Lady Skollie

In Lady Skollie’s recent project Papsak Propaganda (Papsak directly translates to soft-bag, it also has a history of being cheap wine within the Western Cape. This also connotes to the tot-system, the method in which vineyard labourers were paid; leaving a very large history of alcoholism within coloured communities), she recounts a recent memory of a friend singing hip hip horah Suid-Afrika (hip hip hooray, South Africa) a song to which many students under the apartheid educational system had to sing. It celebrates Jan Van Riebeeck discovering South Africa, which is problematic as it reiterates the neglection of the native people. Upon reflection, she was able to find a resolution to this shared pain of conforming to a false narrative as a child. Her Paintings within the Papsak propaganda project is in constant reflection; on systematically erased histories that have been replaced with propaganda.

Moreover, with the context of the “papsak”, she revisits how alcoholism has become such a prominent characteristic within her coloured ethnicity. The work breaks down the power of colonial propaganda, and how it is still at play. Lady Skollie is rejecting, redefining, and reclaiming their history, and their future within colonial systems.