Encounters

ENCOUNTERS WITH THE (IM)MATERIAL

This exhibition explores the ways that physical artworks connect to beliefs, feelings and ideas. Artworks from Wits Art Museum holdings that explore art making processes, beliefs, creativity, and music are included in order to understand the relationship between the seen and the invisible. Spending time looking and thinking with art in the museum is a special kind of encounter that connects the artwork, artist, audiences, ideas, time and space in the art museum.

Use this education resource to guide your meaning making of the artworks on exhibition. Through engaging with the artworks and activities in this booklet, you will practice interpreting and expressing your thoughts about art.

Installation view of Encounters with the (Im)material, April - July, 2023

What is materiality?

Materiality refers to the physical properties of any object. In art, the physical properties include what materials the artist used, and how the artist worked with the materials to create the work. Art theorists focus on the medium, and elements like texture, colour, shapes, pattern, light and dark when discussing the materiality.

Let’s look and write

Look carefully at the artworks above, and consider the materiality of these works. Describe the materiality of each work in the spaces below:

Hodgins’ (1992) Man Learning to Whistle includes…

Cecily Sash’s (1967) Pulse Yellow is…

Left: Robert Hodgins, Man Learning to Whistle, 1992, screenprint on paper, 84.5 x 107cm. Presented in 2007 by the artist to Wits Art Museum

Right: Cecily Sash, Pulse Yellow, 1967, acrylic on canvas, 91 x 90.5cm. Presented in 1977 by the Schlesinger Foundation to Wits Art Museum

Working with materials and meaning

The materials that artworks are made from have associations that impact on the meaning of the artworks. Artists like Lawrence Lemaoana challenge stereotypes of what it means to be a man by using fabric and sewing techniques to create his artworks. These materials and techniques have historically been thought of as women’s work.

To make Fortune Tellers III, (2008) Lemaoana appliqued two male figures on to a red, black and white machine printed cloth of the kind customarily worn by healers. The two figures look like familiar images of men that are featured in the South African press, except that Lemaoana’s figures are made from floral fabrics. Further links to the press are the words ‘Daily Sun’ embroidered on the work, which resembles a street pole headline. Lemaoana challenges depictions of masculinity in the media, by proposing different portrayals.

Let’s talk

What do you think Lemaoana is saying about the representation of men in the press?

Do you think that Lemaoana’s choice of sewing is an effective way to make his points?

Explain?

Glossary

A stereotype is a widely held, oversimplified idea of a type of person or thing. Masculinity refers to the behaviour and characteristic of what it means to be a man in societies. The idea of what it means to be a man can be different across different societies.

Lawrence Lemaoana, Fortune Tellers III, 2008, textile with applique and embroidery, 155.5 x 111cm. Wits Art Museum – Acquired 2009

How are the material and immaterial connected?

The immaterial refers to things that exist but do not have a physical form. We might experience the immaterial, but we cannot touch it. Ideas, emotions, sound, and the spiritual realm are examples of the immaterial that are explored in this exhibition. If Hodgins’ Man Learning to Whistle (1992) could

make a sound, the sound would be described as immaterial. The material and immaterial are connected in a range of ways through artworks. For example, we see the shadows cast by the material artworks in the glass cabinet in the Street Gallery, but we cannot pick them up. The shadows are immaterial.

Let’s find

Can you find any of these artworks on the other side of the cabinet?

Above: Installation view of artworks in the Spiegel cabinet in the Street Gallery, as exhibited on Encounters with the (Im)material, April - July, 2023, Wits Art Museum. Below: Detail view.

Glossary The inverse is the opposite of something.

Let’s draw

Look at the shadows of the artworks in the freestanding glass case. Create a positive and negative design, by drawing and filling in the shadows in square A below. Then draw the inverse design in the square B.

Encountering traditions of art making

Artists of The Keiskamma Project also use a range of sewing techniques to make artworks. Their use of sewing challenges the historical idea amongst some western art historians that sewing has a lesser status than painting in western art.

Let’s talk

Can you share some examples of when you have used irony?

