Norval Foundation
22.05 - 15.09.2024

On show at the Norval Foundation until the 15th of September 2024, ‘GROOT GAT’ by Lady Skollie is the third and final exhibition that marks the artist’s 2022 Standard Bank Young Artist Award win. Receiving this prestigious award for visual arts is an achievement that Lady Skollie envisioned from the early age of seven and a dream she worked hard at materialising from the beginning of her career. Dedicated to showcasing and platforming African artists, the Norval Foundation is the perfect resting place for the last leg of this exhibition. The final showing of ‘GROOT GAT’ at Norval is therefore a welcomed return home for the Cape Town-born artist who is exhibiting in her hometown for the first time in five years. 

Through a visual feast of vivid imagery, bold colour and illustrative lines that pay homage to sacred San and Khoisan rock art, ‘GROOT GAT’ encourages us to face the empty wells in our histories and allows us to fill the cavities with self-authored narratives. The exhibition’s title, ‘GROOT GAT’, translates to “big hole” from Afrikaans and acknowledges how retracing one’s lineage and heritage as a black and brown South African is a journey often haunted by a sense of loss and erasure. The new stories Lady Skollie writes through her paintings invite us into a world in which these spectres no longer define us but where we unashamedly assert the lives, traditions and cultural practices we have created despite the enduring legacy of colonial violence. 

‘GROOT GAT’ not only invokes the symbolism of a big hole through language but also references Boesmansgat, a large freshwater cave in the Northern Cape. Once a fishing hole used by indigenous hunter-gatherers, the cave was left dormant with the seizure and loss of land under colonialism. Since the 1970s it has seen many divers, some fatally, attempt its 270-metre descent. Lady Skollie acknowledges folklore warnings of an evil fate associated with the site through the figure of a Watermeid who captures daring spirits. However, she also subdues this tale of fear, reimagining Boesmansgat with the presence of DADA, who blissfully watches over the cave. Known professionally as DADA, Coex’ae Qgam was a great artist and storyteller from Botswana who spread her care, attention and talent across printmaking, painting, embroidery and language translation to preserve and share her Naro heritage with the world. Her life’s work and role in bridging many different worlds make DADA a fitting choice of a guardian to watch over the cave realm Lady Skollie creates.

The exhibition is housed in Gallery 9 which is nestled in a quiet corner of the second floor of the Norval Foundation. As you approach the entryway, you are greeted by the voice of the artist herself beaming from a video that loops on a television screen. In the video, she guides the visitors through her intentions for ‘GROOT GAT’, contextualising the subject matter and giving voice to the figures and symbols employed in her work. Having my encounter with the exhibition primed by the artist’s own words, felt like a pertinent signal of how important reclaiming one’s sense of identity and writing our own stories in the face of historical erasure and misrepresentation is. Lady Skollie goes on to reveal how in the world of ‘GROOT GAT’ life has, “extended and evolved to a point where cave drawings are large, our identity is intact and we know where we are from and where we are going”.

You are immediately confronted with an expansive sense of scale in Lady Skollie’s imagined cave through the work, DADA COEX’AE QGAM GUARDING THE MOUTH OF THE CAVE WHILE PAINTING THE FUTURE. Instead of the framed artwork itself, a reproduction of the piece has been enlarged and stretches across a large dividing wall. 

Mimicking DADA’s posture as she gazes up at the image she is creating, I often found myself craning my neck to take in the other artworks spread across the edges of the room. Sitting “large and in charge” as Lady Skollie intended, the size of the paintings and the dark blue walls they are mounted on, enhances the cavelike feel of the space. However, Lady Skollie’s cave offers a glimpse of the light and life outside of its towering surrounds. This light edge is created by a thin window that runs across the top of the gallery walls, which casts a soft glare onto the glass that encloses some of the artworks during the day.

The magnified image of DADA is cut off, however, one can make out that in the fictional form Lady Skollie fashions for her, DADA has an extra limb, dexterously poised to safeguard the stories being reclaimed and rewritten as she paints the future.

The action of painting is mirrored in DALA WAT JY MOET (DO WHAT YOU MUST) as an ominous, disjointed arm delivers a message to the seated figure in the black and white artwork. As I tried to make sense of the piece, I quickly found myself recounting the story of Belshazzar’s feast in the bible where, after the failed attempts of the King’s wise men, David is called to decipher the writing on the wall. However, the intimacy of this moment and the figure’s adornment in what could also be a prayer hat commonly worn by Muslim men, also makes the scene feel suggestive of when the angel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet Muhammad while meditating in a cave. In Lady Skollie’s daring and playful fashion, what is illuminated by the raised candelabra is the colloquial phrase “dala way jy moet”, which directly translates to “do what you must” from Afrikaans. Reflecting on the saying and the interpretations offered by both the Christian and Islamic imagery at play, the work feels like a confrontation with one’s fate and an instruction to hustle and take care of business. Most revealing through this divine reckoning, however, is a call to hold sacred the languages that define us and that colonialism sought to discredit and erase.

