Accessioned: 01/TArttachL20XXI:23 July 2021
>Nngwe<
01/TArttachL20XXI: Online Live Catalogue #5Artists: Tumelo Mphela Bruce Bowale Boitelo Hlalele Motaung Theophelus Rikhotso Themba Given Msiza Collection value: ZAR R20 900,00
Foreword
>The Arttach List < is an invitation only artworks listing on Intraparadox. Five artworks including biographical details of their outlets, the artists, are listed for a period of three months, 21 July to September 21, 2021 on this platform. Intraparadox is driven by one aim, to document the lives of our artists, in as much as possible and with the immediacy our contemporary artist deserves. One of the ways to achieve this is through the interview; either in its transcript format or as a raw audio file; if badimo could always allow it – experienced live, simultaneously with the viewing of the work of the artist torpedoes the artist’s personage towards clarity par-excellence.
This fine art listing, The Arttach List, as a concept is another way to tell the story of our artists. But with an added dimension. To ask the artists to select and contribute a personal favourite amongst their available artworks and present it to the public in an intertextual relation interaction with their biographical details. The results are nothing short of a feeling of familiarity with the featured artist despite our critical assessment of their artistic enterprise in its totality should we belong to the league of emerging scholars well-versed in the artist in question’s artistic grandeur.
>Pedi<The Listing>>>
Tumelo Mphela
Tumelo Mphela was born on 29 June 1995 in the rural village of Mohlotlo, Limpopo Province. He started with school at Cornelius Madibane in 2001 which also included a high school. His Teachers at that comprehensive School recognized his talent and encouraged him to pursue a career in art. Mphela went on to study Fine Arts at Tshwane university of Technology in 2016 completing his studies there in 2019.
Initially, Mphela fell in love with pencil drawing due to its versatility in creating subtle textures and tones. Later on he broadened his range to encompass other mediums as well as venturing into sculpture. His artworks mostly address social issues and he aims to create artworks that elicit emotional responses in the viewer.
Exhibitions
In 2018 Tumelo Mphela exhibited in Art Shift Exhibition: New Voices Shifting the Creative Arts of Pretoria. In 2019 Mphela exhibited twice at Trent gallery. His first exhibition there was titled Vision of The Soul which open on 03 February. That exhibition was followed by Personal Realities which opened on 15 June. In the interim between these two exhibitions, in February, the artist’s work was featured in Retro Rabbits, a TUT-Fine Art Student Exhibition.
In October of this busy year for Tumelo Mphela his work was featured first featured in The for Sale Project Exhibition Group Exhibition, subtitled: Discourses that are inherent in the Society at the Pretoria Art Museum, opening on 12 October. Then came the Living Legends, Helen Sebidi Exhibition at Javett Art Centre – UP, a collaboration exhibition between Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria which opened on 17 October. While The Aesthetic of Time, an annual Limpopo artists’ exhibition opened the following day at Polokwane Art Museum.
Artist Statement
I am passionate about drawing and sculpting. I use both two dimensional and three dimensional artistic presentation to create a sensory experience for the viewer and to direct their attention to socio-political issues such as poverty and oppression. I aim to express emotions and my subject matter is selected carefully in order to evoke a viewer’s engagement with the underlying narrative inherent in my work.
Today our society has come to be aware of our fragile natural environment and the fact that our natural resources in Africa are not infinite. Our use of land has become part of environmental and socio-political issue the world over. As Africans we must pay attention to the way we represent ourselves to the international community, in terms of our use of resources.
This particular work submitted for The Arttach List focuses on the effects of mining on vulnerable communities. Mining has had a negative impact on my community back in Limpopo. Match sticks and lighters are used as metaphors of power, energy and action inherent in both the victims and the capitalist mining system that exploit them. In this difficult encounters it is the children in particular who are ultimately affected by poverty and oppression brought on by the negative effects of mining as an economic activity.
Make an offer to Mphela: tumelomphela94@gmail.com
Bruce Bowale
Bruce Bowale was born in Zebediela, Ga-Mmamogwasha. He started his schooling in 2003 at Mmamogwasha Primary School and then continued with his primary education at Sunnyside Primary School when his family relocated to the City of Tshwane in 2007. At that time he was doing Grade 4. During his schooling years at Sunnyside Primary School and later at The Glen High School Bowale was exposed to various creative art-forms such as music, drama and gumboots dance. The first major project related to visual art was a mural painting executed at Pretoria National Zoo in 2017. The project was made possible by the partnership between the Pretoria National Zoo and Tshwane University of Technology.
