Ompile korobela

“Ompile korobela” is a recent mixed media work by South African artist Neo Matloga. Matloga studied at the University of Johannesburg and his work has been exhibited in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and South Africa. The artist’s large-scale mixed media collages originate from portraits that he cuts out of old newspapers and magazines, along with photographs of family and friends. Although he trained as a painter, Matloga felt collage was a better way to express tension and rawness. The resulting amalgamated faces interrogate the racist gaze and create a space for what bell hooks calls the ”oppositional gaze.” Matloga explains, “if there is a possibility that a Black face is seen as a distortion, what I’m saying is, OK, here you have this image of distortion, which is already there in your prejudices or racist gaze. The process of cutting, reconfiguring and collaging the facial anatomy is my way of trying to identify with the racist gaze to dis-appropriate its oppressive power.” His titles work in a similar way. Most of them are written in Sepedi or Selobedu, which are linguistically related indigenous languages. By using them, he reclaims a Black narrative. He says that “In a way, the titles have both nothing and everything to do with the paintings,” they might offer clues to what is happening in the work, but he feels they should not always be used to interpret the work. In fact, he says that they are taken from utterances or poems that “I feel don’t really make sense.”