XVI. Interview with… Lisolomzi Pikoli, artist and illustrator
Lisolomzi Pikoli, Life Still, 2021
Visual artist Lisolomzi Pikoli brings his energetic images to life on practically any surface: page, screen, wall and even recently a pair of socks. Known colloquially by his old street artist moniker Fuzzy Slipperz, Pikoli exudes a natural warmth conveyed seamlessly through the vivid scenes he captures in his work. Through colorful geometries, dancing figures, birds and plants to name a few, Pikoli attempts, in his own words, "to interpret our modes of being and the mechanics of the modern world". In his conversation with The Empty Set below, Pikoli unpacks this statement in more detail, relating it to his interest in dreams, the natural environment and our relationship to history and time.
What role, if any, do dreams play in your creative practice?
Dreams play quiet a significant role in my work. I’ve always enjoyed the visual explorations of surrealism and for me there's an uncanny beauty in acknowledging the other realms in which we exist - the dreamscape being one of them. I think it's great that every night we get to experience this intangible phenomenon called dreaming. It's a rollercoaster of scenes, scenarios, distorted memories, and emotions with infinite possibilities. All the while, our bodies are just repairing themselves and making the neurobiological connections that help us function and learn on a day-to-day basis. So in many ways dreams give me a lot of material to work from that doesn’t necessarily have to make sense to the parameters that reality sets for us. However, my works are seldom reproductions or interpretations of my own dreams, but rather they try capture some of the qualities experienced or felt in dreams. The works say, “hey life isn’t just this thing we see in front of us.”
A recent mural you painted for Makhanda used local flora and fauna. Are there any recurring plants or animals that appear in your work for a particular reason?
Sure but they haven’t always been planned additions to my artworks. Though, I will say that I’ve always understood the symbolism attached to using flora and fauna in my works. The ones that come to mind are mostly birds, insects and plants some of which are indigenous. They all of course have wonderful Latin named sub-classifications which I won’t get into or profess to know all of, but it makes for a lot of interesting things to discover in the pieces. Let’s just say I’m a collector of National Geographic and have been found to wander around in parks. I find great value in observing and trying to understand the natural world and our relation to it.
Your artistic journey has seen you traverse various mediums from spray cans on walls, to paint on canvas, and stylus to Wacom. How do these various modes differ for you? Can you describe how your mindset needs to shift depending on the medium you're creating in?
Sure well I guess usually it depends what I’m trying to achieve visually. Some of works will be personal projects, private commissioned or a commissioned by a commercial entity. This contributes to the kind of finishings and look of the work. For example with murals if I’ve initiated the piece myself I usually experiment and try push my own boundaries in terms of what it looks like in the end without necessarily pandering to a commercial appeal. I’m passionate about bringing more public art to our spaces so I’ll consider how my work will effect the audience of the community. Funny enough I’ve been spray painting for about 15 years now and I’m still always learning new things when I paint it’s a tough medium. I’m interested in new techniques and give them a go if they’ll work for what I’m trying to convey. For example my illustration work tends to be done part on Adobe with a Wacom and part hand drawn most of the time. I just like things where you can see the craftsmanship involved and am open to happy mistakes..
On a related note, you recently held your first solo exhibition at 99 Loop Gallery in Cape Town, 'Inside. Beside. Around Us.'. What was it like to make that transition? Do you feel like there's a different set of expectations when it comes to showing your work on a white wall, as opposed to a brick one?
I’d say it was my first solo with a commercial gallery as I’ve been working with independent galleries and spaces in salon shows before for a while. These space have helped me along the way in my career before making this transition. So in a way I’ve become accustomed to the white wall set up and some of my works just translate better in a frame or on canvas. It was a great experience to work with the guys at the gallery who were open minded and have been putting on some really progressive exhibitions. So I was happy to show with them when they approached me. Regarding expectations around painting walls and exhibition space, I feel like I’ve worked on blurring the lines of what would be considered a “street art” style versus a contemporary artwork or illustration. With all due respect, this is so that I don’t have to pander to art scenes and the work can speak for itself wherever it is viewed.
Hills Whisper, 2015
You've also worked in the mode of publication with your Man Like Mountain project in 2016. What was it like to produce a book? Would you do it again, and if so, do anything different?
That was a significant project for me. It came with a few teething problems, but in the end I was able to create a great publication. I’ve always loved art books and magazines and in fact used to be a part of collectives like ‘Mafuta ink’ and ‘Motherfuckenromance’ which were formed with my creative friends and late brother, Phumlani. We would make zines with drawings, poems and short stories in them. So this prompted me to make an art book themed around some philosophical outlooks on resilience, man and nature’s intertwined relationship I was figuring out. I was guided by Keleketla! who have put out a few brilliant independent publications. They helped me find funding for the project and had me as a resident artist in their space. I received the “little sun” award which was initiated by Olafur Elliason and facilitated by Stevenson Gallery to help up and coming artists. It was such a rollercoaster of a time in my life and I was going through a lot so I really had to push to make it come together. It took about two and half years to finally get a version of the book out that I was proud of. I still am so grateful for the support I had during those times. Who knew quarter life crises and stress melt downs were real things? Would I do it again? Yes, only this time I would work more closely with the publisher (Kelekelta! tried, haha) and secondly try not to do everything myself (a word to the wise). You can handle it all if it’s a small zine or something which is mostly fun stuff but I would advise receiving the help of experts. I learned a lot from this publication though and it has some of my favourite artworks in it.
