THE VIDEO projected on the wall shows Lady Skollie holding a banana, peeling it and then eating it suggestively.
She giggles afterwards. The history of art graduate uses bananas in her work a lot, as well as other sexually suggestive fruits.
Yesterday, she was at the Museum of African Design in Maboneng to celebrate her last day of exhibiting in Joburg and to close her Garden of EGOLI show.
The artist, whose real name is Laura Windvogel, said about her provocative work: “I like the shock value. I like the theme of sex because it can be any emotion – it can be funny, it can be angry.”
One of the works on display – Girlfriend, Mistress and Wife – is a three-piece artwork that is going for R9 500 for a set. One painting shows a woman with six breasts and another a woman walking in a downpour of penises while sticking her tongue out.
Lady Skollie’s art explores gender roles, sex, sexuality and relationship dynamics, but she says she isn’t always as brazen with her work.
“The thing that holds us back as artists mostly is the fear of judgment, and for a long time I was making work and not putting it out even though I’m very confident.
“Then I had to admit, I just want to be painting pu****s but I didn’t want to admit it because I come from a fine-arts background that tells us that you have to be very conceptual in your work.”
The Capetonian wanted to conquer Joburg after feeling like there was a lack of excitement in her home city.
“In Cape Town, you can become content and complacent. I was just searching for something new and inspiring, and I knew that Joburg will give me that. I decided that, come what may, I had to get some type of residency.”
She hopes to live in both cities.
“I want to come here and suck on the energy and then go back and create in a frenzy. Balance is always good.”
The Star