Lust, desire, and fruit: Defying sexual politics in Johannesburg | CNN

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery/ Anthea Pokroy

Laura Windvogel better known as Lady Skollie is a South African born interdisciplinary artist whose paintings are as alluring as they are belligerent.

A new exhibition, 'Lust Politics', presents the artist's works on sex, desire and power.

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery/ Lady Skollie

From papayas to bananas painted provocatively, works are channeled from personal experiences. Using past relationships as a starting point she strives to inject vulnerability into stereotypes of a "hyper-sexualized" black woman.

Her adopted name, Skollie, is an Afrikaans term for a 'rule breaker.'

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery/ Lady Skollie

But while many of her images may seem, provocative and offensive at times, they are infused with a serious undertone. Her goal is to use art as dialogue on taboo topics like rape and sexual abuse.

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery/ Lady Skollie

In "a country where HIV is rife, abuse is rife, teenage pregnancy is rife, and these are all things that are happening right now yet no one really feels open enough to talk about it," Lady Skollie explained.

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery/ Anthea Pokroy

When it comes to rape in South Africa, "we've reached joke levels," she says. The country has high levels of reported rape with official crime statistics showing an average of 142.2 sexual assaults occurring per day, in 2015/16. "Like we're not even shocked anymore," adds Lady Skollie.

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery/ Lady Skollie

"I really think space should be created for people to feel safe, to feel like they can come and they can talk about things without fear of judgment. Because silence is what's keeping us sick," she told CNN.

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery/ Anthea Pokroy

"Sex has a lot of facets, gender has a lot of facets, there's a lot you can discuss and I realized it was a valid voice to have," she said.

Story highlights

Lady Skollie's watercolor paintings are often controversial

A new exhibition by the artist explores desire and abuse in South Africa

CNN —

Lady Skollie’s reputation precedes the artist.

During our interview, her most overused phrase, “I’m not sure I should be saying this, but” could epitomize her outspoken views on politics, gender and more specifically sex.

The South African artist is known for seductive watercolor paintings that reclaim her sexual experiences as ‘a woman of color.’

From papayas to bananas painted provocatively, art critics have stamped her works as ‘an erotic jolt to the art world’ to ‘mildly offensive.’

“I’ve always shared way too much,” she says, rather understated. “I always found a lot of value in shock value and it’s just about me now focusing that energy in a cleaner cut way so that I can actually make a difference.”

Born Laura Windvogel, the Johannesburg based 29-year-old tackles thorny issues around gender and sexual violence through art making - and previously - a sex talk radio show titled Kiss & Tell. Her first solo show in the UK has just opened in London, an exhibition on ‘Lust Politics’, it hopes to shock British sensibilities but also raise awareness.

In “a country [South Africa] where HIV is rife, abuse is rife, teenage pregnancy is rife, and these are all things that are happening right now yet no one really feels open enough to talk about it, it always does my head in,” she says.

The goal is to spark crucial debates amongst men and women on taboo topics. “Sex positivity, body positivity for me, is a good channel with my art to address these issues.”

07:41 - Source: CNN

Pushing sexual boundaries in Johannesburg

She draws on South Africa’s high levels of reported rape without convictions, in which current statistics show 142.2 sexual assaults occurring per day, and one in for four men admitting in a survey to having raped. “We’ve reached joke levels, like we’re not even shocked anymore,” says an emphatic Lady Skollie.

In a bid to capture the darker side of raw sensuality, ‘On the subject of consent’ feature her trademark fruit motifs alongside title quotes “don’t worry about it: around here red means go.” While another work displays the Afrikaans term “Vroeg ryp, Vroeg vrot” - the sooner fruit ripens, the sooner it rots.

“There’s such deep trauma in this country especially with women and we don’t know how to focus our energy,” she adds. “We don’t know how to focus our anger because no one is ever held accountable so I think that’s kind of the things I’m trying to touch on.”

