Q&A: Mohau Modisakeng

INTERVIEWED BY Malibongwe Tyilo IMAGES courtesy of Mohau Modisakeng / WHATIFTHEWORLD

On 28 October 2015, the National Arts Festival announced its recipients for the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards, where UCT Fine Arts graduate Mohau Modisakeng was named the 2016 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art.

Although trained in sculpture, Mohau has gone beyond and experimented with other mediums, including performance, photography, installation and video. Along the way he has racked up local and international exhibitions, as well as a Sasol New Signatures Award in 2011. His work, which includes a lot of symbolism, deals closely with the black body as viewed within the violent context of South Africa’s past and present. We caught up with the young artist to chat art, awards and politics.

What does winning the Standard Bank Young Artist Award mean to you?

Winning the award at this point in my career is a big deal. The platform of the National Arts Festival affords me an opportunity to create work that will travel to various venues in the country where all sorts of new audiences will see my work for the first time. As far as my creative career is concerned, I think this means that there is no turning back.

Your work deals closely with South African politics, our history and our present. With regards to our politics, what is on your mind right now?

I have been thinking a lot around the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, especially with regards to our many hang-ups with ‘separate development’, racial inequality and the hegemony of the settler state.

So, I have been thinking around how this particular history still defines our social lives in a post-apartheid context. The issue of access to education is a direct consequence of the historic imbalances of colonial South Africa, of which the exclusion of black South Africans from economic and educational institutions is a key part. The colonial atmosphere prevalent in the contemporary South African public is a constant reminder of the long history of economic plunder and the exploitation of black labour. This history is often masqueraded by the white minority as their proud heritage, hence the colonial symbolism of statues, monuments, museums, universities, and so forth.

On the flip side, you have a series of suppressed histories, suppressed narratives, suppressed cultures, and frustrated political voices that struggle to see the light of day in a society where education is apparently an inherited privilege. White privilege in South Africa is a direct result of the systemic economical exclusion of black South Africans by ruthless capitalist founding fathers such as John Cecil Rhodes. That is what is particularly on my mind while I’m trying to make sense and put into context the current student protests in the country.

What excites you the most about contemporary South African art?

I am excited by the prospect of being at the forefront of examining suppressed histories, like an archeologist carefully digging into the ground, revealing bits of history one layer at time. I think that our repressive past represents a history that has been preoccupied with the erosion of black culture, the dimming of the black spirit and the erasure of indigenous histories. So it is exciting to know that there are many treasures preserved in the land, in the people and in our histories.

Can you remember the moment you decided to pursue art as a career?

My mind was made up about what I was going to do once I finished my matric. I had been aware that there were universities that offered fine art degrees, but I had never been taught art or been in an environment where drawing and painting were given much attention. In the same year of my matric, I got a chance to visit the UK. On this trip I visited the Saatchi Gallery and the Tate Modern, as well as my first art store. While there I gatecrashed some art classes and made paintings and drawings, some of which I sold and some of which I brought back for my university portfolio. It was clear what steps I needed to take.

Based on your experience, what is the one piece of advice you would give aspiring artists?

There is nothing more important to a young artist than being in an enabling and supportive environment, where people are engaged in creative critical thinking and doing. I found that environment for myself at the University of Cape Town where I was exposed to people such as Nandipha Mntambo and Jane Alexander. Studying is a very good start.

Lastly, please share with us one thing that people don’t know about you.

I am learning to play the upright bass. About two years ago I got one for my birthday. Hopefully, soon enough, I will be scoring some of my own films and performances.

Visit mohaumodisakeng.com or whatiftheworld.com to view more of Mohau’s work.