Created By
Fumani Maluleke
Charcoal and pastels on paper (Framed and mounted)
Curator
Luke Chapman
What captivates immediately is the reversed gaze. These three figures—positioned with their backs to us—become simultaneous subjects and witnesses. They're looking outward at their world while we, in turn, observe them observing. This structural tension creates a meditation on perspective that feels particularly resonant in a post-apartheid context where questions of who gets to look, who gets seen, and who controls the narrative remain urgently unresolved. The tires—those cast-off emblems of mobility and modernity—function as loaded signifiers here. In South African townships, the tire carries complex associations: childhood play, yes, but also histories of "necklacing" during political resistance, of burning barricades, of improvised solutions to material lack. Maluleke transforms these everyday objects into potent symbols of both innocence and experience. Notice how the color works here—not decorative but declarative. Against the monochromatic rendering of flesh, those vibrant garments assert individuality within collective identity. The storm clouds gathering above suggest both threat and possibility—a meteorological metaphor for the uncertain futures these children face.
In Unity begins at home Maluleke offers us not just a scene but a proposition—a visual thesis about childhood, community, and futurity that reverberates beyond its immediate representational qualities. What Fumani achieves in this deceptively straightforward composition is a profound visual argument about community formation. The title doesn't just label the image; it activates it. "Unity begins at home" reads simultaneously as a political statement, as proverb, as aspiration. These three figures, standing together at the threshold between domestic space and broader landscape, become embodiments of solidarity's first principles. In the larger context of contemporary South African visual culture, this work participates in a crucial reclamation of everyday Black childhood as worthy of artistic attention—a seemingly simple gesture with revolutionary implications for representation and value. Maluleke doesn't sentimentalize or objectify; he witnesses and honors.
Created By
Fumani Maluleke
151 x 199 cm | 59 x 78 in
2024
