This is a household name in the visual art scene. I have been following Blessings work for a while and I have seen his work at Everard Read Gallery and at the FNB Art Fair this year and in previous years. Each one of his art pieces show such a complex relationship between black bodies, politics, the colonial grip, pain, and joy all in one. You just stand there and read each story whilst understanding the collective chaos, so I love to stop and stare.
Smiling black bodies in different contexts with the common colonial chain that weighs us down. There’s a deep message of the ancestral pain associated with the black bodies, with the clear eyes to show that our ancestors are aware of what is happening. The pain of not knowing where we come from eats us up although we are merely happy to be alive.
Blessing uses his art for social commentary in a powerful way, take this sofa with the message “Started a Chicken business with just a feather, which is reminiscent of something our President said about the R350 grants given to unemployed youth throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
The series shared at the FNB Art Fair was a beautiful conversation from Blessing’s water-based ancestor’s to our hearts. A real call for redemption for the souls whose lives ended chained in the bottom of the oceans.
Please read more on the series & Blessing Ngobeni’s work here
