Themba Shabalala

There’s a saying that goes, “argue for your limitations and you’ll get them.” There is no place for such words in the creative world of, Themba Shabalala, however. Having trained as a print maker at Johannesburg’s Artist Proof Studios (APS), an institution dedicated to the meticulous craft of the print-making medium, one would assume that the precision of editioned work akin to the medium would define him. Instead, his is a creativity which bucks the norm, pushes against the grain and quite literally burns down expectations.

Drawing with fire, denaturing surfaces to the point where unevenness and roughness is the goal, all seem counterproductive for someone whose art education should have instilled a sensibility of creating artworks which can be replicated. Shabala’s creations instead exist somewhere in-between the unpredictable and unsafe. Whether he is relief sculpting into surfaces; denaturing them from flat sub straight to textured surface or in the use of his pyrography (mark-making with fire), there is a sense that his process is a means of grappling with trauma. Shabalala was in an accident which left his right eye blinded in 2013, but rather than allowing this limitation to dictate how he navigates the visual arts industry, Shabalala has created his own rules with which he operates. Rather than allow the challenge of creating pyrographical works with one eye stnt the growth of his creative process, Shabalala uses his unique perspective present his world in an atypical and nuanced manner.

Deconstruction and construction coexist, working simultaneously in the work he creates. The fire on wood works are a clear commentary on the cohabitation of perfection within imperfection. This he achieves through physically transforming the expected smoothness of surfaces by texturising it, in order to create tension. It is the same tension he brings to the themes of self-discovery and cyclic existence which he explores. Within the layering of Shabalala’s work, lies a deep engagement with experiencing the present moment of life. There also exists an understanding of the interconnectedness of all things. His is evident in works such as Layers of self which is an interrogation of the interconnectivity of life; in this case, that of himself,  his partner and their son. In this tryptic we are confronted by the portrait of a woman, another of a child and an image of the two together. With deeper consideration these figurative works transform beyond mere representation and begin to allude to a spiritual transformation of one’s self through to the next generation. This idea of cyclic existence is expanded upon in other works as well, which make use of rusted, and or painted bicycle wheels. These make reference to the endless cycle of life as well as the resurgence and passing on of knowledge and wisdom from generatio to generation.

Even though, Themba Shabalala’s works, at first glance appear to revolve solely around the physicality of his artistic process, conceptually his works argue against the limitation of this physical form and opt instead to soar without any bounds.