Phemo Matlhabe – Idolatry in Portraits?

“When critics become dictators…” lamented Lesego Rampolokeng, in retaliation to the brewing trend of arm-chair analysts purporting a distinct understanding of things ‘arty’. And with this article I am neither attempting to become one, nor pretend to be such.

BALANCE by Phemo Matlhabe

At a politically volatile time when painting itself often seems to be a threatened, even despised form of artistic expression, portraiture as a technique is taking centre stage in the analysis of identity, icons and even idols. And I not being “a qualified critic” to write about any art with jovial market-place colloquial eloquence, it is at this juncture of proto-sexualized idolatrised portraitures gracing gallery walls that with Pheto Matlhabe’s BALANCE emerges a dazzlingly skilful impetus into the medium itself he has chosen to embrace. Freud stated that “the painter's obsession with his subject is all that he needs to drive him to work,” and with regards to the artist, I find the utterance befitting.

While the piece seemed abstract in the subject depicted, I feel it maintains this connection necessary between artist and subject which in turn becomes a source of contention while completing the aforementioned work. I am not certain about the identity of the female figure depicted in the artwork, and how might I empathize with such a reprehensible figure became a personal struggle that led to further questions that thus inform this article.

Phemo Matlhabe remains evasive about the true intentions of the work, a painting which reveals itself to be of particular iconoclastic interest and insistence on the idolised and adored - between the Armageddon bred of a phallic civilization's fatalist obsession with self-extinction and the feminine life root that aims to rekindle life's flame.

But I believe the artist is very much aware of both the intensity and the esoteric post-apocalyptic nature of the piece, particularly for an exclusively figurative point of view. Above all, one notices Phemo’s love for his medium and an evolving technique and what is quickly becoming his signature style in a blossoming career which has yet to see his works exhibited. His practice is an exploratory process that transforms favoured figures and reveres the medium of painting.

Would Phemo’s practice be therefore an evolving process exploring concepts of identity through assertive, gestural figurative paintings? A practice that (re)considers the tangibility and impermanence of the icons selected, but also inwardly commenting on the fragility of the same icons? And there seems to exist an effort to surpass a literal (re)presentation of his subject-matter, he prioritizes a visceral, sensual, lithographic surface, toward a language of figuration and near abstraction. The work draws the viewer’s attention to what is visible, what is tangible, yet also what is suggested: pulling the viewer from the dredges of representation versus the metaphorical.

AMY by Phemo Matlhabe

‘Young Michael Jackson’ by Phemo Matlhabe

There are, however, two portraits titled ‘Amy’ and ‘Young Michael Jackson’ respectively in the compendium he shared with me which drew my inquisition towards ‘black obsession with icons’, maybe rather how the artworks pictured above have emphasized a new relationship between mass culture commodities (and icons) and intra-personal relations with ideas of self-validation and affiliation. Popular visual culture is intrinsically a tool of pacification of the masses and an important outlet of public influence.  In turning my attention again to mass-produced representations of such icons, I begin to question how such images shape and reflect public opinion regarding ideas of affluence and glamour as espoused by many black youths.

I am left to wonder if such depictions of both Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse ‘at the prime of their grandeur’ only act as ‘ally’ or in ‘defence’ of western consumerist ideology posthumously haunting their identities and personae.  Do these artworks merit a social analysis that could become a thesis on how idolised emblems of western culture as worshipped by contemporary African youth-cultures are becoming scape-goats away from true activism in the face of global economic catastrophes?

My observations are not intended to denigrate the artworks but merely to spark discourse around how a nation’s choice of icons reflects upon its own escapist tendencies, while masking an incestuous trauma when faced with a mirror that is a portal to inner wars immemorial. So, who is Phemo in this cauldron of social ‘opinion engineers’ and what is his art evolving towards?

Don’t misconstrue my sentiments; I revere Michael and Amy, more as historical symbols of subversion of global capitalist commodification black culture has suffered under imperialistic private commercial interests. I hope this and other works become his insubordination towards postcard culture producers and their exploitationist trends, setting new precedents and standards of iconographic idolatry. And finally, I hope Phemo’s depictions of these formidable artists stand to open  doors for an investigation into iconoclastic imagery as it relates to post-democracy youth cultures, in order to re-examine the different ways in which art consumers experience stereotypes.

Returning to my earlier confession of NOT being a ‘critic’ but an admirer of art in all its forms, I wish to highlight an observation of the artist’s lenience towards the art of collage in the portraits demonstrated above. A tinge of de-fragmentation of the selected iconic figures seems to be prevalent in this precise choice of technique, this perchance alluding to the meaning imbued the artworks themselves as residual of a morphed social animal. These faces resurrected on card-board are the epitome of the transience of all ‘images of self’ as fleeting and recycled. The unpredictability of rearranged images, torn pieces of notes provide a sobering critique while functioning to re(construct) a ‘new’ rendition of resemblances; a representation of representations so to label.

This form of experiment lends itself to the fragility of the perishable material chosen, yes; but could these ‘canvases’ be argued symbolic of the impermanence of iconoclastic imagery? But perhaps the choice of material was a fiscal decision, which in turn brings into question the lack resources which characterises the black art community, the perpetual gentrification of exhibition spaces and institutional monopolisation of funding strategies crippling the sector at present.

Nevertheless, Phemo Matlhabe’s works have shed light on new frontiers and provided a blueprint for the escape from traditional techniques which solely serve to streamline expression for compartmentisation of thought.