In 2015, Bruce Bowale matriculated from Glen High School and the following year he enrolled for a for Fine Art qualification at Tshwane University of Technology Fine and Applied Arts. He obtain a National Diploma in Fine Arts from Tshwane University of Technology in 2018.
Exhibitions
At the start of the busy 2018, Bowale he became a volunteer at the Pretoria Art Museum serving under the Education and Development Programme. As an Education Assistant he was responsible for conducting guided tours and for facilitating art making workshops. He had an exhibition with fellow volunteers under the title The Genesys Exhibition.
He was amongst the top five short-listed candidates for the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) 2018 Scholarship. And he was featured in the top 40 and top 100 of the States of The Art (SOTA) Exhibition. Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards competition respectivel. Additionally his work was also featured in the final top 100 Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards competition.
In 2019 he was part of the Artist Career Boot Camp (ACBC) wherein he was mentored by Lesley Cohn of Art Source South Africa. This program took place at the Bag Factory Studios and was funded by the National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) in association with the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios.
In 2020 he was part of a two-man exhibition with Chumisa Fihla at AVA (Association for Visual Art) Gallery in Cape Town whilst also taking part in a group show titled Home is Where the Art Is at Zeitz Mocaa Museum of contemporary Art Africa. The exhibition featured Cape Town based artists. Phoka Isaac Nyokong and Bonolo Kavula were amongst the exhibiting artists.
In April 2021 Bowale held a Pop-Up exhibition titled Mobu, his first solo exhibition, at Trent Art Gallery in Tshwane.
Conceptual Framework
Bruce Bowale’s art aims to reflect on how communication is situated in today’s social environment. He is fascinated by educational and linguistic changes that have occurred within our social environment since our grasp of globalization both as a catch phrase and as a practical phenomenon. His artistic output consists of drawings and mixed media collages. The production process involves fusing old Sepedi texts from (dipadi) novels, direto (poetry), dika le diema (proverbs and idioms) with their English literature equivalents.
Bowale remarks that the fusions of Sepedi and English texts are brought into an interplay with nostalgic images from his childhood to perform a function of story telling. They offer artistic insight into our state of being enshrined in our childhood memories. Seen in this light, Bowale’s work reinforces the bond between visual art practice and story-telling. With this mode of art production Bowale hopes to forge works that are open-ended in meaning.
Make an offer to Bowale: bruce.bowale@gmail.com
Boitelo Hlalele Motaung
Boitelo Hlalele Motaung was born on 17 March 1985 in Bethlehem, Free State. In 1996 his family moved to Gauteng and at different times the family would reside and relocate between communities, first in Ekurhuleni and then Tshwane. He started his primary schooling at Mokgoneng in Katlehong, but afterwards transferred to Eden College in Johannesburg. He was there for a short while because the family, its sojourning nature still intact, moved and he was to continue his primary schooling at Germiston South Primary School.
Then his family moved to Pretoria where he concluded his primary schooling at Valhalla Primary School in 1999. The following year he enrolled at Pretoria Technical High School (PTHS), and as impermanence would have it, he was compelled to move again, this time to QwaQwa, Qholaqhwe, Phuthaditjhaba where he lived with his father whilst repeating Grade 11. In 2006 Motaung matriculated from Makabelane Technical and Commercial High School. Following his matriculation he studied Hospitality Management at Tshwane North College in Lyttleton. He completed his college studies in 2009 and thereafter joined the South African National Defense Force’s Reserve Force, serving under its Military Hospital Services (SAMHS).
In June 2009, Motaung picked up the camera for the first to film a documentary called Ayashisa Amateki. He recalls that from that moment he became fascinated with the process of capturing the world. He started to take images of people he worked with and as his assuredness behind the lens grew, his fondness for photography as a medium of expression also grew. To further his skills he studied at what he calls YouTube University. Where he exclaims that he ‘discovered loads of tutorials that furthered his photographic skills.’
Motaung sees his art as an attempt to capture fleeting moments in life that are often missed or ignored. He adds that, frequently such moments hold so much untold beauty and peace and that it is through his lens that he attempts to capture these fleeting moments and afford the viewer with the opportunity to experience them.
