Source work:
0941/88
Bonnie Ntshalintshali (1967-1999)
Lobola
1988
Painted earthenware
Un-Titled - Sue Akerman
Sue Akerman (b.1958)
Un-Titled
Fibre art: used tea bags, embroidery
R7 500
My initial response was one of a vision of how my parents had begun farming. A tiny mud and stone house, a piece of land that my father was told wasn't worth what he had paid for it and 6 cows.
A bride, parents' cattle and chickens all smack of a fruitful, rich, easy, rural environment and life. This brought out an unexpected rush, or flood of emotions on various issues which I will attempt to tell you about.
My father's beginning: the 6 cows died and more had to be bought with borrowed money. The land was nurtured and dams were built and trees were planted and every scrap of energy went in day and night to survive and build what is today probably one of the most beautiful, most photographed and most productive farms in kwaZulu-Natal. He defied all his critics. In the process he lost a son who was dedicated to farming and his grief, that was wrapped in with who would take over this farm that was his life's work, was so painful to watch. Had this all been in vain? Whose is this land anyway? Is it "ours", "theirs", "the government's", "God's", "the future generations'", or "the Earth's"?
Things happened slowly in those days. There was time to nurture and enjoy the fruits of your labour.
My childhood was filled with making gardens and oxen from clay in the stream that we dug, working in the dairy and cooking freshly picked mielies on the open fire and going on escapades to forests to find saplings to plant on the farm with my mother.
My work of late has been to do with our planet and its desecration. The scars we leave and the marks we make. So my thought pattern with this piece of work has been a jumble of issues over land invasion. Also that of people seeing land as wealth and failing to see the bigger picture of sustainability and hard work. The wealth of cattle and of land as a unit and as a start in life. Cattle being a way to a bride. Without land, how do you have cattle and how do you have a bride? A connection between land and cattle emerged.
Land gives one a sense of belonging, rootedness in a place, and with that ownership come memories. As one of the daughters of our family, I found myself a few years ago having to physically stop myself from visiting the farm so that I could cut myself off. It was no longer a part of me or mine. It was only the memories that I owned.
My husband's family had land expropriated under the nationalist government. It was difficult to accept, but nothing could be done about it. My sister currently has a land claim against their family farm. Friends have land claims on their properties. Seeing everyone react so differently to the different situations led me to question this whole process in many ways.
Do women and men react differently? Does one react differently if you have built up a prosperous business on this land, beautifying and nurturing it all the way?
Would you react differently if it were merely an investment? How would you react if the land claim was falsified or illegal and yet the powers that be render you helpless to contest it?
How would you react if your life's work was going to be devastated and not used as a platform to build on for the good of everyone? How would you react if the process had already taken seven years and no end to it was in sight?
Do the people making these decisions know what is really involved?
Symbolism and materials used
Used teabags. I like the colour and the organic marks that the tea leaves make. They are also brown and dry... an indication of the Earth's vulnerability to our scars and the fragility of her "skin".
The skin shape. You might ask, "Why the skin shape?" There are 11 skins represented here, that being the price paid as lobola. They are placed down the spine of the skin so as to show the importance of our Earth's skin and that it is at the very centre of our nerve centre for survival.
Aerial views. I have always been fascinated by Earth from above and its beauty, and the marks and scars that we leave on our planet.