// BONGI BENGU
Homage to Frida Kahlo, 1999.
Pastel on shaped paper.
Image size: approx. 94 X 89cm (37.6 X 35.6")
Framed size: 101 X 123cm (40.4 X 49.2")
BONGI BENGU, whose arresting self-portrait of 1999 is based on the haunting 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, continues to explore the theme of 'Women' in her latest paintings and collages. Bengu states: 'I seek to celebrate female pioneers and heroines, locating them in their place in history, and presenting them as the heroines that history books and the media have made invisible.'
In her latest works, she is attempting to portray an empowered state of black women, such Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Miriam Makeba, Dolly. Rathebe and Esther Mahlangu, for example, who are clearly located as equal participants and contributors in the progess of this young and emerging society'.
'By aligning myself with this line of thinking.... I am searching to define my own identity. I ask myself questions relating to woman's sense of power of powerlessness'.