Another recent project was a major mural commission by the Danish Embassy in Pretoria. What is it like working on such a large scale? I assume, for one, not having a fear of heights.
Yeah that was a great experience! I was approached by the guys at Kalashnikov who are always fun to work with in conjunction with the Danish embassy. It was the biggest wall I’ve done to date at nine-stories and was thrilling to be up there. It was more exciting then daunting because I’ve done murals that required being on a cherry picker before. That said, painting a building was a big street art goal of mine and to have done it in my hometown was a nice tick on the box. Theme-wise I was able to bring together my ongoing conversation about humanity and nature in a meaningful way. It was about water awareness which is wildly becoming more and more of a scarce resource. Imagine that, the source of all life, mismanaged, little understood and commodified.
The artist statement on your website describes your work as an attempt to "interpret the mechanics of the modern world and our inherited wisdom through the human figure and its relationship to line, shape, form, movement and time." There's some great stuff to unpack there. Let's start with inherited wisdom. Could you speak to some of your own personal influences that have come from the ancestors?
Well it’s not a secret that the history of the world is dictated by the victors of it's wars. For me, this has lead to a skewing of many historical backdrops for understanding the lineage of our knowledge systems. As a colonised person and second generation of urbanised African South African, I know all too well about the unfortunate lack of knowledge of our pre colonial civilisations. Which has contributed to the impoverishment, loss of dignity and brain drains on the Continent. Thus many of us have taken on wisdoms of our ancestors through spoken word and from our living relatives and the little left from our cultural history. And because many monuments and libraries of our documented history have burned down or been distorted, I’ve made a point to educate myself the best I can about places like the Great Zimbabwe, Timbuktu, Nubia and Ancient Egypt which have become mysticised in modern media but set the ground works for modern civilisation. Africans were architects, mathematicians, astronomers, explores, farmer’s, traders and more. So I would say, the cultural , philosophic and lastly civil ancient wisdoms form, part and parcel, the very fabric of our modern lives. That said, I understand and would implore people to empower themselves by gaining more knowledge of other ancient civilisations from around the world that have propelled us to this point. It is a collective contribution with a bloody history and a hopefully, a more humane future.
What is it about the modern world that makes you find the desire to turn to this sorta wisdom in your work?
Also a great question following up from what I just stated. For one our human rights are now important! Even though I am aware that it may not be the case If you are in a war situation or poverty stricken, but never before have people’s voices been so amplified in the struggle to maintain better standards for human dignity. There are glimmers of hope in the access to the World Wide Web that was not previously been there. Our collective conciseness is more connected then it’s ever been. Lastly our advances in technology, science, medicine, psychology, arts and culture stand out the most for me in this era. So in a way conceptually weave these mechanics of the modern & ancient world into my work.
As for line/shape/form, what sort of sources do you draw on in creating your vivid compositions that over time have increasingly grown to skirt the line between abstract and figurative?
When creating my art works I like to let my hand move freely almost in scribbles to make free forms and shapes without putting too much intense thought into it. This way, I find my eye or “mind’s eye”, so to speak, starts to perceive images from these random lines and forms which I then develop in parts. I will at times use references from online, books or life studies to define and structure the images in the diagram or painting. This way I get to merge the abstract metaphysics, dreams, experience, nature and world as we know it. I also like to observe the cosmological forces at play and the fact that everything in the physical world is just vibrating atoms as a visual phenomenon in and of itself. I like to play around with these concepts in my works as I kind of reminder that the universe is a magical place. I always like to say that, “ in a world in constant motion stillness is it’s greatest illusion. “
Lastly, let's talk about time. A linear progression? A flat circle? What do you think about that old/new/always occurring chestnut?
Silumko, 2012
Ah yes, the age-old question that has baffled man since the start of our existence. Okay, because I’m not religious but more spiritually inclined I think science has a lot to offer around these concepts. There’s something about the circle or rather an enclosed bumpy shape that repeats itself in all of life’s manifestations. From our elemental particles to atoms and microbes and all the other wonderful microscopic makings of matter, excluding dark matter. They all seem to take this form which when really simplified to their core is a circle. Physicists and Scientists alike have all given extensive evidence that the Big Bang created Space and Time as we know it. There was a beginning and we all anticipate some kind of end which some speculate comes with the constant expansion of planets , stars and galaxies which eventually crash and burn each other out that then halts the expansion and creates a giant vortex of nothing . What I find interesting is that if in the beginning what created the Big Bang was a collision of elemental gases they would have had to come from somewhere. So I lean more toward the idea of there being a multiverse making our beginnings the scraps of matter from another space in time collapsing in on itself. In short: bumpy/lumpy circles.
What music would you recommend as a good accompaniment to your fine visual output?
Roy Ayers.
How can folks best engage with your work online?
Google me baby! Lol rather check out my website www.lisolomzipikoli.com or Instagram @lisolomzipikoli.
