Giggs Kgole pays tribute to his African ancestors in his first London solo exhibition
South African artist Giggs Kgole has already come a long way in a short space of time. Despite just being 24, he has racked up dozens of exhibitions and personal shows. For his first solo show at London’s Signature African Art, Giggs explores his journey so far. Titled Badimo Ba Kgole (Kgole’s Gods), the exhibition runs until 30 October. In it, Giggs also pays tribute to his roots and heritage and reveals the influence that his ancestors from the rural village of Limpopo have had on his practice. Featuring over 15 new pieces of work, Badimo Ba Kgole details near-death experiences and moments of hardship from Giggs’ life so far.
Fans of the rising star, who has already been crowned one of the Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans, will be familiar with the style of composite photographic images and anaglyphs on display. So don’t be surprised if you attend the exhibition and are handed a pair of 3D viewing glasses. It is all part of the experience. If you’re new to Giggs Kgole, though, we caught up with him to learn more about his life and to discover more about his exhibition.
This exhibition is all about your personal journey. What have been the most pivotal moments of your career so far? Art exists to reflect the societies we live in and the issues we face. My exhibitions have always communicated these realities through my own eyes and the people I have crossed paths with. However, my career’s most recent pivotal moment was being part of Ava DuVernay’s “Say My Name” in October 2020, then Maro Itoje’s “A History Untold” in May 2021 at Signature African Art Gallery in London. Having that space to create and leave a meaningful impact has helped me enrich myself to contribute more to the world.
My first pivotal moment in my art career will always be when my artwork was exhibited at the Pretoria Art Museum as a 19-year-old who made it into the Sasol New Signature top 100 finalists in 2016. That moment sparked up the confidence I needed for the journey to come.
How would you describe your ‘private world’ that is on display at Badimo Ba Kgole?
I would describe it as a spiritual walk through a glimpse of my life. One of which has been a roller coaster of defying the odds stacked against me, yet also allowing myself to be a collector of perspectives. I have been able to gain wisdom that has given me the fuel to break through each ceiling I come to face as I reveal myself in the art world. These masterpieces challenge the viewer to look deep into the ripple effect we have as individuals.
In my case, I am one of the champions of the ripple effects of my ancestors who have travelled and survived the long journey of migration from central Africa into Southern Africa as herdsmen five centuries ago. They have carried art in their existence, and it is now passed down to me to use this talent to change lives. These works and the stories they carry are the catalysts to create a positive ripple effect in someone else’s life.
Look at art history books. They don’t cover a lot of African masters despite the contributions they made to the world. My generation will use all the power we have to paint our histories.
Your work is characterised by the use of ‘Anaglyphs’. What are they?
In 2011, in eighth grade, I wanted to create a sculpture for my art project. Unfortunately, as a 14-year-old, I didn’t have the money for the materials I needed. My art teacher then told me to turn to the internet and research different solutions. I hadn’t used the internet in my life before, so I spent the next two months getting myself accustomed to using a computer and search engines. Diving into this infinite world of discovery, I then proceeded to learn what sculpting entailed, and I came across the words “stereoscopes”, “illusions”, and “Anaglyphs”. I then spent the next five years teaching myself how to make 3D movies viewed with polarised glasses in my spare time. In my final year of high school in 2015, I told my art teacher that I didn’t really want to go up against Hollywood production teams to create 3D films, but I wanted to create 3D films through coloured lenses. When I mentioned that, she then explained a whole life story of how she used to enjoy spending hours on the fields watching these movies and films on these filter lens changers. Seeing her passionately talk about her experience made me realise that I wanted to create artworks that would inspire the same amount of happiness.
Being the overly ambitious 18-year-old I was, I developed my Anaglyph technique and created a short film regarding my initiation process when I was a 12-year-old boy. A year after that film, I wanted to turn the moving images into still ones, which still acted as a film, so I learned how to print out my Anaglyph stills. I use Anaglyph not only as a looking window into the deeper meaning of the work but merely because the moment I saw how happy my art teacher was when I pitched the concept, I knew that was the same amount of happiness I wanted to bring out into the world with whatever masterpiece I create using this technique.
View more here
Source: Creative Boom
