‘Madoda: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men’ deconstructs cliches of Black masculinity

Cape-Town-based ceramicist Madoda Fani’s most recent works of ceramic art are on display at Southern Guild Cape Town, South Africa, from June 6 - August 22, 2024. The solo exhibition’s title, Madoda: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, is based on the artist’s given name (meaning 'men') as well as the non-fiction book by writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans.

"…this exhibition is a mapping of urban Black masculinities that challenges hetero-normative narratives of the township Black man in South Africa. Re-imagining and re-imaging ubiquitous domestic objects in clay, this body of work deconstructs reductive and harmful cliches of Black masculinities, re-fashioning them with masterful skill and attention to craft," shares the art gallery.

Through works of contemporary art, Madoda: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men recognises and honours the Black men who have influenced Fani, eulogising those he comes from. It uses the township as a map of resilience, celebrating his grandfather, a butcher who sold sheep heads roasted over fire; his father, a full-time steelworker and part-time artist who fashioned sculptures in his backyard; ceramicist mentors such as Simon Masilo, the Nala family and Nic Sithole; and his family of uncles, cousins and brothers, who shaped his meaning of masculinity through acts of tenderness.

"Fani puts this care into his painstakingly and delicately detailed work. Each carved line and indentation, an imprint of love. Hand-coiled, smoke-fired, meditative and rhythmic; the tenderness encased in a defensive and resilient exoskeleton," mentions the press release.

The contemporary artist uses the 'primus stove' as one of the objects to demonstrate alternate masculinities, "as a central allegorical object to speak about Black manhood and vulnerability," the gallery remarks. A primus stove is a type of portable appliance that uses pressurised fuel to generate heat for cooking. The artist reconstitutes the object—softer and more fragile in clay, as compared to its traditional steel, protected by spikes and scales as if to give it a defensive coat of armour.

Anatomising this fuel stove, Fani elongates the trivets, stretching them into a curved, open embrace. He turns them onto their sides and places them on their heads, displacing their function and finality. The ceramic artist presents the modified stove as a 'synthetic hearth' for young men and boys to gather around. This sculptural art becomes part of the larger landscape of a re-imagined township that acts as an alternate geography of modernity—which is otherwise formed through the othering of spaces and bodies.

The sculptural artist deconstructs persisting stereotypes of Black masculinities through this art and design exhibition, which also acts as a call to action. As the gallery puts it, "This body of work recognises the ways in which manufactured tropes about the Black man and the ghetto are mobilised through violent stereotyping and the overdetermination of Black identity."