Walter Sisulu University fine arts student, Tandabantu Matola, who hails from Zandukwana village in Libode, has been crowned runner-up for his work titled Ukuncikelela, loosely translated “To endure”, at the 2024 Sasol New Signatures Competition.
Matola said he grew up stubborn, with extremes of hard working and playing in his personality.
“My playing around sometimes meant I did not pay attention in class, and at times as village boys we would go out to swim and I would just play around with clay, moulding characters,” said Matola.
Talking about the competition, Matola said he was at a loss for words when he heard the news that he had secured a second-place position. He said the win is an assurance to him that he was on the right path as an artist.
Matola, the last-born of seven children, said he started drawing between the ages of six and seven. He said he would sometimes take his father’s books from the bookshelves and draw what he saw around the house. Matola grew with his love for art up to his teenage years.
“At times, if by chance I got hold of my mother’s phone, I would go to Google and YouTube, trying to learn the drawing techniques. That is when I saw I really loved drawing and I wanted to see myself as an artist. Sometimes I would design townships from my imagination,” he said.
Matola, who majors in ceramics, said he realised in his second year of law that he could turn his passion into a career, and has not looked back since. Matola was invited to the 2023 National Art Festival and the Ceramic Regionals Eastern Cape in Gqeberha. His work was most recently exhibited at Freedom Park as part of the Le Rona Re Batho exhibition.
Matola is a tutor on campus and works as a Ceramics artist at Arts Versatile Africa under Litha Ncokazi.
Matola, who is inspired by the works of Simphiwe Mbunyuza, is an advanced diploma student. A statement released by Marina Smithers said Sasol has been a proud sponsor of the competition for the past 34 years. The competition was established by the Association of Arts Pretoria in the late 1960s.
“The idea for this artwork came when the artist noticed that the dishcloth at his home was in a bad state. As an artist, this prompted Matola to collect dishcloths from his village in exchange for new ones. Clay and underglaze are used to depict the homes Matola visited, combining these with the dishcloth he obtained from that home. The weaving of clay and cloth symbolises ukuncikelela, which means ‘to hold on’ in isiXhosa,” the statement read.
Chairperson of the Sasol New Signatures Competition, Pfunzo Sidogi, said five judges, from totally distinct positionalities and experiences, finding consensus in determining the characteristics of winning artworks, shows how art can transcend cultural, racial, linguistic, and personal differences.
“In the five years I have served as the competition’s chair, this year’s final judging round was probably the toughest we’ve facilitated thus far. Among other things, words like ‘subtly compelling’, ‘poignant’, ‘technically virtuosic’, ‘majestic work’, ‘wonderful technique’, and ‘carefully modelled’ were used by the judges to describe the nature of the artworks in the winner’s circle,” Sidogi said.
