My work of art is a visual recording of architecture and infrastructures existing in my immediate environment. I depict these constructions so that they are exposed to the audience for evaluation and approval and be finally adopted as part of the surrounding.
Metaphorically, these paintings relate to the tribal craft design of geometrical beadwork, i.e. circular, triangular, rectangular and square African designs and patterns. The decorative colours on these contemporary buildings bear reference to the mural decorations of the traditional African heritage.
I have often used hazy colours as an attempt to symbolize the Africans' life and social circumstances, i.e. the social and political confusion that many black South Africans are confronted with. In addition, figuratively, the congestions that appear in my paintings are done in an attempt to express some factors regarding a population explosion in some parts of the industrial South Africa, especially the metropolitan areas of Johannesburg.
As a fellow South African, I find black labourers to be helpless and dominated by the big structures in the concrete and steel worlds. These are the imbalances and living conditions in a capitalist society: that is, first world individuals vs third world individuals; plastic and corrugated shacks against ideal city glass-towers and luxury hotels. As a result, most of my paintings reflect a contradiction between a silent landscape and juxtaposed industrial tools such as cranes and heavy duty trucks.
