Gerald Tabata - Elusindisweni (Salvation)
Gerald Tabata lives in the township of Kayelitsha, located in the Cape Flats – an area infamous for its violence and poverty. Tabata believes it is his duty (and the duty of all artists) to utilise his work as an instrument to call attention to social issues, of which the most pressing in Kayelitsha currently are high levels of unemployment, poverty, poor housing, crime and HIV/AIDS. In documenting his response to these issues, Tabata has made of himself a mouthpiece for the concerns of his community and a mentor to fellow artists.
However, Tabata’s work is not the visual agitprop that usually follows such a declaration. Rather, Tabata paints people who continue to live, work and, indeed, play in the face of social and economic adversity. For this body of work, entitled Elusindisweni – meaning both “church” and “salvation” – Tabata has chosen to document the religious component of Kayelitsha society. Tightly composed and crowded frames, these paintings feature characters documented over time, an item of clothing or compositional repetition hinting at the presence of the same figures in more than one painting. The story that develops is about a group of people in the township who have found comfort and hope in the concept of Christianity, but also (and not less so) in gregarious intimacy shared with fellow worshippers. Metaphoric elements emphasise Tabata’s point: ‘In some of the paintings there are candles in the far corner on top of the table. The candles are symbolic of a light at the end of a dark tunnel. There is also a person beating igubu (drums) – another ancient African way of celebrating and worshipping God.’
A sharp response to the formulaic iconage of 1950s “township” art, Tabata’s strong characterisation and capacity to create movement allows his work to speak, sincerely, for itself.
