Samantha Maseko

Samantha Maseko is an Artist Proof Studio graduate whose work wrestles with themes of black femininity. 

“At the end of the day, black bodies are political…” – Amy Sherald

Her works embody the African American painter’s words, as she unearths and challenges aspects of blackness clothed in the female form - whether by interrogating hair, colourism or the sexualisation of the black body.

Maseko’s practice oscillates between the mediums of printmaking, mixed media and painting to communicate her chosen message. There is a single constant present throughout her many themes and mediums, and that is a need to present blackness as aesthetically pleasing. This desire to bind representations of the black figure is no doubt a result of her love for fashion.

While a piece such as Optical Façade I appears to be interrogating the duality of emotions attached to natural hair in the black community, alluded to in the depictions of a polarised mirroring of herself wearing a head wrap and with an afro. Even within the palpable uncertainty that exists in these works, Maseko binds elements of beauty to her representations of blackness. 

This is evident in her use of make-up alongside traditional media such as collage and watercolour. The companion piece Optical  Façade II, echoes its sister piece in an expected print medium; this linocut work, however, does surprise, as the viewer isn’t merely presented with a monochrome copy of the first piece, but with a crown-like element of elaborate floral-like arrangements of herself. This suggests that she dresses herself in the beauty of her own skin.In works such as her acrylic and oil painting on canvas, Hear no evil, highlight Maseko’s intention to entangle positivity to images of black people. In this instance she does so through her depiction of styled black hair, keeping in her thematic use of wearing black hair in its natural state and it being seen as one’s “crowning glory”. In this work it is evident how she teases out the curls of her subject’s hair, moulding their hair styles into crowns.

Maseko’s fondness for fashion as a mode of presenting black positivity or pride can also be seen in paintings such as Rebellion and Sense of self, which are depictions of black subjects each wearing afros and clad in aristocratic finery. The aim of these works is to frame the black experience within a reality devoid of the weighted negativity of past realities of the black experience. 

These are reimagining’s of a past that could have been and which may have been able to bring about a brighter present. In these examples we are confronted by Maseko’s desire to elevate reality, not just reproduce it.

The entirety of the Amy Serald quote reads: “At the end of the day, black bodies are political, but there has to be some relief from that otherwise we can never evolve as a people.” These imaginings of a lighter past evident in Maseko’s work strut in step with this sentiment as she presents alternatives to the flood of negative narratives perpetuated through mass media of the black aesthetic.