One of my favourite artists is South Africa's own
Judith Mason (http://www.judithmason.com/). I "discovered" her art one Friday afternoon at the Pretoria Art Museum, and haven't been able to get it out of my head. Her artwork leaves you with a kind of haunting feeling, the work draws extensively on religion, but it is also informed by her exploration of mythological creatures. Animals like the leopard, hyena, ape and monkey feature widely in her work as they symbolise our lower instincts. Another important feature is the fusion between beauty and ugliness. This symboilises the fact of how awful and misleading pain is. Her work also reflects on socio-political issues, such as homeless people, street children, HIV/AIDS, abortion, war and the conflict under Apartheid.
Background
Judith Mason was born in Pretoria in 1938. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in the 1950s, obtaining a BA Degree in Fine Art in 1960. Her first solo show was held in 1964. In the 1970s and 80s Mason was highly visible in the South African art world at a time when the country was isolated both politically and culturally from the rest of the world. In the early 1990s Mason returned from living and teaching in Florence, Italy. At this time, her work became part of the South African school and university curricula. Mason is still prolific well into in the 21st century and is represented in major public collections in South Africa, as well as in Europe, the USA and Australia. Apart from producing a large body of work over the decades, Mason has published her work in books, sometimes in collaboration with poets. She lives and work in South Africa, and has a studio in the United States of America.
Favourite Art Pieces and Judith Mason Quotes
Waiting (2005)
"My mantra is that ‘Everything that lives is holy’ – with the exception of racists, demagogues, mosquitoes and people who fix cricket matches"
Middle aged Daphne, Middle aged Eve (1972)
"My politics are liberal humanist. My faith is inquisitive infidel – not atheist, as I loathe the condescension of their secular priests."
Battery Hen (1987)
"Life has been, for me, a mass of contradictory and often threatening stimuli, flashing past at random. My attempts to catch, pin down and identify some of these are what my work is about."
Monkey Shrine / Triptech (1987)
"I am a crone, not a woman, and I want to embrace all the freedom that this status bestows"
The man who sang and the woman who kept silent (1998)
The man who sang and the woman who kept silent (1998)
This artpiece is one of three pieces. I had to share the history behind it.
This work was partly inspired by a story Mason heard on the radio in 1995, at the time of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings. It was about the execution of a liberation-movement cadre, Phila Ndwandwe,who the security police tortured and kept naked for ten days, before assassinating her in a kneeling position. Before Ndwandwe was killed, she made a pair of panties for herself out of a piece of blue plastic. Later, when Ndwandwe’s naked body was discovered in a shallow grave, the thin piece of plastic still covered her private parts. The first part of the title refers to another cadre, Herold Sefola, who asked to sing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica (South Africa's National Anthem) before he was executed.This is for all the victims of the Apartheid regime even after it was abolished.
Amazing isn't it? SuzieQ
