Moshekwa Langa – The Jealous Lover

For the ifa Gallery, Moshekwa Langa intended a sculptural installation made up of boxes, pipes, disco balls, streamers, black plastic, fans, streamers, toys and wood. All these different components are painted in the colour black, both matt and glossy. The floor is covered with black plastic film and tires in a suitable juxtaposition to evoke buildings. Then he puts toys which were painted gold, silver and bronze on top of the boxes. To accompany this, the work includes about fifteen pictures evoking maps, collages and drawings "The Jealous Lover" means musing on a contemporary human condition. People of moving to the metropolis in search of hidden gold. Langa believes that the metropolis gives an illusion of a better live, streets paved with gold, but human beings often end up in a morass of confusion, gritted teeth, sadness. He believed that the work that he did will deal with some of these issues. "The Jealous Lover" is someone who takes hold of one with all the motions and grips them tightly as if never letting go till all energy and sustenance may be drained out of that person – like the maelstrom of the African Megacities does. Moshekwa Langa (*1975 in Bakenberg / South Africa) is just as familiar with European culture, and particularly literature, as he is with the visual culture of South Africa. He combines and weaves together diverse European and African themes, motifs and elements, creating installations, works on paper, photographs and. He often uses ordinary materials like strings, watercolors, found items, tape, thread reels and threads. It is precisely that these threads tell (hi)stories. They connect different objects, thoughts, associations; with his threads Langa weaves a visual and often also linguistic net of political experiences and personal memories – between Apartheid and exile. Everything is connected to everything else, there are no linear developments; the lines meander and meet at various intersections. Moshekwa Langa’s works therefore stand for the experiences people make in a globalised world, for the difficulties and the fascination that come with moving through this world in which everything is interconnected. 11.04. – 08.06.2014 ifa Gallery Stuttgart Charlottenplatz 17 D-70173 Stuttgart Phone +49.711.2225.161 11.07. – 21.09.2014 ifa-Galerie Berlin Linienstraße 139/140 10115 Berlin Phone +49.30.284491.40 ifa.de