Penny Siopis is one of five outstanding female artists to be profiled in the #5WomenArtist Campaign. The campaign is powered by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York. Oliewenhuis Art Museum is participating in the global campaign and have identified five artworks by female artists from the Permanent Collection to participate in this campaign.
The five female artists are Nandipha Mntambo, Nomusa Makhubu, Helen Sebidi, Penny Siopis and Diane Victor. They were selected for their extraordinary career achievements. In addition, they speak up and address contemporary debates, relating not only to South Africa, but also current issues globally.
Pastime Coloured lithograph on paper 1990
Photograph available at the Oliewenhuis Art museum archive
Pioneering artist, Penny Siopis, has been interrogating notions about gender politics and socio-political discrimination since the 1980’s. Siopis is a Cape Town-based artist and academically affiliated with Michaelis School of Fine Art where she works as an Honorary Professor. She obtained an MA Fine Arts in 1976 at Rhodes University in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) and in 2017 she received an honorary Doctorate from the same institution. In 2015 Siopis was the recipient of the prestigious Helgaard Steyn award. She has an extraordinary exhibition history and participated in numerous exhibitions locally and abroad. Her work is represented in reputable museums and galleries; to name a few, in South Africa, Sweden, Netherlands and New York.
Originally Siopis was recognized for her thought-provoking paintings in oil but later in her career different media such as video, installation and photo-based media. Artist and curator, Katherine Smith, analysed Siopis’s oeuvre best by stating that “A trajectory of embodiment – a powerful materiality – in Siopis’ output is characterised by a self-conscious critical practice. An umbilical cord of history, narrative and personal investment in collective concerns run through her work, often manifesting as responses to the uncanny psychological spaces of memory, trauma and pleasure” (Smith 2004: 346).
Pastime is a unique work of art, representative of Siopis’ interest in historical matters as the lithograph resembles a Renaissance-like composition. Contrasting, unsettling imagery are visible such as ropes and tussles that could suggest that the scene takes place in a theatre, combined with mannequin–like female bodies and babies. All the figures can be viewed as partaking in this dramatic perfomative act. Siopis leaves clues of her interests in femininity in this work with reference to cakes and fruit in the foreground. It could be speculated that this work was made as a result of Siopis’s coherent theme of gender and race and the influence thereof in history and people’s memories.
Pastime was purchased from Caversham Press in 1992 and forms part of Oliewenhuis Art Museum’s Permanent Collection. Oliewenhuis Art Museum is a satellite of the National Museum in Bloemfontein, an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture, South Africa.
Bibliography
Croucamp, A. 2009. Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmankgato Helen Sebidi: Educational Supplement Taxi Art Books Series, Taxi 041. Johannesburg: David Krut publishing.
Louw, E, Beukes, M & Van Wyk, L. 2013. Visual Arts Learners Guide. Mowbray: Future Managers.
Makhubu, N. Intertwined: A selection of photographs by Nomusa Makhubu 20015-2017. Cape Town: Erdmann Contemporaries.
Simbao, R & Elliott, D. 2011. Nandipha Mntambo, Johannesburg: Stevenson.
Smith, K. 2004. Penny Siopis. In Perryer, S, Bedrord, D, Broodie, T & Goiwe, T. 2004. 10 Years, 100 artists. Art in a democratic South Africa. Cape Town: Bell-Roberts.
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