BA (Hons) Ceramics 2005 |
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Janke Joubert Tel 07869 124487 |
Until there is an overwhelming feeling of wrong, and an uprising so strong that it costs lives, many lives in many gruesome ways. I do not know of these killings first hand but have read the statements from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, describing amongst other human rights violations the method known as 'necklacing' - placing a car tyre around a bound person's body and setting it alight... Granted time and space, I have developed a slightly irrational emotional state of identity. My ancestors were responsible for taking lives and destroying homes, and I am a result of their suppressed guilt. Silence becomes inexcusable in my mind. I want people to know about these atrocious events, but feel too far removed to comment. I have never been faced with any absurd banishments, never been starving, never lost a father, brother, mother or sister because the power from above would not recognise my existence. I feel, as described by German theologians after the Second World War, 'metaphysical guilt' - if I survived while the other was killed, I am guilty of my very existence. My hands are tied, frustration and extreme emotion. I am exhausted, I need to rest. I pray to be numb, even if it's only for a little while. Solace oh solace.... Think, cry, sleep... Wake up... knowing that, despite everything, the broken people of South Africa are also waking up today. I feel relief at this realisation, and grateful for their forgiveness and their strength. I continue, I make my art and feel privileged, not to represent the pain of a nation, but rather to open doors to those who wish to enter. We must each deal with the past in our own way, and this is the way that I have learnt to trust. I endeavour to present and juxtapose events - from colonialism (the familiar blue and white pattern from the British ceramic factories), to the very recent and still raw acceptance of its repercussions. I have focused on the positive attitudes portrayed by the poorest and most affected communities a continent away. There is such beauty and pride in their lives, despite having to re-use the packaging of corporate identities' products (some might say the modern interpretation of colonialism) to build their homes. By recreating this 'recycling' theme in ceramic, the status of the objects and people are being elevated, made equal. No person is more important than another, regardless of their class or race. These people recreate their surroundings because it is the only thing within their immediate control, and they do it competently and admirably. They survive, despite it a Against it, all of it, against the violence the injustice the pressing of time and past: what can we do about the dark evil of our history? Let's look at it from all angles, let's deprive ourselves sleep and comfort until we figure each other out, let us push firmly with what we believe in, against the mountains of unearthly pain, unearthed because we are not separate, and we are not guilty. |
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With truth comes a realisation that the country of my birth is a confused and scattered place. A place where, for centuries, people have been abused, suppressed and enslaved. When choice, identity and freedom are removed, people can simply not question what their existence has become. 
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