• Home
  • PERFORMANCE
  • VIDEO/INSTALLATIONS
  • OBJECTS
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT

Feeds:
Posts
Comments

The Theory of Labour (2006)

Johan Thom

Photo credit: Johan Thom

From the Perfect Human Series (2005- 2008)

Date: 2006

Medium: Steel, sandblasted perspex, fluorescent lights, pencils, wooden rulers, padlocks

Sizes: 1200 x 50 x 20 cm (when fully extended)

For the ‘Anglo-American African Christmas Tree Project, 2006’ the artist Johan Thom created an unofficial monument for the five victims of the recent Tau Tona mining disaster near Carletonville. They were:

Abiel Koali Ntheko, 27 (of Quthing in Lesotho)
Jaime Auxilio Sambane, 35, (of Chibuto in Mozambique)
Daniel Sitoe, 39, (of Chokwe in Mozambique)
Jeremiah Songeso Dubeni, 29, (of Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape)
Lwandile Mgwenye, 32 (from Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape)

Thom created a massive, functional folding ruler (12m in length) out of steel and mixed media. Each of the legs of the ruler was then turned into a lightbox containing different objects such as pencils, rulers, locks and lights. In one of these Thom placed a series of smaller rulers that were used as extensions of his own body in a series of performances this year (see for example http://coeo.co.za/waste/?page_id=122 ).

Johan Thom

Photo credit: Johan Thom

The names of the victims of the disaster, as well as the co-ordinates of their places of origin, appear sandblasted on black Perspex covering two of the lightboxes. However, the victims names appear as only as numerical values – perhaps referring to the spiritual practices of eastern numerology but also to the way in which individuals become only numbers either as statistics of a mining disaster for example, or as units of labor in the capitalist system dominating contemporary South Africa.

The combined use of black Perspex and fluorescent light tubes also create a subtle juxtaposition in the work: the shiny black Perspex simultaneously reflects and absorbs the light emanating from the rest of the structure. In this way the sculpture draws the viewer in from afar, signaling to them through the beautiful display of white light emanating from it. However, once the viewer comes closer they find themselves drawn into the negative, yet self-reflective space created by the intense blackness of the Perspex surfaces.

For Thom a ruler is a perfect metaphor for the way in which we measure, map and plot our course in contemporary society: it is an object that is simultaneously hostile and useful – its measurements are exact, its lines perfectly straight and its everyday functionality is beyond question. However, it seeming ‘perfect’ standards remains subject to human interpretation and to its relationship to nature in general. As the field of Quantum Physics has shown, though the field of mathematics is pragmatic, it is cannot be exact and its seeming objectivity is never fact.

Johan Thom

Photo credit: Johan Thom

Credits:

The work was commissioned by Anglo Ferrous Metals and Industries and the exhibition will remain on view in Main Street, Johannesburg until 15 January 2007.
Liza Essers (Curator)
Production Manager: Brendan Copestake
Production house: Trent Wiggle from Tridarch

Comments Off

  • Archives

  • Pages

    • PERFORMANCE
      • Fountain (Date Witheld)
      • Licked Colony (2011)
      • Thank you (2011)
      • Recital (2010/11)
      • Host 1 (2010)
      • Biblioclast: Action with Afrikaans/Dutch Dictionary (Rotterdam 2010)
      • Figurehead (2010)
      • Incantation Series 2009 -
      • Vox Populis/ Vox Dei (2008/9)
      • Come in peace/ Go to pieces (2008)
      • Traffic (2008)
      • Twilight (2008)
      • The Theory of Gravity (2006)
      • Outpost Series (2004-6)
      • Bind/Ontbind Series (2003)
    • VIDEO/INSTALLATIONS
      • Flow (2011)
      • Blood Rites/ eat your words (2010)
      • Host 2 (2010)
      • Shellshock (2010)
      • illumination(2010)
      • Panopticon (2009)
      • Outpost 4 (2008)
      • The Theory of Displacement (2008)
      • Challenging Mud (After Kazuo Shiraga) (2008)
      • Terms of endearment (2007)
      • The Ascension (2007)
      • Birth of a Tyrant (2007)
      • The Theory of Flight (2006)
      • The Theory of Evolution (2006)
      • The Minotaur Series 12 (2005)
      • The Labyrinth (2004)
      • Violence and Happiness (2003)
      • The Pencil Test Series (2003)
    • OBJECTS
      • Container (2011)
      • Gold works (2010 -)
      • Workhorse (2011) with Guy Du Toit
      • Vessel 1-Perfect Lovers (2009)
      • Philistine rules/ Did you know? (2007)
      • Looking for Lucy (2007)
      • The OK Revolution (2007)
      • Molotovmammas (2007)
      • The Theory of Labour (2006)
      • words oft error (2005)
      • I am no-one (2001-2)
    • ABOUT
      • Press
      • Shortened CV
      • Interviews
        • Interview with Carine Zaayman (2003)
        • Interview with David Koloane (2007)
        • Interview with Peter Machen (2008)
        • Interview with Willem Boshoff (2006)
        • The ghosts wish to remember: Interview with Petra Zemljič (2010)
        • Johan Thom interviewed by Sarah Claire Picton (2009)
        • Radio Papesse Interview as part of ‘.za: Young Art From South Africa’ (2008)
      • Authored
        • Kendell Geers at the Steven Friedman, London
        • Life intimidating art, The Diplomat, Sept/Oct 2007
        • The sleeping monster produces reasons : Diane Victor
        • Santu Mofokeng (2010)
        • The sense of fresh air (2010)
        • Taming the Trojan Horse: Disarming the Politics of Otherness in a Postcolonial (African) Context
    • CONTACT
  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blog at WordPress.com. Fonts on this blog.

Theme: MistyLook by Sadish.


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Powered by WordPress.com