SAFFCA Artist of The Month MAY 2020

While navigating through the extraordinary times challenging all of us at present, it appeared meaningful and primordial to us to preserve and assume the pursuit of our aims:

• To share Art through love and passion.

• To support, nurture and promote the Contemporary Art and artists of Southern Africa.

• To participate in linking Local to Global.

In addition to the first SEED Salons, we are introducing the SAFFCA artist of the month to introduce to our audience of art lovers the confirmed emerging talents in which we believe and which will be taking part in SEED-2 amongst many other talents.

It is essential to support promising talent. Even William Kentridge, Picasso, or El Anatsui were at some stage of their careers confirmed emerging artists.

When you engage with one of three the works and accept to become its custodian, you will:

. Offer economic support to an artist allowing her or him to continue their priesthood. Indeed, the grand priests of our society need to ensure their survival or sustenance like most of us.

. Confirm to the artist that her or his practice is worthy of their dedication.

. Share your engagement with the work with many of your friends and grow the awareness for the artist’s opus.

. Help the artist gain specific exposure outside of the galleries’ realm.

. Entrust us with our SAFFCA recommendation and offer support to the artist and to 4 noncommercial entities which form an essential part in the Johannesburg Contemporary Art Ecosystem.

. Widen your perceptions.

. and probably make a gentle and serene investment in a different asset class which will give you years of pleasure.

At this end of May 2020, we have selected for you an amazing fresh talent. To meet her was a truly exhilarating experience. Bontle will introduce you to:

Cow Mash

SAFFCA Artist of the month of May 2020

Cow Mash describes her current work as: “inspired by her self-given name “Cow” which she correlates to cultures and symbols of the cow within the Sepedi traditions, as well as globally. Through cow metaphors, she tries to situate herself between the traditional and contemporary world. Cow creates drawings on synthetic leather and sculptural works using synthetic wools, combining various fabrics. She reflects on the transformation and evolution of culture by using synthetic leather rather than authentic cowhide. Her doodle-like, repetitive lines in her drawings and meditative approach to sculpting are a means of self-contemplation, healing, and finding a sense of belonging.”

*The artworks discussed in SAFFCA Artist of The Month are available for purchase.  Please send a mail to foundation@saffca.com, should you wish to be a custodian of one of the works.

“KOKOMOGA”

Kokomoga means ‘to swell’ in Sepedi. In this sculpture, the enamel bowl is reminiscent of family functions where cooking for large groups is accompanied by the use of this type of bowl.

“My mother tells me of the olden days when they would bake fermented steam bread, they would cover the bread mixture with a grass matt and leave it in the sun to ferment. The swollen bread could take on the print of the grass matt that acted as a lid for the swelling.”,

says Cow Mash

In Kokomoga Cow Mash creates a texture, using the grass matt that her mother refers to above and places a figure on all fours on top of its surface. The grass matt or what one can refer to as a rug or carpet, in this case, can be seen as a metaphor for concealing one’s personal troubles – this being inspired by the popular English idiom: “sweeping things under the rug”. The work unveils multiple meanings, which slowly begin to unfold as one engages with the artwork. In the first instance, one sees the female ‘cow’, that the artist refers to, in a position of tribulation as we find the figure physically brought to her knees on all fours in subservience. Upon a second reflection of the figure and the pose it assumes, we see a resemblance of the four-legged cow in a standing position, which for the animal, represents fortitude and strength. In a third reflection, the kneeling position on all fours, that represented tribulation in the first instance can also be seen as a position of prayer. Reminiscent of the surrender most of us are taught to take in our early childhoods, we are reminded that this surrender can bring forth a renewed sense of internal empowerment. The beautiful dichotomy of this work sees a figure that appears at first to be literally and figuratively “brought to her knees”; yet the inevitable rising of the surface that this ‘cow’ rests on reminds us that she is returning to strength and overcoming everything that had initially brought her to her knees, as the inside of the bowl underneath her begins ‘to swell’ or Kokomoga.

“THE HERD PORTRAIT SERIES”

The herd series of Cow Mash consists of portraits that use cow ears on a human face. The ears are “all the better to hear you with” as the wolf in the fairy tale The Little Red Riding Hood would say.

The play is on the word “herd” (like a herd of cows) and its homophone “heard”. Much like an individual cow in a large breeding farm that is possibly not heard; the herd of women who came before and possibly after the artist are considered in these works. They too might not have been heard in a similar sense. Cow Mash creates portraits that are reminiscent of herself and the women who preceded her, as a metaphor for the lonely cow in the herd.

Cattle tags are used by farmers to identify and better manage their stock, and as such these portraits have a tag on the ear. The artist metaphorically counts herself into the ‘herd’ with her birthdate as the tag number. 

Response to Cow Mash’s work:

On Domestication and Culture by Bontle Tau

Through her work, Cow Mash is able to present the viewer with both an inward and outward perspective on domestic affairs; and in doing so she contextualizes matters of a singular household within other widely inclusive concepts and larger conversations like those of culture, belonging, and social status. By merely zooming into the inner workings of a traditional Sepedi home, as she experiences it daily, these works open up space for broader thoughts and interactions through their unraveling. The conversation of intimate spaces of domesticity and introspection that one finds in these works, manages to reflect, with utmost subtlety, on topics that address contemporary cultural narratives.  

As the primary foundation for the artwork Kokomoga, Mash makes of the very specific enamel bowl – an object which is immediately associated with an African household upon first glance. Choosing to elevate a pre-supposedly mundane object like this as part of the artwork, organically makes this object a visual memento for the African culture. The humble act of placing a female figure on the enamel bowl brings about an association with one of the core aspects of African womanhood.

Womanhood is explored further and celebrated in The Herd portrait series as the artist questions the notions of individuality and belonging – more specifically of who or what something or someone might belong to. There is an ambiguity and open-endedness in Mash’s subtle wordplay heard and herd. Yet again a closeness is here underpinned by the notion of listening to a particular voice, and the significance of that very same voice within a collective. While gender roles in this work only sit in the conceptual background and are merely touched on, they seem to rest in the psyche, brewing further questions that extend beyond the original domestic platform.

One cannot interact with Cow Mash’s work and ignore the powerful symbol of the cow that she pays homage to throughout her oeuvre. A symbol that is immensely significant to African households which serves a beacon for nobility, marriage, and social status. The symbol of the cow is invaluable to African domesticity and identity. It has been the traditional bridge for joining households for generations and will continue to do so for the generations to come. A simple four-legged creature, that retains both an inward and outward position in the African home allows for a dual perspective on a culture that seeps through the underbelly of the African continent.

In conversation with Pierre Lombart, about these particular works, the use of the word “domestication” became prevalent throughout. We often discussed how artists can express the celebration of daily chores. Which can be found the opus of Jan Vermeer, or even closer to us, in the works Usha Seerjam. Beauty emanates from the mundane. However, this domestication does not go unchallenged. The cow for example, originally a free wild being that has now been tamed and domesticated to a farmer’s will, with a tag and an enclosure to prove it. Women are seemingly not exempt from this narrative of domestication, indeed they are placed in the enclosure of a household, and surrounded props designed for their role, like brooms or aprons. The question remains unanswered as to why the woman is considered the ideal candidate for this domestic role. This is a matter that is grappled with further than the boundaries of the African continent for a large majority of women. It remains a marvel to see the level of intricacy evoked by Cow in her as a launchpad for critical thinking. A resilient appreciation resides with us after engaging with Cow Mash’s work.

With sincere gratitude, one hopes that Mash will continue to contribute to the visual art culture in this humble, yet truly impactful approach.