Lawrence Lemaonaproduces his artwork on embroiled kangaroo fabric. The Johannesburg artist works are known for their criticisms of mass media in South Africa.
“Kanga fabrics (made infamous during the Zuma rape trial) are used extensively in my work. Manufactured in the East, and brought to South Africa to be sold in markets and bazaars, the journey of the fabrics speaks of the idiosyncrasies and trade imbalances of globalisation. The textiles themselves though have a wholly different life in South Africa – they are regarded as significant markers of spiritual healing, imbued with great religious and spiritual power, used by divinators and fortune-tellers. Each has a metaphoric symbol which renders it worthy of the African ancestors, the most common being the sun. Others, with some kind of animal print represent the animal that stands in for Inyanga or Sangoma. Never intended as metaphoric or spiritual patterns, many are made up of foreign plants, their color remains significant, particularly the ‘Njeti’.”
