Artwork

The quest

2023 Competition entry

Detail
Tags

Omolemo Rammile

Details:

Bread tags and acrylic paint
59.4cm x 84.1cm
R25 500
Description:
This work comments on the concern of unemployment in South Africa. Ranking as the highest in the world with 33%, the lack of jobs continues to be a signal of economic distress and an overheated economy. Potentially caused by many factors like high-interest rates, population increase, limited entrepreneurship, inadequate education and training, unemployment leads to higher poverty rates and poorer neighborhoods. As bread is universally considered a staple food source, the artist uses bread tags in the work to symbolize the number of people on a quest to find employment to feed themselves and their households. The figure in the artwork wears a pair of lenses which is a metaphor for the artist’s wonderment about what the future of unemployment holds in South Africa. As a young South African citizen this becomes frightening as the youth study with hopes of becoming employed considering the pressure they receive from society to later provide for their families. The aspirations and desires of the youth of being employed and being financial stable lie behind the lens of the figure and the viewer’s imagination and wonder of the unknown future state.

Acrylic Bread tags

Detail
Tags

Omolemo Rammile

Details:

Bread tags and acrylic paint
59.4cm x 84.1cm
R25 500

Description:
This work comments on the concern of unemployment in South Africa. Ranking as the highest in the world with 33%, the lack of jobs continues to be a signal of economic distress and an overheated economy. Potentially caused by many factors like high-interest rates, population increase, limited entrepreneurship, inadequate education and training, unemployment leads to higher poverty rates and poorer neighborhoods. As bread is universally considered a staple food source, the artist uses bread tags in the work to symbolize the number of people on a quest to find employment to feed themselves and their households. The figure in the artwork wears a pair of lenses which is a metaphor for the artist’s wonderment about what the future of unemployment holds in South Africa. As a young South African citizen this becomes frightening as the youth study with hopes of becoming employed considering the pressure they receive from society to later provide for their families. The aspirations and desires of the youth of being employed and being financial stable lie behind the lens of the figure and the viewer’s imagination and wonder of the unknown future state.

Acrylic Bread tags