Artwork

Empty playgrounds in the sky

2019 Competition entry

Detail
Tags

Zizicelo Sifumba

Details:
Not Signed
Mixed media
120 x 150 cm
R16 225
Description:
The painting Empty playgrounds in the sky consists of five stained glass window panels placed in the middle of a green field in juxtaposition to a clear blue sky. These panels are occupied by motifs of saints and playgrounds photographed from four different parks around Bloemfontein. Land and sky are a constant theme throughout the painting, the background of the panels have a landscape with a horizon spanning the entire painting. The motifs inside the stained glass panels also have depictions of the sky meeting the edge of the landscape. This is where the empty playgrounds are located, the landscape within a landscape, an image with few qualities of the original much like a simulation.

The children who are “missing" from these playgrounds are not known particularly, not even are their mothers. However, as a fitting gesture with stained glass panels of buildings of worship or other significance, the theme of Mother/Madonna and child are kept visible in the central panel. There is also parts of a broken swing which goes from outside the painting into the fourth panel, extending all the way into the scene depicted inside the panel. The pictures of the playground equipment are taken from various angles which almost make them look transformed into monumental industrial objects that dwarf other buildings and structures around them.

The emptiness of the playgrounds and its swings portrays children’s isolation from the environment where they definitely should be. Play is an activity that nurtures a child’s knowledge and inner experiences meeting crucial mental health needs. We live in a society that is fast becoming dangerous for children and women, represented by the middle panel that has the mother figure holding a child in her arms. The panels on either side depict four masculine figures as saints, their eyes are bulging whether in fear or in a scary way, there is uncertainty, the mother clutches the child in her arms regardless.

The emptiness of a children’s swing or playground is a burning reminder that something is wrong in our society, the future is uncertain or it is a future empty land where there are no adults because they were harmed as children.

Mixed media

Detail
Tags

Zizicelo Sifumba

Details:
Not Signed
Mixed media
120 x 150 cm
R16 225

Description:
The painting Empty playgrounds in the sky consists of five stained glass window panels placed in the middle of a green field in juxtaposition to a clear blue sky. These panels are occupied by motifs of saints and playgrounds photographed from four different parks around Bloemfontein. Land and sky are a constant theme throughout the painting, the background of the panels have a landscape with a horizon spanning the entire painting. The motifs inside the stained glass panels also have depictions of the sky meeting the edge of the landscape. This is where the empty playgrounds are located, the landscape within a landscape, an image with few qualities of the original much like a simulation.

The children who are “missing" from these playgrounds are not known particularly, not even are their mothers. However, as a fitting gesture with stained glass panels of buildings of worship or other significance, the theme of Mother/Madonna and child are kept visible in the central panel. There is also parts of a broken swing which goes from outside the painting into the fourth panel, extending all the way into the scene depicted inside the panel. The pictures of the playground equipment are taken from various angles which almost make them look transformed into monumental industrial objects that dwarf other buildings and structures around them.

The emptiness of the playgrounds and its swings portrays children’s isolation from the environment where they definitely should be. Play is an activity that nurtures a child’s knowledge and inner experiences meeting crucial mental health needs. We live in a society that is fast becoming dangerous for children and women, represented by the middle panel that has the mother figure holding a child in her arms. The panels on either side depict four masculine figures as saints, their eyes are bulging whether in fear or in a scary way, there is uncertainty, the mother clutches the child in her arms regardless.

The emptiness of a children’s swing or playground is a burning reminder that something is wrong in our society, the future is uncertain or it is a future empty land where there are no adults because they were harmed as children.

Mixed media