Sikelela Damane
Biography
I am a visual artist and I simply love what I do. Art has been part of my life for years and has grown out to be career. It has become a conscious journey. I create because I believe that art can contribute on the social conversation of our times. The purpose of my art is to speak for myself and add to the prevailing hullabaloo. The purpose of doing what I achieve is to make loud what I truly believe in and have conversations, through my work, with the audience. The work I do looks at the merry yet unsettling moments. It moves amid the pace and attitude of a specific period of feeling. My work becomes both a passing statement and a continuing coupon.
I work with acrylic paint, oil paint, aerosol, paper, earth, and photography. Mostly I work with paint and written text. The medium I select depends upon the idea and how appropriate it is, and the relationship that surface. Everything is connected. Recently I have started to explore the fascination of video and performance as a medium and how that might link to the themes I explore.
Currently my work explores and reflects on social, economic and political ideas. I use contemporary and historical references to make statements. My work looks at the relationship between the past and present, and what impact it has in recent times. I often create work to let out the thoughts I have and the experiences of my daily encounter, be it television/newspaper/historical news, socializing and travelling. The reason for the connectedness of the past and present are the present questions left unanswered and the consequences of the past. I also look into the post-colonial complexity of power, culture, and public symbols. My work is not absolutely nostalgic but rather revisits and flirts with hi/herstories to gain relevant images to speak about contemporary subjects. My work is a public statement responding to existing assertions.
