Artwork

The application for divorce

2016 Competition entry

Detail
Tags

Mandie Cronje

Details:
Not Signed
Mixed media
1480 mm x 740 mm
Description:
Revealing a commonality between cultures that often seem far removed may provide a platform to understand what is unfamiliar by starting from the familiar. In a multi-cultural society, a symbol such as cattle take on more than one meaning. The Nguni mostly associated with Lobola may also be associated with a South African interpretation of the biblical narrative where Joseph interpreted the dreams of a pharaoh. The biblical narrative of the preparation for famine can be connected to South Africa’s current water shortage that, to a large extent, has been blamed on a failure to maintain the country’s infrastructure. In the wheat fields are gleaners who (both historically and in biblical narratives) were usually poor and desolate women, granted permission by land owners to collect the scattered grain left after the harvest. The gleaners do not only carry historic and biblical significance, but they also refer to the threatened food supply and sharp increase in food prices resulting from the water shortage.

The landscape is divided referring to how South Africa has been divided throughout its history, documenting the journey from being colonised, becoming a union and later a republic. In this way, the much contested issue of land ownership is referenced. The dried river bed and controlled burn leads to a suggestion of the highly controversial Nkandla surrounded by a row of white flags. As such, this work takes on the character of society’s children uniting in spite of historical divides. The work does, however, carry a sombre undertone in paying back the lobola; the children are in essence driving the seven lean years via a controlled burn. This refers back to Arnheim’s principle of entropy where a system may sometimes need to be broken in order for it to obtain an order that is suited to its function.

Mixed media

Detail
Tags

Mandie Cronje

Details:
Not Signed
Mixed media
1480 mm x 740 mm

Description:
Revealing a commonality between cultures that often seem far removed may provide a platform to understand what is unfamiliar by starting from the familiar. In a multi-cultural society, a symbol such as cattle take on more than one meaning. The Nguni mostly associated with Lobola may also be associated with a South African interpretation of the biblical narrative where Joseph interpreted the dreams of a pharaoh. The biblical narrative of the preparation for famine can be connected to South Africa’s current water shortage that, to a large extent, has been blamed on a failure to maintain the country’s infrastructure. In the wheat fields are gleaners who (both historically and in biblical narratives) were usually poor and desolate women, granted permission by land owners to collect the scattered grain left after the harvest. The gleaners do not only carry historic and biblical significance, but they also refer to the threatened food supply and sharp increase in food prices resulting from the water shortage.

The landscape is divided referring to how South Africa has been divided throughout its history, documenting the journey from being colonised, becoming a union and later a republic. In this way, the much contested issue of land ownership is referenced. The dried river bed and controlled burn leads to a suggestion of the highly controversial Nkandla surrounded by a row of white flags. As such, this work takes on the character of society’s children uniting in spite of historical divides. The work does, however, carry a sombre undertone in paying back the lobola; the children are in essence driving the seven lean years via a controlled burn. This refers back to Arnheim’s principle of entropy where a system may sometimes need to be broken in order for it to obtain an order that is suited to its function.

Mixed media