Phillemon Hlungwani was born in 1975, in Giyani, Thomo Village, in Limpopo and now lives and
works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He comes from a family of artists, and says that ‘art chose him’. He works
in a variety of printmaking mediums, and also draws with charcoal. He attributes his
mother as the impetus for his career, because she gave him charcoal from the hearth
in their home. He says of his female subjects: ‘In my art I used to depict women that
symbolized my mother. She is the one who encouraged me to make art. The women
in my art are shown working because they are equal’.
Hlungwani
work expresses his Christian and cultural beliefs. He feels a strong spiritual
connection towards trees as a place for prayer and worshipping them, so trees are
often represented in his work. His work often depicts the Tsengelendotwe tree
found in his environment. It bears a fruit which they would mix with the fresh
milk from the herd and drink as a milkshake. His landscape images refer to
self, family and his cultural history.
Utilizing his upbringing to inform his work via traditional customs and cultural practices of his community, Hlungwani draws images of himself as a young herdboy tending the family goats. He understands the bushveld landscape intimately from his early years and he depicts scenes of small town life and a hard work ethic as few artists can or want to experience it for themselves.
As a point of comparison, the ‘plein aire’ painters of the
Barbizon School, and the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists
understood suffering and toiling under the sun to paint their pictures. Yet, theirs
was a point of observation –something not a part of their own experience.
Hlungwani, very much in the same vein as Vincent vanGogh did with his drawings
of the miners and potato farmers, shows us a way of life for the people from
his village. He shows us the quiet moments crossing town with one’s good for
the market, or a child following its mother to and from town. He shows us the family
working together , tilling their fields and trying to raise a decent crop to feed the
clan.
Hlungwani’s depictions of the living conditions of his
people - ramshackled clapboard homes in a hot, dry country, sting with a sense
of poverty, and cultural awareness, for we understand that the artist describes a current situation in South Africa, not some quaint historical
telling of a time long past. These renditions of South African life are are
minder that the world hasn’t entirely caught up to a 21st century
standard of high-tech living. The town may be poor, but they are unified in
their existence and look to be at peace and accept their existence as being what
God intended for them. There is a quiet working of the land and one feels as if we were looking
at one of Paul Gauguin’s rural Normandy-inspired pictures.
Still
the curious thing in Hlungwani’s work isn’t the subject as much as what’s going
on around the subject. He fills his skies and compositions with swirling dotted
lines and circular arcs that surround the people walking to work; creating a
dance of lines that equally encircle a tree in a field and a woman carrying a
basket on her head. The abstractions of these lines activate his compositions
in a way we are not used to seeing. It’s as though the marks could be a
preliminary method the artist uses to begin drawing his subjects, but they are
left in the picture, not erased or cut out of it, so they must have more
significance than originally thought.
They could be trails of flies or bugs surrounding the
subjects or maybe they have something to do with the state of chaos that
surrounds us all. They could be that and more, but they would appear to be
something ‘other’ than what one sees in this earthly realm. They would appear
to be traceries of some human presence
or spirit, some soul that surrounds the subject – letting us know , as we see
in Tintoretto’s ‘Last Supper’, that there is more in our daily realm if we but
look for it.
His work effortlessly segues between media showing a mature
vision. His work is deceptively simple and drawn with tenderness, still there
is a sinewy strength to his line which so perfectly suits his subject and the
results are astoundingly direct and sensitive.
Hlungwani is a young artist well on his way to becoming a
promising star as he gains critical
attention. South Africa has a notable printmaking tradition, and has produced
many fine artists that mainly show within the country, but Hlungwani’s work
speaks about his roots and beyond his cultural borders with his life-sized
prints. They are accomplished, impressive
and ambitious. Hlungwani has started to exhibit his work outside of South
Africa and one senses that this artist will make as fine a mark as vanGogh did
with his drawing s and the spiritual component present in his Starry Night.
Hlungwani is generous with his time and teaches and encourages younger artists
to pursue their dreams. He is a printmaking gem that will grow more brilliant
with time and prestige.
Education:
Johannesburg Art Foundation, 2000
Artist Proof Studio printmaking
certificate, 2000.
WITS School of Art, 2004
Commissions:
Murals for the Johannesburg
Development Agency, South African Governmental
offices,
MTN,The Standard Bank Art Gallery, Bell Dewar and
Hall.
Awards:
King Korn competition winner,
2000-2001
Finalist for the Absa Gallery
competition
Ampersand Fellowship, 2009
Professional Experience:
Coordinator and facilitator of APS
professional artists program
Teacher of papermaking
Facilitator of Paper Prayers workshops
Coordinator of NOAH’s arks art
teaching project
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