Religious imagery is a recurring motif in Lady Skollie’s art and is also seen in the work EAT THE FRUIT BY YOURSELF, ALL OF IT, FEEL THE SNAKE SLITHER. However, I found DALA WAT JY MOET (DO WHAT YOU MUST) particularly striking in how it invites a deeper reflection on the complexities of identity and faith. Though unassuming at first glance due to its pared-down illustrative style, this work highlights the profound layers of meaning embedded in everyday symbols, from those found in rock art, and extending to the narratives that shape our religions, cultures, and languages today.

The rest of the stories in ‘GROOT GAT’ are told through vibrant blends of crayon, ink and mixed media on paper. The cohesive colour palette of yellows, oranges, reds, blues and black is reminiscent of the warm tones used in the cave paintings. Though Lady Skollie’s canvas lacks the grain provided by an actual rock face, she achieves dimension through textured linework that ripples like tiger stripes across her figures and landscapes. Under the weight of an unrestrained use of materials, the paper warps and curls, with its rounded edges occasionally lifting. This rich use of colour and medium shields her images from the fading rock art is vulnerable to, while also reflecting Lady Skollie’s erratic process and defiant approach to artmaking.

MGODOYI ATTACK: IN THE PREMONITION I DIDN’T HAVE A KNIFE BUT I HAVE A KNIFE NOW is my favourite work in the exhibition that expresses this inspired use of colour and simulation of texture. The term “mgodoyi” holds imagery of savagery and greed. Represented as vicious dogs, they make a reappearance, tussling with one another in the work, MGODOYI (A DAVID KOLOANE TRIBUTE). This reference invokes the spirit of David Koloane, a prolific South African artist who boldly challenged the injustice and violence of apartheid. Alongside a tribute to the renowned performer, poet and activist Diana Ferrus in, WE HAVE COME TO TAKE YOU HOME (A DIANA FERRUS TRIBUTE), ‘GROOT GAT’ extends the storytelling of other artists and underscores the importance of acknowledging one’s forebearers as we too seek out an existence that challenges oppressive systems.

Through an almost electric orange hue and captivating brushwork, the piece also speaks to the spiritual encounters and psychic wisdom often represented in the tradition of cave paintings Lady Skollie references. Likely due to anxieties about my safety as a woman living in South Africa,  I found myself drawn to the figure in the painting who is armed with the means to protect herself from the ferocious attack of a scoundrel through both a sharp intuition and blade. 

At a glance, one might miss the visual clues that indicate the psychic wisdom of the rested figure is that of a modern woman and not the shamans who traditionally rendered San and Khoisan rock art. The claw-like acrylic nails and flattering eyelashes she wears are modes of self-presentation and styling, that serve as visual cues of a contemporary figure. These details also provoke us to consider what symbols and imagery we would leave behind if we had to etch our current stories in stone. 

SOMETHING SWEET, SOMETHING SOUR, R.R I and R.R II also reflect the contemporary moment that informs Lady Skollie’s narratives while specifically addressing the Cape Coloured context that the stories in ‘GROOT GAT’ spring from. In their book, “Coloured: How Classification Became Culture”, Tessa Dooms and Lynsey Ebony Chutel explore the complexity of Coloured identity and celebrate the culture that has emerged through shared experiences in the face of attempts to limit and erase this heritage. In a nod to the flavour profiles central to Cape Malay cuisine and the pastime of dominoes cherished in many coloured communities, the artworks in ‘GROOT GAT’, similarly invite us to contemplate the role that shared rituals play in shaping our culture. The dominoes in R.R I and R.R II break the rules and reflect how coloured identity defies uniformity. Mimicking the passion that sees the pieces slammed on the tabletop arena at family gatherings or during lunch breaks, the dominoes are scattered across and overwhelm the page, asserting a defiant and abundant sense of presence.

Saidiya Hartman, who is known for meeting archival silences with speculative accounts, explores how the loss of stories only sharpens our hunger for them in her text “Venus in Two Acts”. Through fantasy, the power of storytelling and a commitment to self-definition, Lady Skollie satisfies this deep craving to know about one’s history. Weaving complex tales and evocative imagery together, ‘GROOT GAT’ serves up a rich feast on the empty plates we often find ourselves dining on when we attempt the complex feat of tracing our roots. 

While we can’t see what is on the other side of Lady Skollie’s ‘GROOT GAT’, the daunting journey is guarded by DADA’s visionary protection as we traverse the unknown and explore how expansive and unbound our self-proclaimed identities and futures can be. The colourful path is also gently illuminated by a halo of light, softening the darkness in the cave and giving us a sense of hope as we envision a world where our land, languages and ways of being have been untouched by colonialism.