Source work:
1276/89
Ndebele (Unknown Artist)
Marriage Apron (Ijogolo)
Hide, beads, string
Stripped - Clive Sithole
Clive Sithole (b. 1971)
Stripped
Ceramic
R10 000
My work is about the tension between old and new.
My pot indicates that Zulu culture revolves around cattle. The two figures represent a man and a woman with traditional headgear. The man wears isicoco, the head piece that was traditionally given to a man when he is ready to be married. The woman wears isicolo, the female head piece that implies pregnancy and birth.
The form of the pot suggests isicolo, and the designs on the sides represent the two aprons. On one side, the woman stands on a block which represents the South. The man stands on a scroll which represents the West. There is tension between the two sides. My pot is saying that people are becoming stripped of their own heritage. Culture has become complicated and confusing, and less authentic. People think that they still embrace a culture when it is already broken down.