Write your ironic sentence here:

The Keiskamma artists explore different art making traditions for inspiration. Homage to Picasso’s Three Musicians I and II, are the Keiskamma artists’ (2010) interpretation of Picasso’s Three Musicians (1921). Through their encounter with western art history, the Keiskamma artists re-invent Picasso. This is ironic because Picasso, one of the most famous European artists of the twentieth century, was known for his use of imagery from African art.

Glossary

Irony is usually understood to be the use of language that normally means one thing to mean the opposite, for emphasis or humour.

The Keiskamma Project, Homage to Picasso’s Three Musicians I and II, 2010, applique and embroidery on canvas, each 50 x 40cm. Presented in 2022 by Daniel Hutchinson to Wits Art Museum

Working with abstraction

Abstraction occurs when artists move away from trying to represent objects, towards manipulating the materials to create artworks about art making, personal expression, the immaterial, experiences and feelings.

Sandile Zulu creates abstract artworks with fire; a medium customarily associated with destruction, not creativity. Brownprint 9 consists of repeated shapes and patterns created by controlling the burning of the canvas. A close up of the work reveals how Zulu patched the canvas when the fire burnt too strongly.

Serge Alain Nitegeka uses abstraction to make works about his experiences fleeing a war-torn country when he was young. He explores feelings of isolation, fear, and being trapped through his use of bold lines, striking compositions and manipulation of space.

Let’s find

Find an artwork in which the artist uses abstraction. Write down the

Artist(s)’ name: ____________________________________________

Title of the work: ___________________________________________

Date: _____________

Dimensions:

Materials used to create the work:

What made you chose this work?

Left: Sandile Zulu, Brownprint 9, 2008, fire on canvas, 145 x 41 x 4cm. Wits Art Museum – Acquired 2008

Right: Serge Alain Nitegeka, Fragile Cargo VI: Studio Study I, 2012, paint on wood, 145 x 145 x 4cm. Wits Art Museum – Acquired 2012

Celebrating textiles

Woven fabric is an important part of social activities for the Kuba people from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kuba textiles made of woven raffia palm are used as wrap-around skirts during festivals, performances and personal transitions, for example, passing from this life to the spirit world. While many cultures historically consider textile-making to be a woman’s job, both men and women make Kuba textiles.

Men grow the raffia palms, cut and dye the raffia leaves, then weave them into small pieces of fabric. Women do the embroidery, and patch-work different cloths and designs together. The elaborate geometric patterns communicate status, wealth and ancestry. The tight raffia bobbles are added to the edges of the textile to create more movement when the skirts are worn by dancers at festivals.

Left: Artist unrecorded, date unrecorded, Kuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Man’s dance skirt, raffia fibre. Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum) – Acquired 1994

Centre: Artist unrecorded, date unrecorded, Kuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mapele, raffia fibre. Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum) – Acquired 1999

Right: Artist unrecorded, Kuba (Bushoong), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mapele, c1950s, raffia fibre. Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum) – Acquired 1999

In contrast with the lesser status of needlework and fabric making in western art historical traditions, weavers had and continue to have a high status amongst the Asante. Historically it was customary for Asante men to weave Kente cloth, which is made from narrow strips of hand-woven textile that are sewn together to form the larger piece of fabric. The patterns and colours have symbolic meaning to people who understand the symbols. The patterns also communicate the wearer’s place of birth and their status.

Let’s draw

Draw part of the pattern from one of the Textiles on the exhibition:

Left: Artist unrecorded, Ewe, Ghana, Textile, strip woven cotton textile. Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum) – Acquired 1994

Right: Artist unrecorded, Ewe, Ghana, Textile, strip woven textile. Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum) – Acquired 2007

Un-silencing the instruments in museums

Musical instruments incorporate both the material and the immaterial. Instruments are made from materials for players who beat, blow, pluck or shake the instrument to create sounds. When instruments become part of a museum collection, they are valued for their aesthetic properties and their connection to community. In the museum, the instruments can no longer be played so that they are preserved for future generations. They are safe, but also silent.

Composer Cameron Harris and curator Alison Kearney wanted to find a way to un-silence the instruments in the museum collection. Using electronic music software, speakers and amplifiers, Harris developed a way to play the drums without touching them. The sound piece Hidden Energies (2023) is composed from what the instruments sound like in their new life as part of the collection. To retain the sense of the connection to people, the sound installation is interactive.

