Cecil John Rhodes Constipation on the Mafeking Road interrupts dreams of an Empire

 

  Cecil  J.Rhodes Picnic / Constipation on the Mafeking Road  interrupts Dreams of an Empire/ 
2013

Painted in memory of reading "Diamonds, Gold and War " and in foresight of
#Rhodesmustfall    debate at UCT 2015    

DISCUSSION:
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2015-03-11-ucts-poo-protest-violence-is-a-perfect-reaction/

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2015-03-13-forced-removal-time-to-claim-new-space-by-removing-rhodes-statue/

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-03-13-the-rhodes-statue-must-fall-ucts-radical-rebirth/

RESPONSE

Maybe one should not judge the Infants of New Democracy, the students at UCT too harshly or hastily. My initial kneejerk reaction at the poo- incident was disgust, but then I recalled own work referring to toilets in a landscape of rubbish and sewage as a modern African icons or totem.
Historically, the statue  of the  super rich diamond and gold magnate Rhodes, a closet homo, mysogynist and hateful ethnic Imperialist, whose akward personality was shielded by delusions of grandeur  and power-  in honour and to the benefit of “Grandmama”, (the Empire embodied by Queen Victoria) reminds of the  defeat of the Boer Republics and Mashonaland’, commemorate a  history of blood and deceit and despair ,and tell a a tale  of untold fortunes for a handful of idealized freebooters. The statue  embodies the Economy and unjust divide of riches founded then and still existing today, praises the Company Man who ruthlessly grabs foreign land and resources, subjugates and disowns.  The events of Marikana still haunt South African psyche as recurrence of history of exploitation and theft of resources .Politically the statue  represents the greedy gold and diamond Baron empowered by Royal Charter, boss of cattle thieves , Ruler over the Cape Colony, a Corruptor ,with politicians and parliamentarians indebted or caught in his manipulative web , ally to yahoos and hired guns eager do the  ruthless and dirty work of building an Empire. The  Sculptures art shows  a tired  sagging man of troubles and  ailing health, bland portrait sculpting to conserve memory with no  deeper thought or inner tension apparent, lacking the pure energy emanating from Rodins ‘Thinker’. To  honour Rhodes history and outdated ideology is unthinking and an insult to modernity and freedom.  In a Freudian sense UCT is bedecking itself in feces  by voluntarily honouring this man made of  gold and diamonds , or UCT is forced into copography by the terms and conditions of CJR last will and the stipulations in his bequest.

 ‘Soft Construction with boiled beans (Premonition of Civil War ) ‘of 1936 by Salvador Dali is a famous painting protesting  Franco’s Fascism in Spain and visually  refers to feces as explicitly as in its title,  Manzoni’s ‘merde d’artista’  of the  Italian arte povera declared shit to be Art, canned, sealed ,signed and sold as Artists edition.  For the avantgarde  the use of feces or blood in Art to provoke is hardly a worthwhile scandal anymore. For the students the feces is a symbol of lack of transformation and reminder of the shameful conditions many hark from.

("Complex Shit" Paul Mc Carthy, Musee Paul Klee, Bern Switzerland)

The Rhodes monument  has had  a profound effect in and on its daily social environment, and a simple incident  (prank, folly, vandalism) has suddenly set in motion  passionate energy. The  incident  has become a Social Sculpture inviting extraordinary and creative thinking. Site and setting place the Monument as phallic Godhead of  the University Campus, a Parthenon  now wallowing in a pooh debate.
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Playing with its own  faeces, theorized Sigmund Freud, is the  infants first  creation, its first sense of achievement, it embodies the concept of being shat into the world, shitting is also  appreciated  as something erotic or pleasurable experience, a first expression of one’s own body , and then a lump of self to  proudly present as: ‘look I made gold again’ moment. The manner in which this anal eroticism is handled via  potty training and pampering is crucial in the child’s development. It shapes the  imprint of neuroses or disorders to come (ie orderly vs disorderly conduct, being generous or parsimonious , retentive or given to swearing or verbal diarroeha…)  as the infant learns to integrate its primary experiences in its evolving personality. Freud theorized that the infant smearing faeces resembles the adult bedecking himself in gold and jewellery – both merely enjoy presenting or gifting their riches. Rhodes’ statue and bequest of land and buildings to the Colonialist Cape  is a subconcious reminder of the insecure anal erotic infant  towards its life’s end  pondering  and donating to the Colony his huge and shiny heap of turds ..

Those growing up without pots to train on justifiably regard this ingrained symbolism, as subcutaneous yet  all-pervasive arrogance and  deeply offensive.

(Marikana / Judge Fahrlam enquires, )


Art, especially Sculpture recalls  primary anal eroticism in recreating and modulating a mass (clay,earth), modelling is in deeply layered knowledge an experience analogous to defecation or feces. The  sculptor is commissioned to give form to a prescribed ideal- domineering Colonialist monumentality –and the original clay  is transformed in a valuable durable material such as  bronze  and then placed in  dominant location, its  environment reminiscent of  temples. All  people shall  pass through the shadow of  the immortal brooding monster heightened and made unassailable by a pedestal, as if passing a deity before entering the crypta Jameson Hall could be an analogy rich in tasteless metaphor .
 (Joseph Beuys  warned of the dangers and bad  habit of arresting history and memory and  materializing an idea of ideals  into Monuments - which are seldom quality Art.. He planted 1000 oaks at Kassel Documenta and relied on honey, fat and felt to energize his social sculptures. A guru to many students he directed student rebellion and awareness towards establishing the German Green Party).

Merensky Complex 2013 (Marikana)

Throwing shit at the Colossus long dead, was  a triumph of minimalist intervention with maximum outcome. It should   be regarded as more than just an act of  defiance or launching a necessary discussion, it is outstanding  Anti-Art and an act of transformation. The Rhodes monument is a symbol of  victory  and continuing domination embodied in the Capitalist Colonialist’s dogma of  dominance and exploitation,  enthroned as state of mind in static in solidified constipation.  It is spoiling the unsoiled outlook  students should enjoy on the future . The photogenic distribution of intestinal flora as Anti- Art  by a few brave students, was a desperate excorcism and a defiant act of  protest and transformation long overdue. It took a child in Andersens tale to speak out the unspoken truth: the Emperor is naked. Here it just took shit to point to shit.
The poople shall govern  and some may in future become the poephols that govern.
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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid