Business Art
STEPHAN WELZ & CO. www.swelco.co.za
S
tephan Welz & Co. have had the privilege of being part of the “artists journey” for many years. The last two years have been slightly different though - most assuredly due to the changing nature of the world as we once knew it. A different, much needed, energized artist offering has imbued Stephan Welz and Co’s latest auction collections. The works of Bambo Sibiya, Blessing Ngobeni, and Nelson Makamo have acted as a reprieve from the dismay that has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. As South Africans, we are particularly fortunate to have these artists and their works to act as our anchors – speaking directly to our moment, they act as both snapshot and promise. A snapshot of the epoch, and a promise that we might just make it through the unsettling times. Blessing Ngobeni’s oeuvre functions as snapshot. Ngobeni’s works are situated between the political and the personal and avidly express the many intersections between systems of power and lived experience. “The anger, the happiness, the love, the struggle of the political landscape in Africa… are fused in one thing” (Blessing Ngobeni in Wood 2020: [sp]). These sentiments are crucial to the understanding of our current socio-cultural cipher, they provide a visual clarification of what we can no longer make sense of, or of what we are no longer able to express. Material Enslavement speaks to the unaltered oppressive systems characterized by the late Capitalist period, while also addressing the stagnant ‘change’ promised by the post-Apartheid era. These systemic issues, now even more glaringly evident in our current moment, posits Material Enslavement as essential ‘visual reading’ for our country and our time.
48
Bambo Sibiya’s works are permeated with the idea of ‘Ubuntu Ngabantu’, a Zulu term translating roughly to ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’ – and functions as promise. Much of his work considers the mining industry in Johannesburg during the Apartheid era, and the men and women that populated these spaces of hardship. Memories of a Swenka, examines
W W W. A R T T I M E S . C O . Z A
