Artwork

Artistic Labour

2023 Competition entry

Detail
Tags

Poloko (PK) Mohanoe

Details:
Not Signed
Photograph on Fabriano
108cm x 81.5cm
R8 200.00
Description:
In my work, I investigate the hard labour and strenuous circumstances that many South African workers experience to survive daily. The challenges that our people face may include the lack of occupational health and safety measures in their respective fields and working environments, and being underpaid while they put their bodies and lives at risk. Thus, one of the main aims of my artistic research is to address these issues regarding contentious occupational environments. I explore this theme through the use of photography, which includes documentation of different types of labour as well as the psychosocial and occupational conditions of workers. I have discovered that the under-appreciated and overlooked labour conditions that many South Africans engage with are, to a certain extent, comparable to the labour involved in art making.

During my process, I connect and uncover the artistic labour conditions of the artist to expose the strenuous creation process behind a work of art. The works that I make and materials that I use (which I photograph myself working on/with) have a strong connection with, and are influenced by, specific working environments and the working conditions which artists and workers share today. By documenting my artistic labour during the creation of my works, I explore and uncover the intense labour, which is often hidden behind final exhibited works of art.

I aim to make apparent the labour which forms part of the artworks I create. In doing so, I hope to re-evaluate their importance, evoke empathy, and encourage appreciation towards labour by the artist, the worker and the labouring artist. Simultaneously, I draw a parallel between the artist and the South African labourer in sharing their experiences of the hard, intense labour which they have to endure, and the risks which they face during production and creation.

Photographic

Heavy Labour

Detail
Tags

Poloko (PK) Mohanoe

Details:
Not Signed
Photograph on Fabriano
108cm x 81.5cm
R8 200.00

Description:
In my work, I investigate the hard labour and strenuous circumstances that many South African workers experience to survive daily. The challenges that our people face may include the lack of occupational health and safety measures in their respective fields and working environments, and being underpaid while they put their bodies and lives at risk. Thus, one of the main aims of my artistic research is to address these issues regarding contentious occupational environments. I explore this theme through the use of photography, which includes documentation of different types of labour as well as the psychosocial and occupational conditions of workers. I have discovered that the under-appreciated and overlooked labour conditions that many South Africans engage with are, to a certain extent, comparable to the labour involved in art making.

During my process, I connect and uncover the artistic labour conditions of the artist to expose the strenuous creation process behind a work of art. The works that I make and materials that I use (which I photograph myself working on/with) have a strong connection with, and are influenced by, specific working environments and the working conditions which artists and workers share today. By documenting my artistic labour during the creation of my works, I explore and uncover the intense labour, which is often hidden behind final exhibited works of art.

I aim to make apparent the labour which forms part of the artworks I create. In doing so, I hope to re-evaluate their importance, evoke empathy, and encourage appreciation towards labour by the artist, the worker and the labouring artist. Simultaneously, I draw a parallel between the artist and the South African labourer in sharing their experiences of the hard, intense labour which they have to endure, and the risks which they face during production and creation.

Photographic