South Africa

^{Posted on Monday, 12th November, 2007}

EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS OF COMPENDIUM

Johannes Phokela

^{Unlike many South African artists who are obsessed with their own identity and personal histories, Phokela takes a broader scope and so his own personality is submerged under the bigger picture.}

_{Carol Brown:}_{The Sunday Independent}_{, 4 November 2007}

^{His work often appears as mischievious out-takes of familiar images - humerous but with the visceral, interrogative power of a passage from one of Dambudzo Marechera's books - suceeding in bringing new allegorical import to the old image.}

_{Niren Tolsi:}_{Mail & Guardian}_{, Friday, 26 October to 1 November 2007}

^{But while the familiarity and sheer beauty of the images draw you in, the perfectly lit world of 17th century Europe begins to fragment, as Phokela reworks the visual narrative to allow space for the broader political and historical context that lies behind. And the world of the emerging European Bourgeosisie becomes inextricably linked.}

_{^{Peter Machen:}}_{^{Weekend Witness}}_{^{, Saturday, 27 October 2007}}

^{I am awed by the parallels of some of his works to the Old Masters. Phokela, I find out, grew up believing that the "so called 'Old Masters' existed only as religious or iconic knick-knack prints..." He says that they were, and still are "very popular and often used domestically in Soweto."}

_{^{Peta Lee:}}_{^{The Independent on Saturday}}_{^{, 27 October 2007}}

^{This may be at the heart of the success of these images: they provoke thought and argument, and refuse to resolve neatly. The only certain ground is the paint itself, and the brushstrokes that show us that these works have been cleverly and skilfully constructed.}

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