Let’s find

Can you find the two interactive components of the sound installation?

Let’s talk

What difference does the sound make to your experience in museum? What makes you say that?

Left: Cameron Harris and Alison Kearney, Out of Sound, 2023, Installation of drums, speakers, amplifiers, microphone, motion sensor, audio cable, Wits Art Museum. Right: Cameron Harris, Hidden Energies, 2023, sound piece of approximately 180 minutes

Translating sounds to images

Music has inspired artists like Jo Smail, whose abstract work Stutterings and Songs II (1984) seems to have been created in response to sounds. Notice the different qualities of the lines, marks, and texture which can be related to the tone, texture and feeling of music.

Composers communicate the qualities of the sounds, such as the tempo, duration and rests by writing musical scores using the language of musical notation. A musical score is a visual representation of the sounds and pauses we hear when music is played with instruments or sung by the human voice. Musicians read, then interpret the score when playing their instruments. A musical score is an excellent example of the connection between the material and immaterial.

Let’s create

Create a graphic score for the sound piece Hidden Energies (Harris, 2023). Draw marks, lines, shapes to represent the sounds you hear. Try to communicate the quality of the sound in the marks that you make:

Glossary

A graphic score is a score that uses marks and drawings in place of musical notation to represent a what we hear.

Jo Smail, Stutterings and Songs II, 1984, conte, pencil, acrylic, oil and pastel on paper, 75.5 x 56.6cm. Wits Art Museum – Acquired 1984

Connecting the past and present

When we encounter artworks in the art museum, we make meanings of the artworks by exploring what we see, how we feel, and what associations we have with the artworks on display. Although Flood I, by Andrew Verster (1989) is a landscape drawing that evolved out of a process of working with charcoal, audiences today might relate the work to the recent devastating floods in Kwa-Zulu Natal in April 2022.

Glossary

A metaphor is a comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated. With metaphor, the qualities of one thing are figuratively carried over to another.

Andrew Verster, Flood I, 1989, charcoal on paper, 195 x 401.6cm. Wits Art Museum – Acquired 1990

Left: Andrew Verster, Flood I, (detail) 1989, charcoal on paper, 195 x 401.6cm. Wits Art Museum – Acquired 1990

Making meaning from our encounters in the museum

Look carefully at the artwork on the facing page, and then write your answers to the questions below in the space provided:

Write down some words to describe the lines, marks, texture, light and dark in Verster’s drawing:

What emotions are conveyed by these lines?

What personal connections can you make with this work?

In what way, if any, does the title Flood I influence your response to the work?

What metaphorical links can you make with the idea of flooding?

Representing beliefs

Artists make artworks to communicate their beliefs to audiences. Joni Brenner shares a belief about how all people share commonalities through her portrayal of a skull in Everyone in the World (2013). The artist said of this work, “everyone has a skull.” The work can be understood as a comment on how all people are connected despite our differences.

Johannes Maswanganyi has incorporated symbols from many beliefs in his sculpture Skeleton and Man (c1990-1993). The man looking at a skeleton, could be interpreted as a warning for us to live life to the fullest because we will all die one day. Snakes are bad omens for some people, while others regard snakes as messengers from the ancestors, or even as symbols of immortality.

Let’s talk in pairs

What do you think the skeleton and man are thinking in Maswanganyi’s (1990-1993) sculpture?

Joni Brenner, Everyone in the World, 2013, spitbite, aquatint and drypoint etching with handcolouring, 42 x 59cm. Presented in 2014 by Wits History of Art to Wits Art Museum

Johannes Maswanganyi, Skeleton and Man (descriptive title) front and back view, c1990-1993, wood and paint, 157 x 86 x 40cm. Presented in 2015 by Trent Read to Wits Art Museum

Communing with ancestors

Artworks like Maswanganyi’s Skeleton and Man (1990-1993), represent beliefs but are not part of social activites related to those beliefs. Other artworks play an important part enacting beliefs, and are valued for their beauty and careful manufacture.

