Diane Victor’s goal is not to shock, but to question the history of images that led society to the present moment, a moment in which governments and institutions may be corrupt or wield too much power, judiciary systems can be inadequate, and humans continue to hurt one another. Like Francisco Goya’s Caprichos, Diane Victor denies viewers escape from what she terms the “cracks” in society.
While Diane Victor’s commentary may be biting, her images are seductive and her technical mastery of her materials “superlative,” featuring lines with a “forensic intensity” to them (Mackenny 2004: 399). As Bettie Lambrecht has written, “There is practically no artist in South Africa whose preferred manner of work is line, who has not undergone a strong Diane influence…” (2008: 30). Sean O’Toole has echoed these words, writing that, “Victor’s technical influence is everywhere apparent… Yet more than technique, it is the vexed emotional topography that Victor’s work explores that seems to have had a significant influence.” The artist has said of herself that, “A lot of what I do is about pushing limits, formally” (Murinik 2004: 89). In addition to her virtuosic printmaking, the artist adds water to charcoal drawings to create “stains,” has used sound vibrations to move the ashes of burnt books across a page and drawn life size human figures, and harnessed the carbon of a candle flame to create “smoke drawings.” Victor’s material choices are never neutral. Her selection is central to her process. She began working with ashes when she was creating a series of portraits of her elderly compatriots who were isolated in retirement homes, to highlight how the loss of the story of one person’s life is akin to losing a book of knowledge (personal communication, April 26, 2012). Diane Victor first experimented with smoke in 2002, to highlight the vulnerability and loss of the AIDS community. She has described the challenges of this technique (Classic Feel: 32):
It’s quite a difficult medium initially, you tend to set your page on fire. If you stop—and, because I am a bit of a control freak, I’m an etcher and I tend to slow down—they do ignite. So, it’s a very good discipline in that it forces you to move on promptly.
To create the image, Victor must position the paper lying flat above her head, so that she is working upside down, which as she says, “really affects your judgment” (ibid.). She must work close to the paper so she is unable to see much of what she is doing. To begin, she lightly sketches out the proportions, subsequently erasing these to leave:
Just the ghost of eyes, nose, mouth and roughly a head structure—I get something that’s similar to bone structure of the person [I’m] drawing. And then it’s basically just muscle memory—a certain way that you move your arm gives you a certain mark. Because I’ve now done this for nearly ten years, I’ve built up a kind of range of working, different kinds of candles give you different kinds of smoke… different brands give you different coloured smoke, and the wick length actually makes a difference as well.
Diane Victor’s 2012 smoke drawing, The Good Shepherd, was created a decade into the artist’s command of the medium and presents an exemplary blend of her technical prowess and use of Christian imagery. Unlike Victor’s etchings, which are noted for a sense of visual excess, The Good Shepherd is spare, and haunting. At the center of the composition stands a man, our “Good Shepherd.” But here is not a virile youth wearing the loose, freely moving garb of a herder; instead, this mature man stands pensively in business shoes, a suit, collared shirt, and tie. Lambs and sheep do not frolic by his feet. A single sheep is carried on his shoulders like a burden, as he stares at the fire by his feet. As with so much of Victor’s work, the disruption of expectations unsettles and prompts thought. In the Bible (John 10: 1-21), Jesus says “I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives up his life for his sheep.” Here, viewers are left to wonder if the sheep—the innocents—are to be placed on the fire for the life of the businessman.
Description:
Drawing made with the use of candle smoke on white paper of a man wearing a suit, tie, and shoes, carrying a sheep on his shoulders and standing in front of a fire. There is no background imagery; the black and white “smoke drawing” of the man and fire are silhouetted.
Provenance:
Acquired from the artist, 2016
Exhibition History:
I Am: Contemporary African Women Artists, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2019 - April 3, 2022
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