When Mandela Goes (2018)

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Title: 'When Mandela Goes'
Year: 2018
Medium: Acrylic, oil, ink, graphite, wax crayons, paper and nail polish on canvas
Measurements: 91cm x 91 cm

When painting a public and political figure I choose to dissociate from airing party affiliations to focus on the subject matter as an environmentally observant artist, exposing a person’s affronting feats against nature and the wellbeing of the planet, humans and animals alike, instead of solely being concerned for polity and bias propaganda.

Comparatively in my previous artwork entitled ‘Donald’s Ratites’ (2017), one can observe this profiteering critique within an infamous character who catapults the Paris agreement, agrees to the largest privatisation of protected land including the Yellowstone National Park, as well as binding himself to fossil fuels and seedy relationships worldwide. In this instance, a new contemptible individual is represented as a puppet with his own distinctive caricature elements along with animal symbolism.

As a plump buddha-like retrospective, the Zonked with Unwavering corruption, Machiavellian materialism, and finally Abdicated leader floats without a care in the world in a very publicised pool at his private residence.

The deluded protagonist sits on a leopard print flotation device to emphatically point out the overwhelming tone one can use to interpret this portrait, since historically the large cat's coat was frequently employed as a symbol of sin and cruelty which needed to be overcome and beaten in many representations of the Adoration of the Magi. In the same manner, the artwork presents him surrounded by unsavoury characters while everything is reduced to ashes under a murky and punishing sky, from where the puppeteer strings one day appeared to offer their unwavering help. The strands of string although were placed to replicate his correct anatomical moves work as the unspoken connection and love triangle between the three most important figures of this piece.

Through a surrealist prism, the common krait and the Markhor goat, both iconic and national animals to Pakistan, are used to imply a particular family’s involvement in the coerced white monopoly agenda. An outdated narrative slithering up the puppet strings to ignite a division and dismantling of a nation, as well as crowning the manipulator’s guided hand married in greed to the renowned UK based PR company Bell Pottinger. Thus, the earthly symbolisms derived from the Western Art canon, Christianity and carefully selected exotic fauna attempt to illustrate the deceit, kleptocracy, abuse of power and corruption amongst this praetorian triangle and smokescreen catalyst for several events from 2016 onwards. In contrast, the adoption of animal symbolism to describe our patsy was to somewhat give back to nature, making it’s fauna the protagonist again and putting politics in a secondary plane. Animals who can’t speak for themselves are now the voice of hidden meaning for someone who can speak for himself but hides behind deception, corruption and ignorance.
His promiscuous behaviour in his personal life as well as acquisitiveness in his public life come naturally to him, similarly to a warthog’s natural breeding habits copulating along the way with total disregard for loyalty, duty, family values and integrity.

This argument is supported and thrown back into perspective by the reminder of Zapiro’s caustic shower head analogy making reference to multiple rape accusations surrounding his name, as well as various attempts on his life by one of the wives coerced into marriage. On account of these qualities and his inherently predatory behaviour towards female counterparts, I found pertinent to portray a hog as his medium of transportation through a corrupt crusade of polygamous greed, lofty pretence and silver tongue denial of his detrimental effect on his country. Gliding through the clouds like a false prophet or a theatrical archangel, the fallen hero confessed that the Foundation (which he had named after himself) had declared to be missing funds and was unable to pay university fees for at least 30 students without offering any alternatives for education.

Taking away one of the most important resources available as education from underprivileged talented children, and their families' chance to be self-sufficient and independent by the means of other unjustified high taxes to cover the fact that his other hand is responsible for the missing cash. A destructive move which was never amended not even out of civil guilt and is indicated by the presence of a rat scaling its way to the top.

Nelson Mandela, who purposefully stated the importance of education as a tool which can help accomplish anything, would have accused his own party of corruption like he did back in 2001 and thus supports my choice of title and secret inscription.

In the puppet’s latest and final appearances as the president of a rainbow nation he admitted to have come into power in turbulent and problematic times, and that almost a decade later the country is still dealing with the same exacerbated aftermath. He remained oblivious and unphased to what he had done wrong, to the charges brought forth, the lack of positive change and the environmental state of the country being burnt down to the ground by several catastrophic forest fires. Like a horse with blinkers he actively omitted the charges he will soon face in court and saw his own party’s vote of no confidence as an unprecedented witch hunt. An innocent President concerned about his nation would not be preoccupied with: immunity; prosecuting cabinet members who saw him as unfit; letting the administration line their pockets with substantial bonuses and missing funds; procuring repeated bailouts for friends and family at the cost of a decaying infrastructure; appropriating lottery and school funds promised to over-achieving and bursary students; incrementing taxes when South Africa are reportedly one of the highest taxpayers worldwide as well as a high poverty index; discrediting high unemployment statistics; offering domestic helicopter/jet transportation for relatives and non-governmental personnel, when worldwide people are trying to reduce their carbon footprint not increase it for a trip to Paris for a shopping spree; employing ministers who are not even trained for the positions they hold; consciously making millions in aid relief disappear for disasters like Knysna and Hout Bay without holding anybody accountable; ignoring pyromania and the suffering of people and fauna to the scorching blaze; while most importantly knowingly delaying the renewable energy programme due to quoted costs that will only increase with time, his ties to Eskom, and consequently instating the latest solar and water tax for a water crisis which should have been planned for almost half a decade in advance.

The opulent mountain you then see before you is none other than Table Mountain with Cape Town at its back. In front sits the beach town coined as Hout Bay which also suffered the same fate of burning forests and houses being enveloped by fire tongues, and the symbolic incandescent crime against nature and fire making its way to Knysna.

