11 october 2022, Wouter van den Eijkel
Stories by contemporary African Artists at Gallery Ron Mandos
Work by African artists is receiving increasing international attention. Gallery Ron Mandos currently presents three presentations by three contemporary African artists, Mohau Modisakeng, Ishmael Armarh and Kwadwo Amfo. They tell stories about traditions, the legacy of colonialism and the impact of globalization.
The best known of the three artists is Mohau Modisakeng (Soweto, South Africa, 1986), whose work over the past decade has been included in the collections of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, IZIKO South African National Gallery and the SAATCHI Gallery in London. Madimatle is the interdisciplinary South African artist's fourth solo presentation at Galerie Ron Mandos and takes its name from the mountain of the same name in the north of the country. In Setswana, the local language, Madimatle means pure or royal blood.
Mohau Modisakeng, MADIMATLE 2, 2022, Galerie Ron Mandos
Madimatle Mountain, especially the caves, has been sacred ground to the locals for centuries. A spiritual place to honour the ancestors, where people go for prayers and rituals. Five years ago, the mountain became the subject of controversy when it emerged that an Australian mining company was planning to excavate the top of the mountain. This was met with much community opposition and sparked a heated legal battle that continues to this day.
The Madimatle Mountain suddenly became a place where worlds collide: traditions and spirituality encounter economic considerations and rationality. A place where local customs suddenly had to give way to the international demand for minerals.
It is not surprising that Modisakeng is making a series of works on this subject, because this case relates directly to his practice. In his photos, films and installations, he uses materials, metaphors and the black body to explore how the violent past of his homeland is reflected in the cultural, political and social consciousness of South African citizens today.
In the photos from the series of works about the Madimatle Mountain, we see people performing rituals against the dark brown earth of an excavated mountain wall. They throw lime into the air and assume graceful poses. They also often wear blue robes; a reference to the colour of the sea, the place of wisdom.
Mohau Modisakeng, BAGOLO (THE ELDERS), 2022, Galerie Ron Mandos
In another series of works, also made on the mountain, we see a shirtless elderly man in a two-piece suit and a hat. He sits on strips of fabric stretched above the ground. He holds a sewing machine tightly with his arms. Lars Been of Gallery Ron Mandos: “The sewing machine symbolizes the postcolonial limbo in which (South) Africans find themselves. On the one hand, the machine represents colonial rule and the introduction of western clothing in favour of traditional clothing. On the other hand, the machine stands for the possibilities it offers for making clothes yourself.”
Mohau Modisakeng, LERE (THE STAFF), 2022, Galerie Ron Mandos
In another series in, in the back room, Modisakeng discusses the same intertwining with regard to religion. In a series of self-portraits, he mixes elements of indigenous religion with the iconography of Christianity. For example, the brim of his hat serves as a halo and he holds a staff, as bishops do. At the same time, he is holding a wreath made of the dried flowers of a South African sage plant, a plant that was often smoked to induce trance.
Ishmael Armarh, Queen Mother, 2022, Galerie Ron Mandos
In the presentation Possibilities by Ishmael Armarh, which can be seen in the front space, the relationship between traditions on the one hand and post-colonialism and globalization on the other is also discussed. Albeit in a totally different way.
Ishmael Armarh (1986 in Accra, Ghana) uses a contemporary pointillist style to depict the ways in which Africans shape their identity through clothing. You can dress in traditional costume such as the Ashanti chief, but also in a western suit. “Possibilities does not want to judge, one is not better than the other. Possibilities wants to show what can coexist,” said Joseph Awuah-Darko, director of the Noldor Residency, impeccably dressed in an Italian-made suit. “At home I often wear traditional clothes,” he says to emphasize the point.
Ishmael Armarh, Her's to reign, 2022, Galerie Ron Mandos
Armarh is a resident at the Noldor Residency, Ghana's first independent residency and fellowship program founded by Awuah-Darko. In a former factory building in Accra that has been converted into a studio complex, his foundation offers artists with limited resources, from Africa and its diaspora, the opportunity to create new work. Possibilities is the first collaboration between the Noldor Residency and Gallery Ron Mandos.
Madimatle by Mohau Modisakeng, Possibilities by Ishmael Armarh, and Dipo by Kwadwo Amfo can be seen at Galerie Ron Mandos in Amsterdam until 6 November.
