LADY SKOLLIE - Madi, Madi

Money! Do we have a more complicated relationship with anything else?

This is the subject that pulses through Lady Skollie’s upcoming solo exhibition, Madi, Madi.

Madi is the Setswana word for ‘money’, but it also means ‘blood’— and in this new exhibition, these essential forces collide.

“The whole show is about money because that’s literally what everything is about,” the award-winning artist says. Money is a lifeblood, but one that comes with complexities. “As South Africans, I feel like we are reaching a point where, irrespective of race, we are all one cent away from things falling apart. There’s a sense of impending doom, but also the freedom you feel when you do have cash,” she adds.

The hustle and stress are undoubtedly intense, but as Skollie observes, they aren’t new. One of her works for the show is based on a 1955 linocut by South African great Peter Clarke, titled, Vandag is daar niks wat goedkoop is nie (Today, nothing is cheap).

Money’s dichotomous sense of pressure and pleasure washes through this tightly curated collection—much like the blood that has also inspired Skollie’s visual cues. The mixed-media works on Fabriano are washed in ferrous shades of red, juxtaposed with black, and are vital, unsettling, and deeply appealing all at once.

For enquiries please contact gallery@everard.co.za