These are a few titles drawn from Ernestine White-Mifetu’s latest selection of collages. They read as a stream of consciousness – narrating White-Mifetu’s experiences of artmaking during the national lockdown in South Africa, beginning in March of this year. Marking the first series of work the artist has completed after many years of not creating, these collage works are aptly titled; #lockdowncreativity. “This I did after many years of simply not having the time to do so as my responsibilities between work and family life were all-consuming,” says the artist whose work embodies a sense of depth that comes with the intensity of art as a mode of feeling, thinking and catharsis – they are field notes for finding the soul, encompassing the cyclical nature of creativity.
Our Ancestors are burning (Detail), 2020. Magazine cut-outs glued on 100% Archival Cotton Rag Rives BFK paper. Image size: 36 x 14cm. Paper size: 66 x 50cm. © Ernestine White-Mifetu
#lockdowncreativity functions as a form of personal navigation during a time defined by anxiety and confusion. The images are not easy to look at, rather they are challenging, uncomfortable and contain poetic suggestions.
The composition, therefore, is less about these objects as singular elements but rather about the object’s spirit in relation to other objects. There is something liberating about seeing a very obvious thing in its process of becoming something more.
Evoking outer space and the otherworldly, we see images of people in space suits, red dust, Egyptian artefacts, hieroglyphics and bodies that quickly morph into something else, blending in with the grain and texture of the image. Anchored in a futuristic aesthetic with a gold, brown and sandy palette, the collages contain energy and vitality that simultaneously speak to the historical and the imagined. They proffer a flow of subliminal and associative impressions where memory and anticipation collide. Read in their entirety, objects take on a different significance – a ring doughnut next to melting ice caps and a row of kneeling worshippers is both unexpected and disconcerting. The composition, therefore, is less about these objects as singular elements but rather about the object’s spirit in relation to other objects. There is something liberating about seeing a very obvious thing in its process of becoming something more.
UNTITLED, 2020. Magazine cut-outs glued on 100% Archival Cotton Rag Rives BFK paper. Image size: 27,5 x 37,5cm. Paper size: 50 x 66cm. © Ernestine White-Mifetu
UNTITLED, 2020. Magazine cut-outs glued on 100% Archival Cotton Rag Rives BFK paper. Image size: 36 x 20,7cm. Paper size: 66 x 50cm. © Ernestine White-Mifetu
In one collage (untitled), an arm is raised in a clenched fist – a marker of solidarity, resistance and salute. The facial expression seems pained – the mouth agape, a face contorted with sorrow and grief – perhaps an unheard and unhearable shriek. Towards the bottom of the image lies another figure, slightly obscured and easy to miss. The demeanour suggests distress, behind him, a fire! This image is ignited with potential for combustion… or a release. The artist elaborates; “I felt locked down on so many levels both physically and emotionally. As a form of protest to fight the experiences that threatened to negatively alter my emotional well-being I began to create…” Alluding to this sense of feeling “locked down on so many levels” and wanting to escape, the work captures possibilities of flight through the depiction of wings and floating limbs – because sometimes freedom and peace are only possible through flight.
I felt locked down on so many levels both physically and emotionally. As a form of protest to fight the experiences that threatened to negatively alter my emotional well-being I began to create… – Ernestine White-Mifetu
On a global scale, the novel coronavirus has brought forward that which was suppressed or previously obscured – structural inequalities are made more apparent. On a personal level, many of us are left perplexed and fatigued. Because in truth, a crisis is exhausting, especially when it feels so disproportionately outside of our control. The themes in this work are not arbitrary. We begin to see connections in the elements. But of course, there is a deep connection between art and life. White-Mifetu explains; “During this time lockdown took on several meanings for me as it saw me like many not just confined to my home, but forced to give birth to my last child alone as healthcare practitioners thought it safer for everyone concerned (ignoring the need for the birthing mother to require the presence of her partner for her emotional well-being), confined to the hourly rituals of the morning, midday and nightly feeds, sleepless nights and agonizing body pain from the cesarean section surgery.” Without our usual daily routines, time is released from its duty, it travels at a much slower pace. Perhaps the visual equivalent of this slowing down is the representation of Mars in this body of work – that rusted reddish planet whose axis turns much slower than Earth’s.
UNTITLED (Detail), 2020. Magazine cut-outs glued on 100% Archival Cotton Rag Rives BFK paper. Image size: 52,5 x 18cm. Paper size: 66 x 50cm. © Ernestine White-Mifetu
UNTITLED (Detail), 2020. Magazine cut-outs glued on 100% Archival Cotton Rag Rives BFK paper. Image size: 24 x 34cm. Paper size: 66 x 50cm. © Ernestine White-Mifetu
The use of collage as a medium is befitting during this moment of doing what we can, with what we have, where we are – thinking through the act of collaging as an approach and attempt towards a blending of different sets of metaphors. Collaging is a stringing together of offcuts to create a meaningful whole. Temples, enclosed cities, deserts, hills, rock formations, people as horses and rabbits as people – each of these components work on our ability to make sense of disorientation and chaos. This body of work not only offers us new insights into White-Mifetu’s creative process, but it is also evocative, deeply resonant and offers us a portal through which to consider survival through difficult times.
Ngkopoleng Moloi is a writer and photographer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is interested in the spaces we occupy and navigate through and how these influence the people we become. Writing is a tool I use to understand the world around me and to explore the things I am excited and intrigued by, particularly history, art, language and architecture. I am fascinated by cities – their complexities and their potential.
