Two hands gather together small objects, little shells and small bones, before scattering scatter them in order to read the future ('throwing the bones'). The horizon is formed by the hands of the fortune-teller in close-up, framed like an endless landscape and projected onto a large screen. The basis of this installation is a traditional African ritual. Three small LCD-monitors positioned on the projection screen around the hands create a contrast with the large format and the painterly qualities of the images. The formal conditions and the information on the small screens give the installation depth, emphasis and volume — in respect of content as well as form; compositionally as well as physically The spectator does not stand there gazing from a distance, but becomes a part of the work. Once the gaze begins to acquire a sense of the work, the spectator has to approach closer in order read the little LCD-screens. One of them shows portraits of political figures, icons of South African history, recessed in black frames. One by one, male heads fade behind the plane of black, and into the collective memory. A second monitor shows a rolling text consisting of a passage from Wittgenstein's 'Philosophical Investigations' (published posthumously in 1953) in which the 'canons' are illustrated semiotically. The use of the canons referred to in the title is embedded in public contexts, practical situations and actions. "An inner process stands in need of outward criteria". Human beings are biological entities who inhabit a public world. Language, everyday speech and the question of what can and cannot be named acquire their relevance in that world. The additional information stands out harshly against the background of traditional African ritual, while showing at the same time that it belongs to one and the same history. '10 Canons of Stupidity' combines divergent aspects of South African culture and calls in question the notion of 'complementary' systems of meaning, such as language, history, subjectivity, identity, truth and belief. The work embodies a critique of the possibility of universal coherence, or rather it refutes the misconceptions surrounding such an idea. The flow of information on the small monitors continues uninterrupted. The sound and image of the fortune-telling hands is reversed in time and this discontinuity underlines the difference between the two. The reversed prediction might be understood as the representation of impotence in the face of the failure of reconciliation and deep disappointment at the collapse of attempts to defeat the monster of apartheid.
Payne sets up a critical meditation on systems of signification and representation. The need for a reorientation towards South African history runs parallel in a sense to the question of a change of attitude towards the dominant role of western paradigms in the canons of our thought. Ancient hierarchical frameworks have collapsed, witness the alleged crisis of western science, art and philosophy. Along with the challenge addressed to those responsible for the situation in South Africa, Payne urges the spectator to perform a thorough scrutiny of historical frames of reference, one based on the recognition that each investigation of the past, each concept of language and history and each way of looking at an image is freighted with ideology.
– Jellichje Reijnders |
Camera: Cliff Bestall (African Search for Common Ground)
Malcolm Payne, 1946, Pretoria (South Africa)
Lives and works in Cape Town (South Africa)
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