Prophets of Skulls

I desired to carve a skull. I witness the skull as a platform which through subtle marks and features defines who we are. It is our core.

A prophet is one someone who speaks by divine inspiration.

This artwork is an assemblage of artists who speak through their art. They capture the essence of divine inspiration through the depictions of their skulls. They act as prophets for our time capturing past, present and future.

Damien Hirst’s diamond skull embarks me on a journey of the vicious past journey of colonial Africa. Whilst in contrast Takashi Murakumi’s ‘Fate’ is whimsical and touches the wonderment of a child in me, a timeless sensation.

Some skulls deal with issues like the environment for example Jeremy Fisher with “Till the End’ which predicates the future. Others focus on greed like ‘Skull Cube’ and ‘For the love of God’.

Some through their material choose reveal comment on their surroundings and present like Haroshi’s molten skateboard ‘Skull’ with braces and gold teeth and Jim Skull ‘Corde de papier’ who uses the places he travels to and learns their culture to create his skulls. Further with examples like Joshua Harker using new technologies and techniques displays the growths in the art world.

Further South African artists like Guy Du Toit with his fascinating bronze skulls and Bronze Age’s ‘Skullcandy’ both create sculptures without the bottom jaw.

‘The Longer you Last’ evokes within comments and questions about beauty being only skin deep.

Matteo Pugliese’s skull of bodies further evokes an interesting dialogue between what defines us within our bones. Typoe with his artworks ‘Confetti Death’ also comments on the body but also the relation between how we live and how it kills us.

Each skull holds relations through its creation and material. My own piece “My African Soul’ reflects my confliction with my heritage as an African who’s family have lived in South Africa for over 350 years yet will never be considered truly ‘African’ yet have no other home.

The bottle container as a manmade construction reflects my struggle and how I feel constricted.

My skull has no lower jaw because I feel I hold no voice to speak yet through my art I can speak out to the conflicting feelings of a linage of colonisers and oppressors where one feels afloat and lost in history. 

By creating my present with the concerns of my future I become part of the past. I become an art prophet.