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.

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?

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.