Controversial SA artists throw spanner in the works

“The show is making a political and social comment,” Damaso explained to the City Press during a visit to his studio in Johannesburg.

“We are frustrated and irritated with the way things are going in this country. As another artist on the show – Pacman – says, our freedom is being confiscated, people have become a cog in a wheel.”

And the three of them agreed to throw a spanner in the works.

No stranger to controversy, Damaso seems to be the perfect candidate to throw such a spanner. After multiple death threats and much controversy, he is still making social and political statements through his art.

Who can forget the saga surrounding Damaso’s Night Watch, featuring Mandela as the subject of an autopsy, while South Africa’s most prominent political and societal personalities look on? For this exhibition, this much acclaimed art work returns, as controversial and pertinent now as ever.

On view also are his flag series, which hint of things amiss in international politics, and an ink on photo print of a fist-wielding Julius Malema with the trademark hairstyle and moustache of Hitler transposed on him.

The P.A.C. Revolution, or as his acronym reads, ‘The Pacman’, uses this pseudonym to hide among the crowd while airing his views, much in the line of Jamie Reid, the anarchic artist of Sex Pistols fame. The Pacman’s work is inspired by his dissatisfaction with local and international governments and political leaders, often portraying them as clowns or puppets under titles such as ‘African National Circus’.

“Governments of today are confiscating our humanity, open your eyes,” says The Pacman.

The third exhibitor is well known already and famous for throwing a spanner in the works. But his art is not necessarily funny. After a brief but meaningful friendship, Robert Hodgins left an indelible mark on John Vlismas, who says the work he is exhibiting this time is the result of ‘homework’ left behind for him by his friend. Vlismas says his work is the result of intense observation of people, and swears that the distorted figures portrayed have actually been seen in real life, through the unique lens of a stand-up comic.

Having been brought together by like-mindedness and mutual respect, the three-man exhibition opens at Yiull Damaso Artists’ Studio in Craighall Park, Joburg, on Friday, October 18.