Catherine Ocholla's Wise Cracks @ Blank Projects

South Africa Thu 29-04-2010

Catherine Ocholla's Wise Cracks @ Blank Projects
By a Correspondent

Opening 05 May 2010 at 18:00 at Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa.

Judas, Judas and Judas by Catherine Ocholla

^{Catherine Ocholla | Judas, Judas and Judas (detail) | 2010 | Acrylic, Oil and Chalk on Canvas | 3000mm x 1800mm.}

Ronald Reagan once famously noted that: "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. The above has been true for as long as politicians have felt compelled to blunder forth in the public eye under the guise of “leadership”.

Intrinsic to this has been the artists’ role as watchdog and commentator on the faux pas, failures and f***-ups embarked upon by those ascending the political ranks, arguably coming into prominence with the 16th century satirical prints of William Hogarth and finding contemporary affinity (within a local context) in the editorial cartoon work of cartoonists such as Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro).

For her debut solo exhibition, ‘Wise Cracks’, Catherine Ocholla traverses the middle ground between the two, the reactionary immediacy of the editorial cartoon rendered within figurative portraiture paintings.

Using the medium famed for presenting serious portraits of politicians to be hung in state houses, Ocholla engages with painting as parody, questioning not only the seriousness of the men she paints in such unlikely poses, but also the grand tradition of portraiture painting itself.

In a sense, the exhibition extends the role that political satire plays in the diffusion of politics into “Mampara of the week”-style pop culture.

Displacements abound: ANC Youth League presidents and recently-deceased central right-wing figures find themselves parodied as televangelists, 13 of history’s dictator all-stars are amassed into an all-Judas version of the Last Supper, and then of course there’s the logistical nightmare of attempting to stage an episode of TV’s Wife Swap featuring Jacob Zuma and King Mswati III, painted in portrait-based hyperrealism.

Ultimately, ‘Wise Cracks’ is about taking a satirical look at art’s role in accountability, about being blatant about stupid things that those in a position of political authority have done and the disempowerment that stems from being a victim of satire. To quote Pieter Dirk Uys in the forward to Zapiro’s 1996 collection, “The Madiba Years”:

“Politicians are like monkeys; the higher they climb on the pole of ambition, the more of their arses we can see!”

The exhibition will close on 29/05/2010

Catherine Ocholla obtained her BA in Fine Art from Michaelis in 2007, and has taken part in numerous group exhibitions. Wise Cracks is her debut solo exhibition.

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