Review | A Whole World Away
Growing up, I was a child with an overactive imagination. Much of which has remained with me in adulthood. I would run into a space in my mind where the colours attached to everything that surrounds me are turned into rockets and outer space, into the ocean, and even headless pink elephants fighting ninjas on the ocean. I have always approached those moments with great anticipation and excitement, as little trips away from a very mundane existence. And they have been rationalised by scholars throughout our human history as part of our nature — to want more, to think there is so much more beyond what we see and experience.
We often have to lose ourselves inside a few seconds of vivid thought, trying to catch a break from work or chores. Sometimes, you come out of those thoughts with a brilliant article to share with your Medium readers. Moshekwa Langa, a visual artist from Bakenberg, Limpopo, South Africa, presents Sanctuary. This exhibition of abstract paintings, now showing at the Stevenson Art Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa, explores these imaginative, creative, and serene spaces we usually keep to ourselves and to which we naturally escape.
The visual language carried in the works is of bright and colourful sequences that reference abstracted human figures (Walker), natural objects (Sun), artefacts of use (Conduit), points in time (Past Midnight), state of the mind (Reflections), and nature spaces (The Pond), to name just a number of the artworks. With the most prevalent colours being aqua blue, yellow, red/orange, and green. The colours are layered onto each other, through a complex dripping method that gives identifiable form to the subjects. The figures in the paintings take the appearance of dream-like and semi-psychedelic figments.
Reflections
The painting is of an ocean blue space with tiny scatters of red and orange, a few shades of green, some peach, and a grey area. The lines and shades of blue appear to be wavy and shifting, resembling a body of water being illuminated by sunlight in the day and in turn reflecting that light back to us. Amid this natural phenomenon, we can also imagine parts of ourselves in the image due to our knowledge of water’s reflective nature. We are called deeper into instances where we have seen and used water before, to the perceived safety that water as an escape and a way of rethinking our very nature which can be whisked away or bent against the waves.
Langa’s works tend to represent a history of himself with traces of his origins, the circumstances and occasions in his life that he went through as he remembers them for what they were. This specific artwork can be thought of in the sense of a mirror. One through which one can approach themselves and their character in a non-threatening and most natural environment.
Past Midnight
What first comes to mind at the thought of midnight or past midnight, are insomnia and overthinking. The states of your mind where moments from life can be reduced to fleeting thoughts. It is dark and quiet outside, so your mind becomes much louder. Surprisingly, Langa has portrayed these earliest and darkest hours of the day as if they were the brightest sky of the day. The painting resembles Reflections with its oceanic texture. The signature scattered spots of colour can be seen in more volume and thus in closer range to each other. The red, the peach, the green, yellow and orange, with the grey seem like chaotic pieces trying to exist together on one ground, therefore trying to be at peace with each other's presence. This could signify how multifaceted we, or our circumstances, are.
The Pond
The visual consistency of the body of water in these works comes full circle with The Pond, which claims the exhibition’s themes explicitly. Rather than suggesting it through the flow of the human mind (as we reflect) or that of a moment in time (which is right after midnight), this artwork represents an actual environment and reflects its physicality.
This piece portrays two red and yellow human figures who seem to have visited a fishing pond. In the background, is a yellow bakkie parked on a red surface, above which is a big and bright yellow arm. The horizon is represented by an almost indistinct white line, immediately above the van. The sky and the ground are different shades of blue. The texture of the painting appears more solid.
Ponds and the areas that surround them are often still and silent environments of leisure. This particular painting signifies nature as another means of escape, outside of the mind itself. It shows that people still have a desire and willingness to connect deeply with the outside and everything that inhabits that ecosystem. A pond also offers the serenity and slowness that the urban environments in which we carry out our daily lives cannot.
Langa's search for tranquillity in this body of work is further demonstrated by the big hand in this painting. The hand seems to take the place of the sun because of its position, scale, and colour in the scenery. The human hand has a lot of anthropological and social functions that can mainly be categorised by its ability to create, communicate, and protect. Its presence further establishes the human need to reach out, to imagined or real spaces, for sanctuary.
You can see the rest of this exhibition at Stevenson Gallery’s Viewing Room.
