makhetha on 011 725 3130.
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