For example, an ukhamba (singular) is a vessel for drinking umqombothi (Zulu beer) that is brewed by women and believed to be the food of the ancestors. Umqombothi is served in izinkamba (plural) at Zulu social gatherings of all kinds. Traditionally, a drink is offered to the ancestors first, and then the ukhamba is passed around from person to person. Historically among isiZulu speakers, clay pottery was a woman’s art form passed down from mother to daughter. Nesta Nala’s Ukhamba (11.01.2004) includes characteristic decorative patterns, made by engraving. The black colour of the beer pots, created by firing the pots more than once, is intended to please the ancestors, who are believed to be drawn to darkness and quiet.

Let’s talk

Do you connect with members of your family who have passed on? If yes, in what ways do you connect with them?

Nesta Nala, Ukhamba (Beer pot), 11.01,2004, burnished clay, 24.5 x 20 x 25cm. Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum)

Acquired 2007

Dream machines

Headrests were historically made to hold up the head and to preserve hairstyles while sleeping. They were a means to connect the sleeper with their ancestors who are believed to send the dreams. Amongst the Shona people, headrests were used by men, and passed down from father to son or another male heir By connecting the dreamer with his ancestors, headrests are seen as a tool for knowledge and success. They are also used by diviners to communicate with ancestral spirits, when asking for help in the physical world.

Look carefully at the headrests above, then write down your answers to the questions on the facing page in the space provided:

Glossary

An heir is someone who is entitled to another person’s wealth and rank upon that person’s death. Heirs are usually family members of the deceased.

Exhibition display of headrests from different parts of Africa, on Encounters with the (Im)material, April - July, 2023, Wits Art Museum

What do you think?

What are some common features between the headrests?

Describe some of the differences between the headrests:

In what ways does the design of the headrest serve the purpose of the headrest?

Let’s draw

Draw a design for your own headrest with symbols that identify you as the owner of the headrest:

The agency of artworks

Artworks connect artists, curators and viewers in the field of exhibition. Artworks are agents of social change because they affect social interactions, and help to shape ideas, attitudes and values. As the product of artist’s work, the artwork makes the artist, as much as the artist makes the work. Artworks communicate the artist’s ideas to the audience. The audience reveals their thinking, attitudes and values when sharing their interpretations of works of art.

Let’s reflect

Read the text that Fildah Mabhiza wrote to accompany Medicine for love (1998). What do you think the message of this artwork might be?

Left: Fildah Mabhiza, Weya, Zimbabwe, Medicine for love, 1998, appliqué fabric, embroidery thread, plastic, beads, wood, feathers, seeds, ballpoint on paper, 128 x 91cm. Presented in 1998 by Brenda Schmahmann to Wits Art Museum

Communicating value

We value artworks in different ways as they are part of social practices, or part of museum collections. The Asante goldweights, called mrammuo, played a role in Asante trade. Before colonisation, Asante traders would exchange goods for their value in gold dust, carefully measured using the mrammuo The mrammuo were made of brass. The patterns and imagery on the mrammuo refer to Asante proverbs. The mrammuo were a means to trade and communicate subtle messages through speaking in proverbs.

Let’s talk

Describe some visual similarities between the symbols and images in the mrammuo and the Kente fabrics made by Asante artists.

Why do you think that nations take so much care designing currency?

On 4 May 2023 the South African Reserve Bank introduced new designs on notes and coins. What is your favourite new South African money?

Artists unrecorded, date unrecorded, Asante, Ghana. Collection of Goldweights, Brass. Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum) – Acquired 1983

Artist unrecorded, Ewe, Ghana, Textile, strip woven textile (detail). Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum) – Acquired 2007

Let’s pause and reflect

Throughout this exhibition we have explored how physical artworks connect to what we think, feel and believe. WAM would like to know what you think and feel about your encounters with artworks in this exhibition. Share your reflections by completing the sentences on the card provided, and then post your cards on the wall in the Strip Gallery:

After visiting this exhibition, the artwork I will tell others about is….

It made me think…

I felt…

You can also share your reflections with us by posting on WAM’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/witsartmuseum.

This education resource was written by Alison Kearney, and edited by Julia Charlton. It was produced by Wits Art Museum in 2023 to accompany Encounters with the (Im)material curated by Alison Kearney. The photographs were taken by Kiara Lauren Affat, Mark Lewis, Fiona Rankin-Smith and Sidney Ndhlovu. Design and layout by Native Joint. This education resource was made possible by funding from the NIHSS.