Tschabalala Self
Friend Or, 2020
Fabric, acrylic and painted canvas on canvas
213.4 x 182.9 cm
84 1/8 x 72 1/8 in
84 1/8 x 72 1/8 in
Copyright The Artist
Further images
Tschabalala Self builds a singular style from the syncretic use of both painting and printmaking to explore ideas about the human body. She constructs exaggerated depictions of these characters using...
Tschabalala Self builds a singular style from the syncretic use of both painting and printmaking to explore ideas about the human body. She constructs exaggerated depictions of these characters using a combination of sewn, printed, and painted materials, traversing different artistic and craft traditions. The discordantly patterned fabrics combine into bodies that exaggerate curves and simplify features but ultimately resolve into figures with scale and presence.
Self likes to think of all of her paintings as existing within a larger pantheon, a larger universe. Friend Or, 2020 depicts a male figure who is at war with himself. Both the male and female subjects in her work play with notions around gender, either through heightened gender performativity or ambiguity. Self’s characters are typically nude and often in intimate settings, finding power rather than vulnerability in the exposure of the human form.
Self likes to think of all of her paintings as existing within a larger pantheon, a larger universe. Friend Or, 2020 depicts a male figure who is at war with himself. Both the male and female subjects in her work play with notions around gender, either through heightened gender performativity or ambiguity. Self’s characters are typically nude and often in intimate settings, finding power rather than vulnerability in the exposure of the human form.