Depicting President Jacob Zuma in an artwork is a tricky business. It led to a court case for Brett Murray and caused a painting by Ayanda Mabulu to be censored at the Joburg Art Fair, until David Goldblatt intervened and reversed the decision.
Colbert Mashile’s painting titled Truth or Dare, which is being exhibited at his eponymous show at Everard Read Cape Town, won’t cause as much of a ruckus, despite Zuma being the central protagonist and depicted as a baboon. The only tell-tale sign that he is the subject is the shower motif, which cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro aka Zapiro employed as a defining index of Zuma’s identity. Zapiro got into hot water for depicting politicians as monkeys.
This hasn’t put Mashile off; he digs into his animal metaphor in this exhibition. The softly spoken and retiring artist doesn’t appear to be seeking attention, or wanting to stir things up too much. In his art and in this exhibition, he enjoys treading on the edge of truth.
"I make art intuitively. I don’t try to be too obvious or too serious. I use the animal characters as a way of storytelling."
Mashile has no interest in belittling Zuma while depicting him as a baboon. "You cannot reason with a baboon, but he knows how to survive. He is smarter than everyone else in the bush, he lives for today and gets rich for today, he doesn’t see much into the future."
The snake, which sits inert near the baboon in Truth or Dare, represents the truth, says Mashile.
All of the subjects in the artworks in this exhibition are animals. Hyenas, rabbits, cats, lizards and crocodiles appear in intimate domestic settings, fixing the anthropomorphic theme. The tradition of using animals in political satire might have Eurocentric roots, but Mashile draws inspiration from African traditions in which clans have animal totems.
"The animal for each clan tells you something about the character of that clan. My father’s clan is linked to lions, my mother’s [clan], pythons," the artist says.
"We tell stories, poems about each totem to elevate the animal. So, even if you are a tortoise, there will be a poem that highlights its strengths."
He has lived in big cities since moving to Joburg in the early ’90s to study art, but his worldview and his art fundamentally remains rooted in his rural upbringing in Bushbuckridgein Mpumalanga. "It has had a profound impact on me. There was no electricity, no radio, no TV there until 1994. I know darkness in a way that city people don’t," Mashile says.
"When the clouds start rolling in, I think about goats, what to do with the animals. A person who grew up in the city is worrying that their car will get damaged by the rain."
His rural upbringing engendered a close attachment to nature, the land, subtle shifts in it and animal life. The lizards that recur in his artworks were common to the area in which he grew up. "They kept bobbing their heads up as if trying to speak to you," he recalls.
In his work In State Of, a lizard is making a dash across a bedroom floor towards a cup on which a hyena has his eyes trained.
"The lizard lives under the bed, he is powerless." Knowing what the associations with animals are from which Mashile draws sheds light on his art, but he has set out to create ambiguous stories and characters that are universal, open to interpretation. "I enjoy the open-endedness of it. If I depicted political realities directly, it would be a smack in the face. I want viewers to make up their own stories. It is more interesting that way," Mashile says.
The humour in his art is unmistakable. Temptation depicts a lizard crossing a stick between two single beds. "He is trying so hard to get to the other bed, believing it will be different, but it is just the same on the other side," he says.
This scene could refer to the interchangeability of political parties, to immigration or even swapping partners. In this way, his art reflects on power dynamics within families, romantic relationships and what is happening in politics.
The political turn in Mashile’s art is somewhat of a new phase — he has been working this theme into his art since 2014. He has largely been known for more surreal work with less logical narratives, though references to African traditions have been steadfast.
"I used to be more concerned with communicating my own traditional rituals and allowing my innate personality to come out without any hindrances," Mashile says. He continues to embrace an intuitive approach to art-making — he is simply applying it to different subject matter.
Arriving back in Joburg after a three-year stint lecturing in KwaZulu-Natal steered his art in a different direction. The city’s lampposts were covered in posters advertising political stories, which he wanted to translate in his idiosyncratic way.
He has always interpreted his experiences of the world and himself through art. As a child he drew elaborate works in sand, which his mother would guard closely. He had no exposure to formal art until he arrived in Pretoria to study administration.
"When I saw a painting for the first time, I was so taken by it even though it was probably terrible. I spent all my time in the Pretoria art museum," Mashile says.
He is a full-time artist and his work fetches healthy sums, particularly from international buyers, who are taken by the obvious African quality that they exude, most obviously expressed through his depiction of animals.
He isn’t much interested in art theory or international trends in art. Mentors during his years at the Wits Art School, such as Clive van den Berg, Alan Crump and Penny Siopis, instilled a belief in him to follow his own path. It has been a unique one in which the traditions of western painting and African traditions have found expression.
"I can’t shake off all my influences [western, African]; they are ingrained in me," Mashile says.
• Truth or Dare shows at Everard Read Cape Town until May 7.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.