“In my works, masks are perfect metaphors for how we protect ourselves from the discomfort of vulnerability. Masks make us feel safer even when they become suffocating.”
Hannalie Taute (born 1977) started life in a small town called Fochville in Gauteng, South Africa. In 2000, she obtained a National Higher Diploma in Fine Art at PE Technicon (now the NNMU). The artist’s medium shifted when she started working with rubber – particularly repurposed rubber inner-tubes – and in 2012, she added embroidery to her list of preferred media. Taute currently resides and works in Riversdale, at the foot of what is known as the Sleeping Beauty Mountain Range, in the Western Cape.
“Ever since our prehistoric ancestors captured the images of the world around them onto rock surfaces, we have been enthralled by images. Today, we can scarcely bring ourselves to throw away old photographs of loved ones. Such is our attachment to the quasi-voodoo action that we believe that what we do when we alter the photos somehow affects the person in the picture.
“I shatter this self-imposed taboo by defacing enlarged vintage photographs with mask-like embroidered rubber inlays, imbuing the work with notions of identity in terms of culture, heritage and society. Besides masks, I also add embroidered rubber inlays of flowers and animals, inspired by local fauna and flora. While many of the photographs I use were captured locally, sourced from flea markets or gifted by family and friends, by then adding embroidered rubber masks from different cultures, it feels to me like a re-stitching of a historical narrative.
“From time to time, the text used as titles is like the photographs – found and reconfigured and appropriated as a narrative. I am interested in how, by simply changing the text underneath an image, you can radically alter its message.”