The latter point is vividly illustrated framing the houses and shacks - some with solar powered water geysers and panels- succumbing to the flames and abandoned by the government which consigned them to oblivion, diverting relief funds without arraignment, remorse or duty, and more concerned with land expropriation and taxes. A land that you will not be in condition to give if nobody protects it or litigates against those who desecrate it.This tax thence acted as an aloof offence to people trying to make a difference by becoming self-sufficient and to save money by not financing, fuelling or depending on non-friendly sources of power and monopoly conglomerations to subsist everyday. An illegal and unconstitutional tax which simply intends to dissuade a transition to cleaner sources of energy as well as burn the bridges to emancipation of residential areas depending on the state for power and water, both major sources of income to the established governing body. One can juxtapose our nonchalant buoyant protagonist to the orchestra conductor in ‘Donald Ratites’ (2017) who similarly decided to instate tariffs on imported solar panels to boost internal revenue but halt the progress of this industry since it relies on more than 80% on parts made abroad. Although at first glance this seems as an attempt to fill the coffers and prop local industry, it is at the expense of a global environmental effort.

Water scarcity was no new matter since sources confirm the government was warned about these extraordinary circumstances back in 2009, which just refutes their claims and points towards neglect and corruption.

In 2014, the City under the Table of tables fittingly changed its motto from “The city that works for you” to “Making Progress Possible. Together”. It was an ingenious dodge in responsibility and guilt-trip on its citizens who of course need to appreciate the value of running water, however this was turned into a PR campaign instead of pushing for progress, infrastructure repairs, maintenance and aid.

The government chose to save face while the country was going through one of the worst historical draughts, more than 800 homes were being reduced to ashes along Knysna and protected National Parks like Tsitsikamma and the foot of Table mountain while officials enjoyed a fire pool in Nkandla. This was justified as an emergency fire measure due to "an erratic municipal water supply and the prevalence of fires are why JZ needs a “firepool” at his Nkandla home" stated by his constable delegate N.N. This collusion is reinforced by the leisurely frogs enjoying the fire pool which are often compared to earthly pleasures in Christian scripture as one of the plagues of Egypt, however in this artwork we can perceive them to personify the debaucherous behaviour of a leader and his cabinet when so many others are suffering.

A deliberate neglect with reported widespread leaks (over 50000 :( ) in multiple reservoirs, pipes, drainage systems with billions of gallons of water being wasted per day. The present status quo refuses to fix infrastructure on the grounds that these are on private property, and are instead offering in the near future to privatise water through the installation of water restrictors that can be remotely controlled. This could cause substantial increases in water tariffs as well as the high risk of contaminating water supplies with spikes in bacteria due to the intermittent water flow. Although fixing the leaks would be an immediate implement, and many have suggested cheap alternative ways of extracting water out of thin air, only very costly measures are being approved and then delayed by funding. In 2016, the DA in Western Cape knew that the canals spouting into the Voelvlei dam were blocked, and once again both parties threw the blame at each other but nothing got fixed and another whopping 7,5 billion litres of water were lost.

Furthermore, Vlogger Adam Spires headed down the labyrinth of underground water tunnels built by Dutch settlers in 1652, which were then covered up around the 1870’s because they became polluted and unsanitary. The forgotten underground was rediscovered in the 1900’s after a gas build-up explosion, yet this source of clean run-off spring water remains wasted since even almost a year after Spires’ revealing vlog everything remains the same. Till this date, there are more than 36 natural fresh water springs under the city which distribute 8,8 million litres of water per tunnel and end straight into the ocean every day. The metropolitan area rebuffs efforts to rehabilitate these channels, claiming that the cost of purification is extravagant, yet one of these has been available and used for years by the public in Newlands.

In addition, spring and tap water are being relinquished for free to the major retailers to source it from the Western Cape, where there is officially a drought. To our outrage, some of the bottled liquid is directly taken from the tap (and yes, public water resources) to be sold for a private profit.

As mentioned before, only expensive solutions have been approved such as desalination plants which will be operational soon although the scientific community has expressed concerns regarding the quality of the water, and the dumping of sewerage waste directly into sea with tests revealing elevated levels of E coli in neighbouring beaches of Clifton and Camps Bay.
The Department of Environmental Affairs in coherence with the nonchalant attitude of the government committed to exercising regular checks, despite evidence of contamination being conclusive by two studies which had obtained samples of local molluscs and shellfish displaying high levels of persistent organic pollutants. Constituting a health threat to users who consume the desalinated water, the government has dismissed these relevant studies and gone ahead with the launch. The importance of the big blue puddle of ocean resting within the composition now comes to light. At the far left before the mountain bends, a desalination plant waits to turn on its turbines and suck in the diluted tainted nectar of life with strains of bacteria and pollution (its own specialists advised against), due to inadequate filtration and high hygiene standards. Moreover, if you care for a close examination you will notice two elements making reference to the dumping in South African waters represented as a faint but tangible skull and bones shadowed texture within the waves as well as merky frothing at outer sea.

Like a pearl of wisdom glistening within the aquamarine depths of Davy Jones' locker lies a Nelson Mandela inscription to mirror the mistakes of the previous and current administration more concerned with currency, blind hate, debased discrimination and nepotism, than preserving the beauty that so many other countries have lost to foreign exploitation and local avarice. For "Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies”. This sentence implores one to open one's eyes to a new approach which leaves corruption, marginalisation and an unsettling feeling of revenge to make way for altruistic endeavours and a community piecing together the best traits amongst us.

Stop a complementary colour clash and commemorate the words of another great thinker who marched for freedom and equality such as Martin Luther King, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

In kind, blue DA, red EFF or a black, green and gold ANC, do not contemplate life as a voter but as one of our Mother Earth's 7.6 Billion bystanders.

***I must state once again that this just an artistic and environmental critique, an opinion of sorts based on facts. My intention is not to debase or slander.