in-direct - david madlabane

My artwork examines my identity, environment and elements of architecture to construct a new narrative that observes my daily commute from home to the city of Johannesburg, walking in the streets of Johannesburg, I look closely to the deconstructed structures of the building that have been guttered and I infuse them with the portraits. I focus on the portraits to show the expression of African people, to place and showcase them in a position that makes the viewer engage with them using their posture or facial expressions. I use contour lines inspired by our finger prints an inversely use them on the portrait to play with the idea of identity and to show my constant struggle to develop my personal understanding of identity and the where I come from since most of our history was written by the Victor's. The use of architecture in my work explores the exterior communication of humans and is done so in a playful and simplistic manner to show that the space doesn't define us who we are as a people of the land, geo-metric and technical drawn marks that I use as a metaphor to express certain emotions and the sub-conscious dialogue that happens on the daily. Artist: David Madlabane Medium: Archival fineliner, charcoal, watercolour and indian ink Style: Surrealism Year: 2022 Size: 100cm X 70cm X 2cm Weight: 2.5kg Unstretched and Unframed