Artists We Love: Marlise Keith

INTERVIEWED BY Michaela Stehr IMAGES courtesy of Marlise Keith

We speak to Cape Town-Based mixed media artist Marlise Keith about her connection to art and how it is used as an expressive medium for health and connectedness.

Tell us a bit of background about yourself?

I was in Gr 3 when I wrote a letter to the school newspaper saying that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Despite that bold proclamation, I did not have art at school and spent the year after I matriculated taking private lessons and working on a portfolio. I have worked many jobs, including a very bad waitress, a filing clerk, an interior decorator assistant, an art teacher, and a production design lecturer at a film school before I decided to do art full time. I know this might sound a little melodramatic, but I don’t feel like I ever really had a choice in the matter, that I was always going to be an artist even though other opportunities and career options arose.

What mediums do you use for your work?

I’m known for my mixed media collages; large-scale drawings in pencil, ink and acrylics; and most recently, my small sculptures of fabric, embroidery and found objects. I love fabric, and I blame my Interior decorator days for fabric I horde.

What does a regular day look like for you?

Bertie Shit-Cat One wakes me at dawn. Yoga and breakfast reading follows. Then I try to avoid admin as much as possible and procrastinate until I finally start working. It takes about 45 min of extreme self-discipline to keep my butt nailed to the chair and then I get into the flow and work. It helps that I listen to audiobooks. Before lunch we hit the tidal pool, in winter it gets quite challenging when the water drops to 11 C. Then back in the studio.

Some days are terrible, where I just can’t draw. Then I will work on backgrounds or making interesting marks or rabbit holes on Pinterest. Some days drawing is as easy as breathing.

Are there any local artists you are coveting at the moment?

Always Diane Victor.

Does your work revolve around any particular themes?

A recurring theme in my work is ribbons. I like the duality I found in them. Recently ribbons stood witness to violence at a roadside memorial where a 16-year-old girl was murdered for her cellphone. Locals have tied ribbons on the forest fence – the scene of the crime which I pass regularly. The jaunty ribbons offer a surreal juxtaposition between beauty and horror. This almost abhorrent contrast ends to underpin much of my work. Unfortunately, I can offer no resolutions, no tidy, pretty relief. All I can do is observe and draw a tongue-tied expression of something this senseless.

A frequent image in my work is that of a torn/cut/dismembered body or body part. This stems from the pain and helplessness I feel because of my chronic migraines. There is no cure for migraines but a few deplorable remedies, exorcisms, diet, lifestyle changes, operations etc. I have done them all, none worked. I am faced with hours of useless, relentless pain for as long as I live. Torture, according to Wikipedia is the “deliberate, systematic or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting alone or on the orders of any authority [1] The problem is that I am this “authority”, or at least my genes are, this body is both the torturer and the tortured. This systematic betrayal of my body by mySelf is so strange, I beg, barter, cajole, insult, manipulate and hate mySelf daily. I am petrified of mySelf, tip tottering around so as not to provoke another migraine. It is a most peculiar way of being. Sometimes, the pain gets so intense that I disassociate from my body. There is no way to describe this dis-associative place, but I know that it is here where “I” end and finally there is some relief in that.

Talismans are another theme. The Nkisi is a power figure used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa. Early travellers saw these as “fetishes” and “idols” but I prefer modern anthropology’s term “power objects” or “charms.” They could be human or animal figures that are easily identified by a collection of pegs, blades, nails, or other sharp objects stuck into their surface. Some figures contain a medicinal aspect in the head or more commonly the belly in which herbs or other secrets were sometimes stored. This is shielded by a piece of glass, mirror or another reflective surface that represents the ‘other world’ which is inhabited by the dead who can peer through, see potential enemies, and offer protection. The more nails in the traditional Nkisi, the more powerful the figure, the more protection or health to the owner of the Nkisi. [2]

I spend roughly, a third of my life in bed with migraines. No amount of “right living”, medical or alternative procedures bring relief and I often feel like a tortured person with a truly sadistic monster in charge of my every day.

So, I decided to make my own power objects. I burden them with images, found objects, bits of fabric and torturous hope. I ‘will’ my drawings into power objects. I crowd the images with patter, mark, texture, and colour reflecting the malignant hope for migraine relief, the healthy return of a body that has once abandoned me. 

Where do you look for inspiration?

My imagery is inspired by all the strange, unexpected messiness of being human. In some ways, the act of drawing is a coping mechanism for me. I process subjects that are too daunting, confusing, or too subliminal to articulate in neat words and sentences through mark-making. This process offers me an alternative “understanding” of this world that often does not make sense in a traditional, logical language. I suffer from relentless migraines which award me endless excruciating hours to mull over ‘being’ and what this might mean to myself and other living things. Others have described that my choice of subject matter gives my work a surreal quality that draws in the viewer to closer scrutiny of the darker complexities lurking beneath my images, which can offer endless possibilities of meaning.

How has your work evolved over time?

Drawing is at the core of everything I do, and I love to experiment with different materials. I never thought I would make sculptures, but once I realised that all I must do is follow the line and use found objects and fabric to make sculptures, I can’t stop making them, refining and learning new techniques.

I learnt how to make a geliplate recently and have made an inordinate number of monotypes this year. As long as I get bored, I will find new techniques to try.

What advice would you give to young aspiring artists?

I honestly don’t know. We will all have so many different experiences. I had to find the core of why I make art, and when it gets tough and you feel you are sacrificing too much, it helps to remember the ‘why you make it’ part.

How can people get hold of your work?

They can contact me via e-mail: marlise@marlisekeith.com or DM me on Instagram.