
Helene Love-Allotey
Head of Department
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Head of Department
Provenance
Acquired from Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, 2015;
A private collection.
Exhibited
Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, Mawande Ka Zenzile: Experimentation: All Hell Break Loose, (May- July 2014)
Renowned for his cross-media works, Mawande Ka Zenzile obtains a consistent material use of the found or accessible object within his work. Equally consistent are the concepts of politics and history within his work. The present work presents a perfectly synthetisation of the two. In composition and form, the work displays the famous image of the moments after the assassination of President John F Kennedy; his wife Jackie then reaching for their bodyguard over the boot of the car. In using the most humble of mediums, earth and cow dung (amongst oil paint), we can get a sense of Ka Zenzile's interest in the rise and fall of concepts of power. Ka Zenzile explains:
"For me, art becomes a space for contemplation where new allegories meet the old ones and out of this fusion I develop different ways to expose how power works in our society and histories". (Mawande Ka Zenzile quoted in 'Dung and politics: Mawande Ka Zenzile at Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg', Wallpaper*, (August 22, 2022)).
In the same year as this work's creation Ka Zenzile also won the 2014 Michaelis Prize from the prestigious Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. The artist has since exhibited his work globally.
Bibliography
Mawande Ka Zenzile quoted in 'Dung and politics: Mawande Ka Zenzile at Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg', Wallpaper*, (August 22, 2022)