Paballo Nkonyane

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

Clansmen

This body of work is based on exploring intuition. The figures in the pieces are characters that suggest human activity in an environment where violence, drugs and sex are not commodities but an expression for the ideal dream of a people who have not been cultivated by government laws and a government-based education program. The conventional laws of human conduct are abandoned and replaced by a portrayal of the savage. I am questioning the authority that enforces a capitalist society without concern for people who are not able to exercise capitalism on the same scale as citizens that are from privileged backgrounds. A person who is a beneficiary of war classifies as a person of privilege. The narrative in the artworks is a portrayal of the majority rule deciding to reclaim their position of power and wealth without considering the laws of a government. It is an imagined act of terrorism, and these are posters for that revolution. My interest in this subject matter stems from the content I have consumed, from music, film and theatre and performance. The vulgar language used in the music and the gory scenes from theatre and performance painted an image of the world that was covered in idealism, but the reality for much of the world is that there is a great sense of hardship in earning a living. The American rapper Ab Soul in the record “Terrorist Threats,” suggests that if every gang in the world unified, they would stand a chance against the military that same night.