#mitchelltut

Mitchel Tut Assignment 1 - T2

Mawande Ke Zenzile Sibhala sicima, 2016 - 17 Cow dung, earth, gesso and oil paint on canvas 133 x 184cm 

To Break this artwork down formally we can see (but mostly we are told) that the artist has used Cow dung and earth as mediums of paint. The colours are very earthy but used very monotonously, or simply, spread out over the surface of the canvas somewhat evenly. A small strip of pale greenish oil paint stands out separating the earth tones, creating what appears to be a horizon line. 

I know that Cow dung is used in Zulu culture as a means of construction and architecture as the Zulu people would and do create homes out of earth and cow dung, using it as a type of clay or concrete. This is a strong tradition which Ke Zenzile has learnt, developed and used in his paintings. I understand that this making process is a statement of culture and tradition. Ke Zenzile has used parts of his culture and combined it with a form of western culture (oil on canvas) to create, or rather further the conversation of cultural mixing. By mixing cow dung and earth with gesso, oil paint and canvas, the viewer could interpret this in two ways. Firstly, a statement that says - there are two traditions coming together to create art. The second and the harsher statement is - western culture is so ingrained and so apart of Africa, South Africa, that it is impossible to ignore, that it is never too far away, just like the horizon.    The latter statement refers to a long history of the continent and South Africa, and the relationship with Europe.  On another level, holding to the statement of the latter, this work, Sibhala sicima, Google translated reads as We write off. We write off what? who is doing the writing off? I think that the ‘We’ refers to the artist and his people, and the people he grew up with in the Eastern Cape. As for the ‘What is being written off’, I think that Ke Zenzile is trying to write off the influence of the west, or the colonizer. There’s an attempt to say, “Hey, look at all of our culture, look how rich the Zulu culture is. Look how beautiful it is and this is what it is about.”  I think that Ke Zenzile is trying to uplift this practice of using cow dung and earth as a medium and make a painting out of it and ask, or rather say, that this is okay because this is where this comes from, that people don't have to use just oil on canvas but rather you can use anything and it can hold ‘value’ because it is valuable. And now the word ‘Value’ because interesting because having work up in a gallery like, let's say, Stevenson, gives it some kind of value, but I think that Ke Zenzile is taking a stand against that type of institutionalized value system by not playing along with its tradition and using his own tradition and culture.  BUT The work was still made and exists in this type of institution and gallery system which means that, if this work is even about that, that there is some sort of shadowy game being played where the Artist gets to express themselves, but the western style commercial gallery gets your money, but so does the artist which they can use to make more work and critique the world around them but still have to show that work in a gallery space and so on and so on... 

However, this work is still representative of a culture whose voice has been silenced in the past, but now has room to shout which makes for interesting conversation and dialogue about the expression of culture in this country.