So ja, I’ve given in. I’ve decided to talk about that painting. The one that’s transfixed the nation for more than a week now – even on Twitter, a platform known for nothing so much as institutionalised ADD. It is the PR gift that keeps on giving: apparently it’s reached 108 million people and delivered over R25-million in equivalent advertising value, and therefore deserving of an award for delivering such phenomenal ROI.
I think it’s a much better work, post defacement, than it was before. Sacrilege, yes, because to deface work is not only criminal, it is to evoke the Nazis and the Soviets (both of whom insisted on wholesome realism in a tradition parodied by Murray in the picture that caused all the trouble). Technically speaking in terms which insurers can understand, the stretch of acrylic on canvas reputedly owned by a German who paid R136 000 for it, has been destroyed. But if we are to view it primarily as commentary on the state of politics, patriarchy and power – as the artist presumably wishes us to – it has been vastly improved. As art object, it’s ruined. As art, it’s superb.
I disliked the original because it was so unsubtle, so 3rd year. True subversion is sly: it sneaks up on you, fools you into making comfortable assumptions, then sticks a stiletto between the ribs. It doesn’t whack you over the skull with the obvious. (As a piece of satire, this “Gandhi Spear” parody actually works a lot better.) As a critique of power and patriarchy the work was also hamstrung by a context in which white men painting black dicks is never not going to be problematic. Even if this was not the intention of the artist, it was too open to interpretation as racist, the lugubrious echo of a colonial discourse that reduced Africans to sexual objects who stirred both fascination and fear.
The Emperor has no clothes
Then there is the problem of Zuma himself. Mockery is premised upon the assumption that your target is doing his best to maintain a dignified exterior. There is no way to truly subvert the image of Zuma, not in the way that was possible during apartheid. For one thing, the president operates within a cultural context that is saturated with mockery (Zumockery, if you want a convenient portmanteau to add to your lexicon). Now, for all the lawsuits, derisive images of the president are everywhere, some of them on extremely unpleasant racist websites. The image of Zuma that predominates in popular culture is (ironically) the antithesis of dignity. We see him dancing or waving a gun, or pulling an inadvertent middle finger when he adjusts his glasses; he’s been the punchline of jokes since at least 2004 (similarly, it’s difficult to be truly subversive when mocking Malema). The Spear fails as satire because it is too familiar; the artist echoes the jokes around the braai rather than interrogating them.
I think the work offended people because it made explicit what was always tacit. Much of the attention was stirred up by the ANC who stand to gain from what Sipho Hlongwane describes here as “dog whistle politics”. The focus was on the literal interpretation – the penis is verboten – but of course it operates on the metaphorical level too. Now the unspeakably awful appendage has been covered up, and the self-appointed guardians of our moral fibre have declared themselves (mostly) satisfied, but we all know it is there. It’s a much more powerful representation of the point than the original ever could be. The Spear now stands as a mute accusation: not just a representation, but the thing itself. It becomes an embodiment of the thorny problems of representation, criticism, respect and culture; all the largely unspoken messiness we tangle with every day.
So the Tzaneen taxi driver and the Kempton Park Afrikaner have become part of something much bigger. The two who defaced the work might be morons, as Gus Silber described them on Twitter. But they are useful idiots in their own way, and what started out as a canvas on a gallery wall is now process of creation and destruction, meaning added upon layer of meaning.
One artist’s representation of the presidential penis has been effaced by a layer of black and red enamel. The offending organ can no longer be seen, but it’s more visible than ever.
“I think the work offended people because it made explicit what was always tacit”
I’m afraid this shows your warped perspective of African culture. Why is it so difficult to grasp that the notion of RESPECT for one elders varies in different cultures. What you call satire, parody etc. is deeply offensive in other cultures but you steadfastly refuse to acknowledge this.
Your conspicuous silence about the brutal treatment of the young black vandal in contrast to the middle-aged white vandal ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HHJG2fyktc ), shows your utter denial of white privilege in our country. This blindspot created by centuries of white supremacist indoctrination is the root cause of the social ills in our country.
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Great article, Sarah.
[I scrolled down, skipping the entire article, to leave a preemptive, arbitrary I-know-am-going-to-enjoy-this-one-too commentary]
Watch this space:
Out of the ball-park.
In my personal opinion, the defacers of the portrait and the gallery are typical of the personality type which will do anything for their 5 minutes of fame on TV.