Golden Dusk
Golden Dusk was captured in 2020. The 29.7cm x 42.0cm image has been reproduced on ultra premium luster photo paper and it is part of a series of images tilted Many Moons which is an ongoing project pursued by the artist. This body of work consists of a series of compositions that features the moon as a central theme. What unites the series is that the moon was been captured in the morning, at dawn, as the moon sets and the sun rises in the east. And in other iterations of this theme the moon was captured as it rises at dusk.
Make an offer to Motaung: bhmotaung@gmail.com
Theophelus Rikhotso
Theophelus Rikhotso was born on 01 May 1990 in a rural village of Bungeni, Njhakanjhaka, in Limpopo province. He discovered his artistic talent when he was about eight years old. Upon his artistic discovery his uncle Benjamin Rikhotso, a self-taught artist, served as an inspiration for the young Rikhotso to perfect his own artistic skills. In 1996 he started his primary schooling at Njhakanjhaka Primary School. Finishing there in 2002 and moving on to Marholeni High School in 2003. He completed his high school in 2008.
In 2015 Rikhotso was part of a community art project coordinated by Matsila Trust Fund under supervision and instruction of Mr Fanuel Mkhavele. His involvement in that project introduced him to painting. His passion for visual art ultimately led to his formal enrolment at Tshwane University of Technology Fine and Applied Arts in 2016. With a major in sculpture he completed his B-Tech in Fine and Applied Arts at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) 2019. He is currently enrolled at TUT for a Post-Graduate Course in Education (PGCE). Rikhotso believes that making art is a vehicle for the expression of his thoughts, memories and everyday life experiences. His work is mostly inspired by nature and his environment. The artist appreciates his rural upbringing and attributes it to having given him the perfect opportunity to observe nature; animals and birds especially the African pied crows.
Artist Statement
My work explores the everyday life experiences, thoughts and memories including socio-political issues, identity and inequalities within the social political sphere. Furthermore, my work investigate the way our identities have been imagined and shaped within a social-political ideology as well as the challenges facing us in our everyday lives as South Africans. In sculpture, my work process combines ready-made metal objects, Makarapa (M1. Hard Hat) and cement whilst for two dimensional works I work in various mediums such as charcoal, acrylic, oils and red soil(juwa), which I source from Limpop. In my work a shovel symbolizes strength while birds symbolizes metaphors. Objects are juxtaposed with each other to create a dialogue that stimulates an open-ended interactive response in the viewer as they bring their own experiences and personal narratives to bear on what they are looking at.
The work submitted for The Arttach List 20XXI, Reclaiming Conversation is part of concept centred works. In these recent works I am attempting to move outside of my comfort zone. This is why in this work you don’t see any of the symbols I normally use in my work. It is a charcoal drawing measuring 50cm x 70cm, unframed.
Group Exhibitions
In 2019 Rikhotso’s work was shown in two group exhibitions that opened on the same day on 03 February, Visions of the soulful at Trent gallery and New, at Johan van Heerden Gallery. Retro Rabbits/TUT- Fine Art exhibition opened towards the end of that month, on 22 February. Then in early winter Define Arts: African Renaissance group exhibition came. It opened at Kagiso Memorial and Recreational Centre on 31 May followed by Personal Realities, another group exhibition shown at Trent Gallery from 15 June 2019.
In spring his work was featured in a Group Show Exhibition at the Presidency Office, The Union Buildings, it opened on 10 October. Then the Living Legends, Helen Sebidi Exhibition at Javett Art Centre – UP, a collaboration between the University of Pretoria and Tshwane University of Technology opened on 17 October.
Midnight Blue group exhibition at Trent Art Gallery and The Annual Artists of Limpopo exhibition titled The aesthetics of time: in space of time at Polokwane Art Museum opened on 18 October 2019. Nearly a year was to pass before Rikhotso’s work was featured in an auction exhibition titled The Politics of The Now, part of the Blessing Ngobeni Art Prize – Aspire Art initiative. It officially opened on the 12 September 2020. Illovo, Sandton. Scattering Resources, Misrepresented Relief, opened at North-West University Art Gallery on18 November 2020.
