'Soccer is Power!' at the Gertrude Posel Gallery
by Sean O'Toole
Whether one appreciates the game or not, soccer dominates the news this June. Thankfully at least one astute South African curator has latched onto this fact. Fiona Rankin-Smith's 'Soccer is Power!' offers audiences a delightfully curated exhibition that looks at the popularity of the game of football in South Africa. Presented as a large window display, the exhibition explores how a communal passion has been translated into a multitude of art and commercial objects.
'Soccer is Power!' make its case by drawing upon a startling array of ephemera. It includes objects ranging from plastic figurines depicting Lucas Radebe
to advertising banners, calendars and other promotional material. Situated among the numerous mass-produced items on show is a fine collection of vernacular art objects, many of them borrowed from the Standard Bank collection.
Alongside Caiphus Nxumalo's carved stick commemorating past captain Neil Tovey, there is also a carved wooden sculpture of South Africa and Tunisia in a match from the last CAF cup; telephone wire baskets by Dudu Cele and Mavis Njokweni representing Bafana Bafana and the CAF Cup; as well as other wooden sculptures of soccer players by Nobi Mncube and Nelson Mukhuba. The skill with which many of these items have been executed is a source of wonder.
One particularly engaging aspect of 'Soccer is Power!' is the attention Rankin-Smith has given to placing the crafted objects into an art historical
framework. One such example is suggested by the combination of a West African Bundu society helmet masks, belonging to the Mende people of Sierra Leone, with popular helmets worn by fans of teams such as Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. The clever juxtaposition offers a remarkably refreshing insight into the elaborate headdresses worn by local club fans, labourers and mine workers who have transformed their protective headgear into inventive displays of support.
A video by Theo Antoniou, called The Only Game in Town, offers interesting contextual detail, as well as some intriguing commentary by that ever-insightful Johannesburg academic, James Sey. In many respects, though, it is Johannes Segogela's sculpture Nkosi Sikelele that deftly communicates the importance of the game of football in contemporary South Africa.
The work depicts the national team with their left hands clenched across their chests singing the national anthem. Ex-president Nelson Mandela stands at the centre of the team wearing the team jersey. However trite the gestures depicted might seem, the sculpture offers a simple and honest celebration of nationhood and ritual. Without any pretensions to a Renaissance.
Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein
Tel: 011 717 1363
Email: gallery@atlas.wits.ac.za
Hours: Tues - Fri 10am - 4pm
