Motoloki gets inspiration from relief sculptures
Spira Tlhankane | Friday April 30, 2021 15:36
Relief sculpture is a complex art form that combines many features of the two-dimensional pictorial arts and the three-dimensional sculptural arts. On the one hand, a relief, like a picture, is dependent on a supporting surface and its composition must be extended in a plane in order to be visible.
“My works are about everyday life as Africans, I do use old tins, cloth, sand or anything that I come across which can fit into the work. One of my paintings is titled Promised Land. It is township settlement with old political poster, and it talks about everyday promises by politicians but people and settlements remain the same after years. Despite that the politicians will still come back after years to say the same things and people will still vote for them,” he explained to Arts & Culture in an interview.
The award winning artist who has collaborated with Tshediso Kedumetse, Mpho Kgopiso, Moleboge Mokgosi and Loretta Mekgwe further said he thought of the exhibition last year but it was only in January this year that he sat down with art manager, Thabo Kgatlwane to organise an exhibition.
“Initially I was to do it alone but I told him I would like to collaborate with other artists because we do not have enough galleries, I wanted them to also get a chance especially upcoming ones such as Mpho Kgopiso and Moleboge Mokgosi and more experienced Tshidiso and Mekgwe, we included two ladies for them to get chance too. This was very exciting as we worked nicely with each other until the success of the show,” he highlighted.
Motoloki also said as visual artists they were also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic since they had no place to exhibit.
He said people had no money to buy their art because the latter had to attend to more pressing issues than art. “There are other positives like being able to learn to sell through social media or use of modern technologies. We had more chance to produce despite empty stomachs,” he added.
He said the ongoing exhibition called Signature was about individuals mark, style and execution. “All five artists had different styles. It reflects individuals’ background, we left out the signatures deliberately to challenge the viewer to be able to identify the artist work trough their marks,” he concluded.