Modise exhibits at Casa Labia Gallery, Cape Town
Staff Writer | Friday April 24, 2015 18:00
The exhibition is titled Ground Zero, and opened on February 28. It is scheduled to run until April 26.
Modise went on a walkabout last Saturday when he interacted with art enthusiasts, and gave a talk on his artworks.
This is his eighth solo exhibition and is a continuation of themes explored from the National Art Gallery of Namibia held in June 2014 titled ‘Line of Duty’, which comprised of black and white photography and linocut prints.
The graphic line-work, which characterises Modise’s work in both linocut prints and in paint, includes subject landscapes, interior scenes and portraits; and in this exhibition, still live.
His experience gained from teaching textile design undoubtedly reinforces his interest in line, repetition and rhythm. He, however, is principally interested in how lines shape us. Modise has explored the rhythm of line in various ways, either reducing the image to a series of lines that explore the contours of the subject (whether the human face or a mountain range) or by superimposing the line work over the subject.
The origin of the line-work stems from a number of sources, including the lines of our fingerprints that identify who we are, the line-work that forms the background on currency, which prevents counterfeiting and ascribes value to a piece of paper, and the lines that form the contours of cartography that describe the geography of where we live.
They form the pattern behind visas and passport pages authenticating our identity. Lines on maps divide us and visas box us in, imposing where we must live and where we may or may not enter, he says. By examining different currencies and the images incorporated therein – political leaders, landscapes, animals – Modise questions who we give acknowledgement to and what we ascribe value to. He created his own series of currency in Line of Duty featuring Sam Nujoma, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, and this series is continued in Ground Zero.
Ground Zero comprises two bodies of work, firstly a series of oil paintings exploring the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 200, and secondly a series of linocuts focusing on former South African president, Nelson Mandela. Modise visited New York and ‘ground zero’ in 2008. This experience had a profound effect on him, the echoes of which have now risen up and are made to manifest in this body of work.
In Ground Zero still-life series, the lines that define us have become metaphorical, stemming from the force of impact and collapse of the Twin Towers that sent out shockwaves from the epicentre, both physical and social, the ripple effect still echoing around the globe.
The stills symbolically convey the aftermath of the attack, both in terms of the lives lost in the attack, trying to piece together and clear up the impact zone, and in lives lost in action taken following the attack. Modise condenses this highly emotive subject to simple objects, which become iconographic elements.
These objects reduce the subject to a ‘neutral space’ discharged of its emotion – the still-lives are painted hyper-realistically, imitating the smoothness of a mechanised ‘perfect’ image.
On the surface it acts as a stand-in for a product endorsement or commercial poster. The high gloss black background, which mirrors and reflects the items brings to mind the reflective surface of a cellphone, but this is the illusion of the surface. The seeming neutrality invites us to engage with and look deeper than the surface reflection at the questions he poses with the choice of objects he presents to tell this story. The tradition of the still-life as a memento mori continues with Modise framing the use of the genre as such: “I used still life composition as a symbol of life lost (still life-life lost)”.
The still life acts as a reminder of the ever-present death in life. The event that Modise has focused on contains within it the loss of lives during the 9/11 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 2,996 people. The ripple effect led to the deaths of soldiers and civilians in a counterattack measure on Iraq, the count presently being around 200,000 and still rising. Modise ascertains that the impact, the shock of events such as these, live on in our hearts and that we carry them everywhere with us.
The items that he uses repeatedly throughout the still-life series include the following: tins of Coca Cola, tins of Monster energy drink, orange traffic cones, protective hardhats, red and white cordon tape, numbers nine and 11 pool balls, enamel mugs and a broken glass trophy.
Unless we know that these objects reflect the Ground Zero of 9/11 we could also read the accumulation of items as being symbolic of construction or demolition sites.
The pervasiveness and globalisation of American culture is represented specifically by the Coca-Cola and Monster energy drinks, which Modise calls our attention to. Modise depicts the cans resting inside enamel mugs, a ubiquitous symbol of the black African labourer, a transportable and unbreakable Coke and a half loaf of bread being the typical lunch of the day labourer.
The use of ‘soft-sell’ words like ‘soft-drink’ obscures the link between obesity and diabetes occurring worldwide within lower economic strata, as American fast food chains and soft-drinks become a new way of life.
The Coca-Cola Corporation has brought out Coke Light and Coke Zero as an alternative, but the consumer is not privy to all the ingredients. We could then ask who is the Monster, the terrorist, the invader?
Modise includes a broken glass trophy within the compositions. The meaning ascribed to the broken trophy by Modise is that of shattered dreams and loss through death of a loved one – something that never can be made whole again.
The trophy slices across objects, distorting and shattering their appearance. They act as prisms, refracting light but also focusing it on the subject.
Modise plays with reflection, refraction and distortion; the works quietly and darkly explore a multiplicity of realities.
The linocut series of ‘Ground Zero’ focuses on former South African president and world icon of peace, Nelson Mandela.
The line work of this series can be read in various ways - the lines radiate from his face outwards signalling the impact he has had on the world. In a traditional isiXhosa song the lead sings out a line. The chorus either echoing back his words or building on their meaning, rippling back and forth between call and answer, call and tribute, then answers him.
The impact that Mandela had on Southern Africa in his emphatic stance on peace and non-retaliatory counteractive violence lies in contrast to the repercussions following 9/11. He epitomised the ethos of Ubuntu – the value of relationships and our fellow human beings because ‘I am and we are who we are because of who you are - I am a person because you are a person’; the ripples of cause and effect that link and bind us all to one another.
Modise is a Motswana artist based in Windhoek, Namibia.
Modise obtained a Diploma in Visual Arts in 2007 from the University of Namibia. Following this he taught at various institutions in both Botswana and Namibia. He is currently a textile lecturer at the College of the Arts in Windhoek. Modise has taken part in 30 group exhibitions both in Namibia and South Africa.
He has also participated in various residencies in South Africa and at the Caribbean Contemporary Arts Centre (CCA) in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago.