Artist Kills Nelson Mandela: Pictures
PRESENTING, the death of Nelson Mandela, a reverie in inks by Yiull Damaso. Nelson Mandela is not dead. But let’s imagine what he will look like he is dead and being cut up by the mortician.
The image is a take on Rembrandt’s 17th-century masterpiece The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp. You will see Mandela dressed in a loincloth. Nkosi Johnson, an Aids activist who died aged 12, points to a Mandela arm, which carries no flesh. Looking on are Desmond Tutu, FW de Klerk, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Waiting outside in the corridor, we imagine, are hundreds of celebs keen to meet Mandela and get an anecdote for their next appearance on daytime telly.
The image is on the cover of the Mail and Guardian newspaper. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) does not like it one bit. Says Jackson Mthembu, a party spokesman:
“In African society it is a foreign act of ubuthakathi (bewitch) to kill a living person and this so-called work of art … is also racist. It goes further by violating Tat’ uMandela’s dignity by stripping him naked in the glare of curious onlookers, some of whom have seen their apartheid ideals die before them.”
Says the artist:
“The idea just popped up in my head. We have Nelson Mandela, one of the great leaders of our time, and the politicians around him are trying to find out what makes him a great man. Nkosi Johnson, the only one in the painting who’s no longer alive, is trying to show them that Mandela is just a man. So they should stop searching and get on with building the country.”
The Nelson Mandela Death Cult was once Government approved…
Posted: 11th, July 2010 | In: Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
