Majak Bredell is exhibiting at Fried Contemporary Art
gallery & Studio after she lived and worked in New York City 23 years.
She exhibited in Johannesburg and Pretoria as Majak Lewis until 1981, the
year she emigrated with her family to New York City. After 23 years of living
and working there as art director/graphic designer, art instructor, and
artist she returned to South Africa in 2004 to live and work in Kampersrus in
the Lowveld.
Her early South African work was a personal reflection
of her own subjective experiences as a daughter of the patriarchy. At first,
she portrayed female figures as eroticized and crucified objects. Then,
as though to anesthetize the terror of this reality, the paintings that
followed were pale images of the figure blending into the domestic environment,
the housewife neatly pasted down with the wallpaper, or hanging with the
laundry to dry. However the American move would change her focus from the
intensely personal to a symbolist, mythological vision that questioned
notions of belief and scripture in relation to feminist spiritual thinking.
Male effigies and imaginings of a pre-patriarchal
masculinity informed much of her early New York work. She wrote poetry in her
mother tongue, Afrikaans, to still the longing for the Africa that formed
her. Her writing and images were incorporated in limited edition artists’
books, while her drawing and painting explored the images and ideas around a
primordial mother goddess. The exploration of her subject is the product of a
feminist consciousness brought about by the interaction between reading,
writing, and the making of her art. In time the idea of the divine female
became central to her American work, and the focus shifted from being mostly
emblematic to becoming mostly figurative and is anchored with a point of view
both in terms of method and content.
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Majak Bredell stal by Fried Contemporary
uit nadat sy vir drie-en-twintig jaar in New York gewoon en gewerk het. Sy
het in Johannesburg en Pretoria uitgestal onder die naam Majak Lewis tot en
met 1981, waarna sy saam met haar gesin na New York emigreer. Na 23 jaar as
kunsregisseur en grafiese ontwerper, keer sy terug na Suid-Afrika in 2004 en
woon en werk sy in Kampersrus in die Laeveld.
Haar vroeëre
Suid-Afrikaanse werk is ‘n persoonlike weerspieëling van haar eie
ondervinding as dogter van die patriargie. In die begin het sy vroulike
figure weerspieël as erotiese en gekruisigde voorwerpe. Later, om as’t ware
die vrees van die realiteit te verdoof, volg vae beelde van die figuur saamgesmelt
met die huishoudelike omgewing, waar die huisvrou netjies saam met die
muurpapier geplak is, of saam met die wasgoed hang om droog te word. Die
skuif na Amerika verander egter haar fokus van intens persoonlik na ‘n
simboliese, mitologiese siening wat vrae vra rondom die konsepte van geloof
en geestelike manuskripte in verhouding met feministiese geestelike denke.
Manlike
figure en verbeeldingsvlugte van ‘n pre-patriargale manlikheid inspireer haar
vroeëre New York werk. Daar skryf sy ook poësie in haar moedertaal,
Afrikaans, om die verlange te verminder na die Afrika wat haar geskep het.
Haar skryfwerk en beelde is saamgevat in ‘n beperkte uitgawe kunstenaarsboek,
terwyl haar sketse en skilderye die idee rondom die voorhistoriese
moedergodin ondersoek. Die ondersoek na haar onderwerp is die uitkoms van ‘n
feministiese denkpatroon, aangemoedig deur lees, skryf en die skep van haar
kuns. Met tyd word die idee van die heilige vrouefiguur sentraal tot haar
Amerikaanse werk, en die fokus skuif van meestal emblematiese werk na
figuratiewe werk wat geanker word deur ‘n uitkykpunt in terme van metode en
inhoud.
