Colbert Mashile, Lithographs
Lithographs 2009
Colbert Mashile worked on the plates for these prints in February 2008. He explains " I got the theatre idea from collaborating with a young writer from the USA, usually I do not use text in my work. I am playing around with social and political commentary; but the dialogue has little to do with the images". Colbert Mashile's reluctance to be prescriptive about his work carries through to these prints. It also enables the prints to have meaning beyond the narrow time frame of the period that he worked on them. The prints were made around the time that Mugabe's total grip on power seemed as though it may be unravelling and while South Africa was dealing the collapse of President Mbeki's reign, and xenophobia was starting to boil into toxic chaos. In the prints Colbert Mashile pass comment on southern African politics and social issues but the "players in the plays do not have specific identities in order to universalise them". He continues" the dialogue almost comes from outside, as if from you the viewer". It is open-ended everyday dialogue, these are random images and each print is isolated from the other, they are not part of a conclusive story; rather they are like some absurd performance drawn from real life. "I like the comical aspects, the ridiculousness of the images which are at the same time deadly serious". These images are set in landscapes that capture aspects of the Lowveld where Colbert Mashile lives. The plains dotted with acacia trees, the distant mountains and huge domes of granite. "The land is very spiritual for me. It is where people find their groundedness. Nature reminds us to be humble and to work within it’s sphere". All the "plays" are played out in the field so to speak. The images reflect how severed contemporary politicians are from their roots and the limits of the fragile eco-systems that they live in. The birds in "The Barometer" converse among themselves and are passive observers of what is going on. Like the beasts in "The Confrontation" and The Sacrifice" they are victims of man's ability to distance himself from the natural world, which ultimately threatens humanities continued existence on the planet. 
Title: The Presentation Edition size: 25 Paper size: 50.5 x 66cm Image size: 56 x 43cm Medium: six colour lithograph Price: R 2 700 Text on print reads: O: Stand still, your bones are rattling and I can't stand it. P:Tell him O, he drives me insane, lest I wack him. JJ: Pardon me my friends. I just heard terrible news. O: What? don't start JJ: Yeah... I just heard that nothing will rot anymore. 
Title: The Confrontation Edition size: 25 Paper size: 50.5 x 66cm Image size: 56 x 43cm Medium: nine colour lithograph Price: R 2 700 Text on print reads: Zim-man: Please budge, I've been working hard on you. Why do you choose to embarass me Zim-beast: Say my name, then I will budge and make you the man. And when your bones are flaking, generations will still revere your hard work on my ass Zim-man: I dont know your name Zim-beast: Don't you read; don't you ever read? Sorry on you 
Title: The Question Edition size: 25 Paper size: 50.5 x 66cm Image size: 56 x 43cm Medium: nine colour lithograph Price: R 2 700 Text on print reads: M: why me? not this time; and so I say again. Not me. Why me always W: It's red and you eat red meat; what were you thinking M: No, not again. How many times now? W: OH MY POOR DEAD HUSBAND How HE warned me not to love a FOOL!! 
Title: The Sacrifice Edition size: 25 Paper size: 50.5 x 66cm Image size: 56 x 43cm Medium: six colour lithograph Price: R 2 700 Text on print reads: S: If need be, I can carry you between Tigris and Euphrates M: S, you are my best friend S: I can't help it, it's in my nature, yeah.....my very nature, to the core, yeah.... 
Title: The Barometer Edition size: 25 Paper size: 50.5 x 66cm Image size: 56 x 43cm Medium: nine colour lithograph Price: R 2 700 Text on print reads: DD: Awake BJ, dinner is about to present itself BJ: Present itself, in what form? DD: Eloped and captured minister of something being dragged back to her official residential quarters Lithographs 2005The first series of lithographs done by Colbert Mashile which includes four sketches of his wife Merol. 
Title: Korama (Kneel) Edition size: 40 Paper size: 50 x 65cm Medium: six colour lithograph Price: R 2 550 
Title: Kwaela (Facing Up) Edition size: 40 Paper size: 50 x 65cm Medium: six colour lithograph Price: R 2 550 
Title: Motshwara Teo(The one who leads the plough) Edition size: 40 Paper size: 50 x 65cm Medium: six colour lithograph Price: R 2 550 
Title: Mothiba Tsela (Road Blocker) Edition size: 40 Paper size: 50 x 65cm Medium: six colour lithograph Price: R 2 550 
Title: Bagwera (Initiates) Edition size: 20 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 700 
Title: Kotsi (Danger) Edition size: 20 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 700 
Title: Gunyula Edition size: 20 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 700 
Title: Bodibeng (The Fountain) Edition size: 20 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 700 
Title: Pokolo (Donkey) Edition size: 20 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 700 
Title: Merol Making Up Edition size: 15 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 365 
Title: Merol PonderingEdition size: 15 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 365 
Title: Merol Seated Edition size: 15 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 365 
Title: Boroko (Rest) Edition size: 15 Paper size: 49 x 38cm Medium: single colour chine colle lithograph Price: R 1 700 More prints by Colbert Mashile
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