Twitter was divided on Wednesday night when Cape Town artist Imraan Christian painted model Ponahalo Mojapelo as a dark-skinned woman even though she is light in complexion. This was for the fifth edition of the series titled, “Crowns”.
Taking to Instagram, he shared a picture of Mojapelo in a metallic headpiece by Nutcase Study with the caption"'Crowns' // honoured and deeply emotional to be joining the @artco.gallery as a fine artist in their incredible roster. Our first series 'crowns' explores the relationship our great indigenous ancestors had with the cosmos and the way it was shared with future generation through art and spoken word. Edition of 5 the series will premier at @positions.artfair as part of @berlinartweek”.
According to most tweeps, the issue is not the art portrayed but rather that Christian took a model who is light-skinned and painted her dark-skinned instead of using models who are naturally dark in complexion.
As black people we fight against Colourism and Racism
— your favourite gin drinker (@theblackgingirl) August 6, 2020
But can a black person even practice the racially offensive "black face"? I mean they are already black 🤔
Do black people even understand black face?
This is actually sick. Hire dark skinned models. Don’t paint people dark. Shit is not Okay
— Noxolo Draws (@NoxoloMkhize_N) August 5, 2020
Others defended the artist, saying that there's nothing wrong with what he did - “it’s just art”.
Actress and TV presenter Pearl Thusi suffered the same fate when she posted a picture of herself in a bikini with the caption, where she quoted Beyonce’s song. She wrote: “Brown skin girl... skin just like pearl’s…".
Almost immediately the post went viral with 1.5K retweets and 25.9K likes.