Tony Gum recently took the reigns of Nataal’s Instagram page to intimately preview A Portion, her current exhibition at Christopher Moller Gallery in Cape Town. “Meet Diesel, my nomadic confidant,” says Gum in one of her first posts, introducing an image of an adorable black cat. In many African cultures, the black cat is a symbol of bad luck or bad spirits. But for this young artist it’s a mode of communicating, through her latest body of work, the tumultuous journey that is femininity.

A Portion explores the constant battle of womanhood and reveals her own story of loss, accountability, resilience and solace. Her artworks are a form of protest with the purpose of challenging the stigmas and laws that surround a woman’s control of her body. In doing so, she’s also tackling the wider issues of gender-based violence in South Africa, and the world afar. The work is one of binaries, a personal manifesto depicting joy, spirit, ambition and fire that are sadly cast with a shadow of fear, anger, suppression and vulnerability.

Gum was born in the Kwa Langa township in Cape Town, and grew up in the suburb of Pinelands. Through experimenting with fashion blogging, modelling and illustration, she discovered her talent for photography and before even completing her university studies in film and video technology, had been hailed equally by Vogue and Artsy for her use of self-portraiture as a tool for social commentary.

The artist has retained her self-as-central in her photography and sculpture, combined with scenography that makes a mockery of popular culture that suppresses women. There is often a playful aspect that makes for alluring images, but just as soon as you are seduced by them, you realise you have fallen into the trap of perpetuating the pitfalls of our unequal society.

In A Portion, she uses sultry reds and blacks and wears surreal feline costumes that help her to create truly beguiling scenes. “I have found solace and serenity in simple yet strong palettes,” she says. “Red - possibly the strongest and most indicative; culturally and spiritually symbolic and representative of the journey. Red carries life force, oxygenated blood, and fertility in women. Red denotes fire, intensity and passion. White and black occupy their distinctive realms; yin/yang, light and dark, and are symbiotic in many ways relative to culture.”

This honest, striking and cathartic account of being a woman is coming from a place that so many can identify with, and thus is a message that we should all hear, feel and see through the work of Tony Gum.

A Portion is on view at Christopher Moller Gallery in Cape Town until 3 January 2020

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Published on 28/11/2019