However one may sympathise with their craving to be significant – they make the lives of the rich and famous hell!
Often they become stalkers. How society and the courts will deal with this modern problem I don’t know.
One gains ‘dignity’ from how one conducts oneself. One gains respect from how one behaves. One gains credibility from how one delivers.
Zuma is, after all, not just another money-hungry, power hungry, sex addict.
He is a PRESIDENT–even though responsibility lies with the ANC for electing him into office.
From his having unprotected sex yet again (he has a child aged 2 with the woman he has just married – after preaching to a country overpopulated and riddled with HIV AIDS, that they should condomise); to the release of Schabier Shaik; to his turning a blind eye to all the corruption and criminality in the ANC – and now allowing hundreds of convicted felons loose on the streets; to belting out racist ‘machine-gun’ songs and dancing with Malema (when he was still nursing him); to hearing predictions from deities like Jesus and the Ancestors; to ignoring the public outcry re the Protection of Information Bill, SANRAL, Richard Mduli … one could go on forever …
but morespecially, for feathering his own nest at the expense of the poverty-stricken in this country.
Is there anything he, or the ANC have done to make this country proud?.
How can the ANC ‘protect’ Zuma’s dignity, respect or credibility? As a man or a president, he has none.
He is a joke, a scandal, an embarrassment and a disgrace.
He was portrayed well in the picture. (Compare it with the photograph).
It is the disgust with him as president and with the ANC that ‘The Spear’…
This is the last “zuma picture” comment I will read. The whole thing is so booooring and infantile.
If I were the German who bought the pic, I would hang onto it for historical value. You never know. In future it might be worth a multiple in Dollars in the book: “African history in comics”
… It is the disgust with him as president and with the ANC that ‘The Spear’ expresses.
As a byline….. I am pleased to notice that South Africans are becoming more interested in nudism.
While we are marching for everything under the sun, we might start organising nudist marches. Just waiting for the approvals of the various dress code related organisations with moral, practical, fashion, religeous, cultural, histroical and economical interests.
I prefer the post defacement piece as well.
In fact I wish the first gentleman had stopped his act with that nicely-applied red cross over the genitalia and left it at that. The taxi driver over-egged the pudding.
The piece then would have had a nice post-ironic feel to it – something like a Banksy work.
I agree – the original was too unsubtle, childish – Art 101. One of Murray’s weakest works in my opinion.
On one thing I do disagree. We may laugh all we like at Zuma doing Zulu dances or marrying his many wives – but at the end of the day this is disrespectful to another’s culture. Welsh, Bosnian and German dances are also laughable, one might argue. And the possible next president of the US (Romney) is a Mormon – a religion which embraces multiple wives.
The world is a funny place. It’s best to respect cultural differences and rather focus our energy on more important matters, like saving the planet from pollution and crass development.
Murray risks being seen as a privileged white boy exhibiting at a glossy gallery in the leafy subjects, taking a cheap and disrespectful pop at an easy target.
Given South Africa’s ‘white overlord >> black serf’ past – he and the Goodman Gallery knew they were taking risks, but there’$ no bad publicity, i$ there, when it comes to promotion and dollar$ ?
South Africa has enough tension and bad blood as it is, without Murray stirring it up even more with an artwork of dubious value.
And then we will find that it was a set up. That the coincidence of news crews and two vandals appearing from different corners of the country simultaneously is a little like the plot from a Grade 8 composition assignment.
Well since everybody is giving their 2c worth on the “art” involved, here goes:
Inadvertantly the later “artists” have turned a rather 1984 meets Dirk Diggler version of Zuma and his package into a misty, barely visible apparition of a horned devil with the penis now larger and certainly erect in a pair of baggy black pants. Not only is it still there, it has grown! Shows the importance of planning, co-ordination and colour schemes when defacing art.
Furthermore, the similarity of the modified Zuma to Darth Maul, the Sith Lord with black face and red horns, the embodiment of evil, the slayer of Jedi and the enslaver of the galaxy in a totalitarian nightmare is now hard to miss. Perhaps they had a plan after all and George Lucas was involved!
My conclusion? These rebel defacers have made it worse. It looks more evil and it has a bigger penis, now erect with the media excitement. It has caused a bigger stir and is worth way more in money and cultural impact terms and is less likely to fade away and everybody still knows it is Zuma.
