Phansi Museum invites the public to the
opening of the Postmodern NDEBELE
exhibition on September 16, 2017. The exhibition illustrates how Ndebele art
exploded into greatest postmodern art and architecture of Southern Africa.
Ordinary, everyday people become sculptors, huts become palaces, beaded
paintings become the expression of individuality.
It is believed that wall decorating amongst
the Ndebele began with the construction of their simple adobe huts. The wet
plaster created opportunities to mould, to incise and engrave the
surfaces. Geometric patterns were filled
in and reinforced with lines, speckles and different shades of earth and at
times pebbles. The outlines defined the geometry. Although much of this process
was to beautify, it was also an annual ritual that dealt with maintenance
issues and a background to ancient rituals and celebrations.
The painted murals were first recognised by
outsiders in the 1940’s and brought to public’s attention in 1950 with the
opening of a tourist village north of Pretoria, where the geometric,
non-pictorial decorations begin to promote something entirely different. Tribal
rituals and feasts become major public events and festivals and places where
the community could feel whole again. In order to celebrate this progression or
transition, the Ndebele people turned to art. But this time, it was different -
no longer the humble, modest art of their pre-war and dispersal traditions, but
the loud vigorous art of the advertisers, marketers and “Fine Artists”
surrounding them. The murals which in the past were a salute to the ancestors
and a celebration of the rites of passage became billboards of aspirations and
dreams, visualisations of the future and lights, wonderful houses and villages
and distant communications through wire, travel and technology.
From the 1950’s onwards façade painting
under the influence of the iconic Ndebele pattern artists became somewhat
prescribed and artists now explored their newfound freedom of expression in
their beadwork.
Architects, anthropologists and art lovers
hankered after the origins of the patterns and the geometry of the Ndebele; all
which transpired before the influence of western culture technology and
materials. They searched for the
original meanings and compositions of colours, beads and shapes and soon enough
the patterns and colours of the Ndebele crept onto public buildings onto
floors, billboards and walls. At the same time, art lovers and collectors
started to collect ‘pure white Ndebele’ and marvel at the art. Soon enough,
strong black lines began to frame the patterns and images and a transition is
seen in the colour preferences of the artists and community who eventually
moved away from using colours from ‘the earth’ to using bright colours they
purchased from the ‘winkle’ / shop.
The façade making and painting of the
Ndebele drew ever more tourists and certainly put the Ndebele on the map. Not
only to every other member of this community but more importantly to thousands
of tourists, architects, anthropologists, home-decorators and others. Journals
dug into the mysteries and began to look backwards with fantastic
illustrations.
At home, the proud Ndebele women continued
to bead their own artworks, unrestrained by what academics wanted them to do.
The artworks created for rituals, for example the brides’, and the mothers’
front aprons became canvasses (or leathers) onto which amazing aspirations and
ambitions were beaded. Craft took a backseat now, a simple lazy-stitch was
quite enough, the then present colour pallet of beads prevailed - geometry was
the rule. No life or people were depicted, this was a time of building dream
homes or palaces and this became the subject matter.
With time, the buildings became flags, signals
rather than aspirations. Certain signs and symbols gave away clues, such as the
famous razor blade used to illustrate the celebration of a young man returning
from isolation. Rituals became Art Festivals and Exhibitions and individuals,
especially the girls about to become women turned themselves from modest body
artists into fantastic sculptures, probably taking their cue from the Michelin
Man staring down from the roofs of the great lorries traveling between mines
and the neighbourhood. While Esther Mahlangu’s BMW and the British Airways kept
spreading the good news of the Ndebele around the world and assisted them in
gaining international recognition as fantastic folk artists.
When all is considered and one carefully
scrutinizes this exhibition it is evident that the Ndebele are the most obvious
example in the world of Art and Architecture.
The exhibition will be opened by Prof
Franco Frescura on September 16 and will run until September 30, 2017.
The Phansi Museum is situated at 500 Esther
Robert Road, Glenwood, Durban. For more information contact the Director,
Sharon Crampton on 031 206 2889 or admin@phansi.com
or visit www.phansi.com
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