"Desert Storm" by Kemang Wa Lehulere features a monochromatic composition dominated by swirling black shapes on a white background, creating a dynamic sense of motion. The abstract forms suggest both chaos and order, echoing natural patterns like leaves or petals caught in the wind. Wa Lehulere employs a gestural drawing technique that reflects an expressive and layered artistic style. This piece connects to his exploration of South Africa's past, using abstraction to evoke the lingering impact of historical narratives and their resonance in the present. ...
Kemang Wa Lehulere’s practice engages with the past of South Africa, tracing the ways it still haunts the country’s current condition. Working with personal and collective histories and archives, the artist repeatedly employs found objects representing both individual and collective memory. Wooden, old-looking school desks or mass-produced ceramic sculptures of Alsatian dogs are at once familiar and alienating; a reminder from childhood also acting as a reminder of the complexity of social structures within the Apartheid regime of South Africa. Inspired by set design and theatre, Wa Lehulere’s drawings and ‘living sculptures’, comprising smudged chalk drawings on blackboards, sculptures made of grass and soil and wall etchings, further dwell on the processes of revision, juxtaposition and the malfunction of histories. By making history physical and personal, the artist contrasts liberation with repression and sharply connects the painful past with a painful present. ...
