Meditation and Nostalgia: Lindokuhle Zwane

Day Two of South Africa's "The Lockdown Collection" project showcases the work of  Lindokuhle (Lindo)  Zwane (born Newcastle, Kwa-Zulu Natal, 1992).  "Meditation" continues Zwane's commitment to revisiting and restaging memories of his childhood and, more broadly, rural and township settings in northern Zululand.

Lindo Zwane. Meditation. 2020 (in process)

This large circular painting  (shown here in process) is dominated by the face of a maternal figure who fills the right two thirds of the work. In the left background two mature female figures, perhaps dressed in traditional cowhide skirts, are walking away, their back turned to us.  The indistinct background may evoke a village setting.

In his commentary about the work on Instagram, the artist writes, “I’m thinking and focus(ing) on how we as individuals and as a community can rise again despite our challenges. How to meditate and look deep within to find strength for not only our selves but also others no matter how fearful we are of this pandemic. Keep the faith and it will carry us through. I’m looking at expressing a strong sense of contrast between fear and hope. And we constantly have to choose hope.” 

Lindo Zwane. Meditation. 2020 (in process)

It would appear that for Zwane, "Hope" takes the form of the remembered maternal figure, whose recalled image promises to sustain us during the current crisis and the shocks that are sure to follow.  I am put in mind of social anthropologist Wendy James classic essay, "Matrifocus on African Women," in which she argues that a defining feature of African social organization, at least in "traditional" kinship-based contexts, is the centrality of links through women, especially to the mother and her people. This is true, James maintains, even in formally patrlineal systems, such as the Zulu, in which property and status officially devolve through the male line. In times of crisis, actors tend to rely, first and foremost, on persons to whom they are linked to through their mother, who will unconditionally support them through strife and uncertainty.

Speculatively, the circular framing of "Meditation"  may be modeled on the final  "iris out" shot of silent films (sometimes emulated in Disney cartoons), as a dark circle closes in on a central figure or action of particular importance.  One has the sense that this painted scene, of great significance, is fading from immediate presence in the mind's eye of the artist, a point emphasized by the two older female figures who are walking away towards the background. The work of painting is one of recovery, bringing back into the light that which had nearly been lost to consciousness.

The circle may also emulate the circular iris of the eyes of the maternal figure who dominates the canvas, gazing out at the viewer with infinite compassion and understanding. The eye of the artist and the eye of the mother, in effect, become one, through this aesthetic act of homage and memory work.  Even in urban Johannesburg at a time of Lockdown and confinement,  amidst the encroaching terror of the virus,  meditating upon the recalled gaze of the Mother, and taking on her serene point of view, promises to sustain us all.

Lindo Zwane. Meditation. 2020 (completed)

Addendum (April 12, 2020): Lindo Zwane has now competed the painting, Meditation, shown here.  The finished version indicates that the maternal figure is a church member in the Zionist "Church of Christ" fellowship (which, the artist explains in correspondence, he previously attended.)  Fellow white-robed women members of the faith, one with a cross stitched on her back, are seen in the background. Perhaps the artist is sharing with us a childhood memory of women of his community heading to church, the air filled with the beautiful hymns of the faithful.  In many African independent churches,  including Zionist denominations, the church uniform is understood as a ritual object of great power, offering strength and protection to its wearers, as they channel the life-giving flows of the Holy Spirit (Comaroff, 1985). Perhaps at this time of great trial and tribulation, when we are all isolated from one another by the Lockdown, the artist invites us all to take comfort from this memory picture, of a community of believers bound together by grace and solidarity.


References 

Comaroff, Jean. 1985. Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People, Jean Comaroff is published by University of Chicago Press.

James,  Wendy. 1993. Matrifocus on African Women. Defining Females: The Nature of Women in Society. Shirley Ardener, ed. pp  123-145