Sifiso kaMkame

'Letters of Home'

Sifiso Ka-Mkame

Letters of Home (detail)

Oil pastel on paper

122 x 150cm

2012 – 2014

Detail

With a group of like-minded artists in Durban, (ka Mkame) began searching for symbols of an African identity beyond the confines of his own region and this is reflected in his paintings.

And yet...... his Letters to God of 1988, shows a similar keen view of the South African socio-political world. As ka Mkame says of this earlier painting - "my work is just what I see when I wake up in the morning." (Sue Williamson - Resistance Art in SA)

Letters to God 1988 Sisiso ka Mkame

What does ka Mkame see when he wakes up in 2014?

Xenophobia? Eradication of our animal heritage?
Look at his work and identify some more of his socio-political concerns. 

How do they resonate with what you have noticed around you?

Link to interview   (under construction pending artist's response)

ka Mkame’s technique is based on an unusual manipulation of oil pastels.

A heavy white cartridge paper is covered with a light base colour (e.g. yellow) and this is polished so that it stains the paper. Other coloured layers are applied over this to define and suggest the subject matter. 

kaMkame scratches through these top layers with the blade of a Stanley knife. In this way he creates an illusion of form and space, and a subtle layered effect of translucent colours. The work is then sealed by polishing or by applying a layer of PVA glazecoat.

This will be demonstrated at a workshop. 

(gallery@kznsagallery.co.za for enquiries)

Link to practical activity

"I am a child of Africa" says kaMkame in 10 Years: 100 Artists. [ISBN 1-86872-987-7]

The layering of the oil pastels creates a rich patterned surface of textures, tones and colours that relates to Africa both visually and conceptually. 

ka Mkame's African identity is truly post-democratic in the sense that it is based on inclusivity. In an interview from 2003, ka Mkame insists that we are all Africans. His 'Ancestral Spirit' series from that year, refers to the ancestors that are common to all people. 

Link to Ancestral Spirits

This is an interesting idea in light of the discoveries of Early Man in the African Great Rift Valley.

Link to 'Common Ancestor' Theory

Possible NCS curricular themes:

3. Socio-political art - including resistance art of the 1970s and 1980s.
6. Post-democratic Identity in south Africa (including issues of language, ethnicity, globalization, urbanization in the new South Africa)