PUBLICATIONS
2018: https://www.hashdon.co.za/2018/08/ArtShift-New-Voices-Shifting-the-Creative-Arts-of-Pretoria.html
2019: http://blog.retrorabbit.co.za/retro-rabbittut-fine-art-exhibition/
Make an offer to Rikhotso: theophelusr@gmail.com
Themba Msiza
Themba Given Msiza was born on 16 January 1986.He started school at Siyokela Primary School in Soshanguve Block AA, Pretoria, in 1990. He attended his high school at Kgomotso Comprehensive High School from 2000 to 2005. He matriculating at Tshwane North Collage in 2006 following fruitful efforts to upgrade some of his matric subjects.
In 2012 Msiza enrolled for a fine art degree at University of South Africa (UNISA). Although he excelled in his first year courses he unfortunately had to abandon his studies due to financial reasons. In 2013 he became part of Pretoria Art Museum’s Preparatory Programme and was trained to become a museum guide. This also entailed being an art facilitator for art making workshop projects coordinated by the museum as part of its Education Programme.
Exhibitions
In 2008, during heritage month, Msiza was part of a group exhibition at the nearby Babinaphuthi Secondary School. It is quite strange that that exhibition only received media coverage the following year when Msiza appeared in the Daily Sun news paper article celebrating heritage month.
In 2012, his work was shown in a group exhibition at Mabopane Indoor Sports centre alongside that of fellow artist Tshepo DD Maponyane’s. In 2013 he was part of The For Sale Project Exhibition group show at the Pretoria Art Museum.
In 2019 Asia: Go Tsamaya Ke Go Bona, Msiza’s first solo exhibition was held at the Pretoria Art Museum. That same year his work was also featured in Resistance is Us a group exhibition at ABSA Art Gallery, Johannesburg.
In 2019/2020 he participated in The Genysis Art Exhibition at BKhz Studios, Johannesburg. This is prior to BKhz Studio’s move from Braamfontein, Juta Street to 19 Keys Street, Rosebank. The Genysis Art Exhibition was a collaborative project between the Pretoria Art Musuem’s Education and Development Programme and BKhz Studio.
Malista: Rasebetsa
The theme of this artwork may bring a feeling of déjà vu especially to patrons who have seen my previous work. It references a piece titled Ditiro tsa dikontraka: Pay day which observes the treatment of foreign nationals working in construction companies in our country. As an ardent follower of Mo’Molemi’s music which, amongst its many messages talks about self-reliance, I have been inspired to work on this drawing as a response to one of his songs titled Malista.
In that song Mo’Molemi laments on the adverse inequality we continue to experience as a society. He notes that, although we claim to be free from oppression and revel on the notion of independency as South Africans, most black people continue to be dependent on those in power and see white people as masters. He notes that we are always working, we are tired and that even if you make it early at work you will find your master waiting for you.
Make an offer to Msiza: keapenta@gmail.com
Artist's profile photography acknowledgements Tumelo Mphela, Photographed by Theophelus Rikhostso Bruce Bowale, Photographed by James Aphane Boitelo Hlalele Motaung, Photographed by Sibusiso Tzonzi Theophelus Rikhotso, Photographed by Atlegang Maloka Themba Msiza, Photographed by Joy Khoza
Listed artworks data 1. Tumelo Mphela. I Wish I Knew (2019). Charcoal and reflectors on canvas. 98cm x 64cm. R 2 000.00 2. Bruce Bowale. Growing Chapters of Ous Past (2019). Ink, conte, charcoal, watercolour and found text on paper. 78cm x 128cm. R 7 000.00 (Unframed) / R 10 000.00 (Framed) 3. Boitelo Hlalele Motaung. Golden Dusk (2021). Digital Photography on ultra premium luster photo paper. 29.7 x 42.0cm. R 2 600.00 4. Theophelus Rikhotso. Reclaiming Conversation (2020). Charcoal on paper. 50cm x 70cm. 4 500.00 5. Themba Given Msiza. Malista: Rasebetsa (2021). Ballpoint and pastel on paper. A3. R 2000.00
>Tharo<Gratitude>>>
Heartful appreciation to the artists featured in this inaugural listing. I thank you for responding positively to the call to list your work with this platform as well as for making yourselves available, sometimes at awkward times, to help iron out discrepancies in the preparation and writing of this modest catalogue. You have provided me with yet another perspective to continue to tell the story of your lives, our art, and inevitably to contribute to the South African Art Historical narrative.
~ Mmutle Arthur Kgokong, 21 June 2021.