Of course what we should all be looking for is the news story that broke and was quickly displaced by this collossal farce, modus operandi of our CIA style prez and now, missing his Malama mouthpiece has had to find something else to create the noise to obscure the signal. Look for family members (snigger) falling foul of the law, Mdluli or DA moves that threatened.
I never realized that the painting must have been from before the wife in the picture put the machete to work…..
Lyndall Beddy:
You say the defacers wanted ’5 minutes of fame’.
But what do you think Brett Murray wanted? At least 5 minutes of fame, I would imagine. It earned him over R100 000, so it was worth every cent.
What do you think the Goodman Gallery wanted? Fame = publicity = sales = profits
So your argument is a little weak, is what I am pointing out.
Harris – I’m with you there on RESPECT.
It is traditional still in the broad black culture to respect elders.
Unfortunatly respect and ubuntu are dying out as American/ Western/ white man values on Playboy pornography, narcissistic me-me-me culture and crass consumerism take hold in our culture.
You may not offend MY culture is an echo from the past. MY culture is superior to yours so it must not be offended. I will therefore censor your culture so mine is not offended.
I think this just shows how parochial we actually are. Our intolerance has shown itself and we shall continue to talk past each other.
On a lighter note I think this episode has proven that we still have a fertile imagination because we keep seeing things that are not really there!
I also believe the cultural aspect is conveniently forgotten… Respect, as I was raised to bestow on especially my elders, was not some trophy I gave for good behavior, because what someone did, ‘pleased me’. Respect is something I give because I am respectful. But I guess there are people in our country who will never understand that concept. To acknowledge someone’s personhood not because they fit your own idea of what should be, but because regardless of what THEY do, YOU remain a decent person. Often in business, the cultural practices in the East are given high priority, to avoid offending. But whenever the subject is Africn culture, our countrymen are only too happy to ignore, degrade, and disregard what is respectful and appropriate… I do not have to like Zuma or vote for the ANC to know Brett was wrong. He has artistic license, and he didnt break any laws, I’m sure the court will rule in his favor. But he was wrong. And what I find even more puzzling, Is this notion that Zuma himself, his family, and the ANC, should not be upset! Really… Disagreeing with the man does not mean you stoop to the level of shaming him in public, that makes you no better than the same perceived evil you are against…
citoyen
Brett Murray produced a work of art which either sold and earned him money or didn’t. The galley would not have shown his work if it did not sell – which is how they earn their commission. Which means that people who know about art buy it.
The “5 minute of fame” people just cause hassles to everyone, destroy other people’s property, and waste the time of police and courts with more important things to do.
Plus the main point – no-one outside of the art world would have known about the painting if the ANC had not brought it to everyone’s attention.
How can one match the shifty face
of a man so unsuited to this place?
Though he’s no lion or swiftfoot hare
wherever he turns he finds a lair
to perform such pressing official engagements
as result in serial nuptial arrangements.
Bank clerk, farmer or staff nurse
lobola is met by the public purse
and earned him a reputation:
a Caliban to lead the nation.
Though for a guy who loves to score
Lothario might’ve pleased him more.
From ‘Letter to South Africa/Poets Calling the State to Order, Umuzi, 2011.
@TumiM
“Respect is something I give because I am respectful.” Wow! That’s profound.
It’s like saying: “A cold is something I have because I have a cold.”
Anyway, in case you didn’t know: Respect is earned.
PS (with respect) Your writing sounds so much like Tofolux: repetitious twaddle..
The essential difference in black and white culture appears to be that blacks automatically respect their elders, while whites demand that the elderly earn that respect by behaving in a dignified way..
Would have made an interesting series of three, had someone been able to reproduce the middle layer before the final globs were added. And (hopefully) that series could have foretold the man’s demise as an extremely bad leader of our land. Imagine how much that series would later have been worth?
On the subject of respecting one’s elders, remember that there are many South Africans far older than JZ, some of whom live in appalling conditions with no state protection for their pensions and persons against greedy families. Has JZ shown them any respect?
There comes a time in every country when the bubble must burst and I think this has been an interesting few days in SA history. I counter Beddy’s remark about the ANC drawing the attention: in fact, it was probably City Press that started the ball rolling. It is said the exhibition had been up for a while before a media call alerted the Presidency to its existence. While many voters feel saturated by the entire show, others still don’t have a clue that it has even happened.
ZUMA MEMO
Don’t nationalise.
Condomise.