Artwork

Corruptam Translata Insigni

2019 Competition entry

Detail
Tags

Marius Jansen

Details:
Signed
Mixed media
920 x 630 mm
R12 500
Description:
The proliferation of corrupted social norms, has become an alarming discourse in the formation of a South African identity. Corruptam Translata Insigni, serves as a metaphorical expression of South Africa’s social dynamics that explores a sense of lost identity through the augmentation of familiar and unfamiliar ideologies.

The title of the artwork Corruptam Translata Insigni stems from the Latin origin, meaning: “The corrupted translated onto an emblem.” The title in itself embodies the essence of the painting in which South African symbols bear a testimony that acts as an engraving of the self on the landscape. It makes us understand something and it imposes it on us, to an extent where the South African identity portrayed in an emblem becomes an allegory instead of factual history.

Central to the painting, is the iconography of South Africa’s national flower, Protea cynaroides, rooted amongst the overgrowth of cannabis plants. The King Protea has always been one of the cherished national symbols identified in South Africa since 1976. However, with corruption manifested into all sectors of life, a cherished identity slowly diminishes from a familiar identity to an accepted unfamiliar portrayal. The idea of corruption is firstly revealed in the positioning of the protea, which is deliberately placed off-centre within the emblem shaped canvas. Furthermore, the painting explores this notion in the portrayed imagery of the cannabis plants growing alongside the Protea, in which the painting deals with the controversial perceptions of cannabis that was in the past perceived as an illegal drug, but today a legal medicinal substance. Therefore, the painting allows for the role of a spectator to question and interpret the setting of this Bloemfontein hillside scene that is governed by political, cultural and social influences constantly shifting an identity that is acceptable or unacceptable. For instance, it is naturally assumed that the Protea is indigenous and the Cannabis exotic, but is that really the case? Protea cynaroides is seen as indigenous within our man-made political boundaries when in fact it is just as exotic in this Bloemfontein context as the Cannabis plants.

Therefore, the theme of corruption changing an individual identity as well as a collective one, is explored in every aspect of the painting as far as possible, without distorting the image to an extent where it becomes completely unrecognizable. Instead, I decided to paint onto a previous painting, allowing the previously determined brushstrokes to contradict the brushstrokes of the visible image. Thus, corrupting the image in a subtle way, to the extent that is seems secretive to the viewer, who notices it, just like corruption takes place behind the scenes in a social setting. Furthermore, the medium used is in itself corrupted with cannabis seeds, embedded into the oil paint of the canvas specifically within the region of the protea flower, embracing an unconscious understanding of a corrupted image of the self, and South Africa as a whole. Hence, the South African landscape genre, in this case, serves as a medium that conveys and explores social practices within a Souls African setting. The relationship between a dynamic landscape and the social network embodied within, encompasses a portrayed view of being more familiar with the unfamiliar exotic identity. Thus, demonstrating a meaning where people are at a struggle for identity, in which foreign, yet familiar factors morph the South African identity in such a way that the South African iconography is at risk of being forgotten.

Mixed media

Detail
Tags

Marius Jansen

Details:
Signed
Mixed media
920 x 630 mm
R12 500

Description:
The proliferation of corrupted social norms, has become an alarming discourse in the formation of a South African identity. Corruptam Translata Insigni, serves as a metaphorical expression of South Africa’s social dynamics that explores a sense of lost identity through the augmentation of familiar and unfamiliar ideologies.

The title of the artwork Corruptam Translata Insigni stems from the Latin origin, meaning: “The corrupted translated onto an emblem.” The title in itself embodies the essence of the painting in which South African symbols bear a testimony that acts as an engraving of the self on the landscape. It makes us understand something and it imposes it on us, to an extent where the South African identity portrayed in an emblem becomes an allegory instead of factual history.

Central to the painting, is the iconography of South Africa’s national flower, Protea cynaroides, rooted amongst the overgrowth of cannabis plants. The King Protea has always been one of the cherished national symbols identified in South Africa since 1976. However, with corruption manifested into all sectors of life, a cherished identity slowly diminishes from a familiar identity to an accepted unfamiliar portrayal. The idea of corruption is firstly revealed in the positioning of the protea, which is deliberately placed off-centre within the emblem shaped canvas. Furthermore, the painting explores this notion in the portrayed imagery of the cannabis plants growing alongside the Protea, in which the painting deals with the controversial perceptions of cannabis that was in the past perceived as an illegal drug, but today a legal medicinal substance. Therefore, the painting allows for the role of a spectator to question and interpret the setting of this Bloemfontein hillside scene that is governed by political, cultural and social influences constantly shifting an identity that is acceptable or unacceptable. For instance, it is naturally assumed that the Protea is indigenous and the Cannabis exotic, but is that really the case? Protea cynaroides is seen as indigenous within our man-made political boundaries when in fact it is just as exotic in this Bloemfontein context as the Cannabis plants.

Therefore, the theme of corruption changing an individual identity as well as a collective one, is explored in every aspect of the painting as far as possible, without distorting the image to an extent where it becomes completely unrecognizable. Instead, I decided to paint onto a previous painting, allowing the previously determined brushstrokes to contradict the brushstrokes of the visible image. Thus, corrupting the image in a subtle way, to the extent that is seems secretive to the viewer, who notices it, just like corruption takes place behind the scenes in a social setting. Furthermore, the medium used is in itself corrupted with cannabis seeds, embedded into the oil paint of the canvas specifically within the region of the protea flower, embracing an unconscious understanding of a corrupted image of the self, and South Africa as a whole. Hence, the South African landscape genre, in this case, serves as a medium that conveys and explores social practices within a Souls African setting. The relationship between a dynamic landscape and the social network embodied within, encompasses a portrayed view of being more familiar with the unfamiliar exotic identity. Thus, demonstrating a meaning where people are at a struggle for identity, in which foreign, yet familiar factors morph the South African identity in such a way that the South African iconography is at risk of being forgotten.

Mixed media