Source work:
2177/06
Zulu (Unknown Artist)
Pregnancy Apron (Isibodiya)
Hide, hooves, beads, string
Metamorphosis - Louise Hall
Louise Hall (b.1960)
Metamorphosis
Oil on gesso on board
N.F.S.
This oil on gesso painting, Metamorphosis, is an interpretation of the Zulu pregnancy apron or IsiBodiya. This painting is a reflection on transition and change; of the experience and idea of becoming. The central figure, presented upside down, bears reference to a foetus during the last stages of pregnancy; the figure in Metamorphosis is about to emerge as something else or as somehow changed - physically, spiritually, emotionally or psychologically. This incubated figure although relatively still, contains an insinuation of movement which suggests emerging new life or an altered state.
With reference to the title of this exhibition, Contemporary Reflections: New Art from Old, the painting also functions as a meditation on our contemporary context. Flux and uncertainty are inherent to our life and death cycle. These are made more immediate by factors such as global warming and the extreme violence which characterises South African society. I think that our particular context demands that we come to grips with impermanence and transition. The painting is an exploration of the process of becoming but where uncertainty presides.