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery/ Lady Skollie

"On the subject of consent: 'Don't worry about it; around here RED MEANS GO!'" (2016), Lady Skollie.

Her passion for arts began at an early age, initially mulling the idea of becoming an actress, before dropping a fine arts degree - hankering creative freedom - and eventually graduating in art history.

“I didn’t want to be a character. I think I’m far more interesting than whatever character you could make me play,” she laughs.

Stirred by the fantastical, she muses over works from Mary Sibande and Athi-Patra Ruga, known for his dystopian worlds featuring giant zebras and balloon-shaped women.

“He’s kind of my unofficial mentor,” she continues. “I love everything that pops. I love color and being immersed into something.” Ruga and Sibande delve into similar themes as Lady Skollie highlighting how fraught a topic, gender and race, continues to be within South Africa.

Mohau Modisakeng's images will haunt you. The South African artist readily admits his "preoccupation with violence". But these images and sculptures are not sensationalism or mere internet fodder. They're designed to spark a conversation on South Africa's recent history and its impact on personal identity, he says. From the country's political uprisings to the brutal stabbing of his brother, nothing is off limits.

Fossils Black is a work that deceives the eye. Although it looks like a photograph, it is actually a scan. The artist made a cast of his face which was then broken into several pieces and arranged onto a scanner bed. "I grew up in a part of Soweto that witnessed a lot of conflict" he says. The 1990s saw bloody clashes between followers of the African National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

Courtesy Tyburn Gallery

He recollects one particular incident walking past dead bodies the morning after one of these conflicts. "I was quite young but I was able to recognize what I was looking at. Even though it wasn't really spoken about in my family", he explains.

Modisakeng says his artworks come from a history of violence that has not been dealt with and that people have been forced to forget. He references the Bang Bang Club - a group of photojournalists documenting the transition from apartheid within townships in the 90s: "The environment they were working in was the kind of environment I was growing up in".

Violence, labor, security - these are the influences generating a body of work referencing machetes, AK-47 rifles and Okapi - a type of flick knife.

Named after a suburb in Cape Town, the piece sees a lone figure dressed in white standing against a stark asphalt landscape and brandishing large industrial tools as if they were weapons. "Endabeni is actually very key in understanding where the South African structure of a town comes from because it was the first segregated structure in the whole of South Africa", Modasikeng explains.

"I knew I wanted my landscape to be strange and exotic and extraterrestrial" he says of Endabeni. For an earlier work, Modasikeng sculpted an Okapi during his fourth year at Michaelis School of Fine Art, in Cape Town. This was a deeply personal piece of artwork, surrounding the fatal stabbing of his brother who had been involved in grass roots movements, mobilizing people during the transition from apartheid.

Recalling memories surrounding such a tragic death: "I think my mum was looking through his things and she pulled out this white sweater which had a small stain on it, and under the stain was a cut. Apparently this is what my brother had been wearing on that day". The sculpture was a response not to the physical presence of his brother but his absence and what was unspoken. "I'm trying to understand the events around his passing". He adds "it was not something that we talked about at home".

Series Ga Ethso and Inzilo - "mourning" - dive deeper into the poignant way violence is such an integral part of South African history. He references the 2012 Ludlow Massacre, where mineworkers were shot by the police during a strike. "In subsequent reports, the use of traditional weapons is what led to or justified the kind of force used", he says. "There hasn't been any effort to address this violent history" he concludes.

Yet, broader influences are drawn from the personal. Using previous relationships as material she strives to inject vulnerability into stereotypes of a “hyper-sexualized” black woman.

“I want them [audiences] to see a different version of southern Africa or a different version of a woman of color from South Africa than they thought possible or that they are used to,” she says.

For the artist, lust within a digitally connected era is multifaceted. “Whether it’s about abuse, whether it’s about porn stars … colonization and how that’s affected black women…

I think all of those elements of sex are important and worth looking into.” Her challenge now is to continue pushing the boundaries of political correctness.

‘Lust Politics’ runs until 4 March 2017, at Tyburn Gallery, London.