1 minute read
Representing beliefs
from Encounters
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?
