Returning once again to figurative subject matter in the mid-2000s, Nel specifically focused on skin, when laid bare to the elements, as a metaphor for psycho-emotional or physical vulnerability.
Exposed skin, and the trauma inflicted upon it by the harsh effects of the sun or the cold, alludes to a lack of preparedness for existing, or perhaps forthcoming, adverse conditions. This evidence of inadequate self-preservation points, perhaps, to the premature transition from an Arcadian age of innocence to a state of worldliness and disenchantment — whether sexual, political or emotional. When considered from the perspective of migration, displacement and diasporic communities, both within African and global contexts, these works may also be read as investigations into the effects of socio-political ostracisation of, exploitation of or even retribution against The Other by those perceived to have greater or more legitimate claims to national identity, occupation or other privileges.
"My interest in the effects of mental debilitation, and the resultant loss of identity, has led me to explore the figure in over life-size proportions, with a particular interest in exposed skin."
Nel’s preoccupation with bare, sunburned skin dates back as early as 1974 in her abstracted study of a solitary sunbather in The Last Summer, and has appeared as a recurring symbol of the loss of personal control in much of her subsequent work. In her figurative studies from the mid-2000s, she specifically adapts this theme to address the extreme rise, and resulting national trauma, of criminal violence in South Africa.
Key Work
Young Man, 28, 2006.
Acrylic on canvas, 60 cm x 80 cm
Returning to single-figure compositions in the early 2000s, Nel typically sought to treat her subject matter at an enlarged scale, almost submitting them to disproportionate scrutiny. In keeping with the majority of her figurative output, Young Man, 28 – while modelled on her eldest son – is not intended as a portrait study. Here one can discern the influence of Goya, the celebrated Romantic Spanish painter, whose depictions of Charles IV and his family transcend the representational conventions of court portraiture, to reveal the often vulnerable inner psyche and public perception of his subjects. Similarly, in Young Man, 28, we are met by a figure that, while substantial in size, appears apprehensive and sullen, casting his gaze uncertainly behind him. The work projects an oppressive emotional charge, due in part to the cropping of the figure, as well as the intense crimson applied to both the background and the subject’s face. In many ways, this work can be read as a study of the universal angry young man – a figure at odds with the world and unable to secure his place within it, his traditional rights and roles having been disrupted by changing gender norms, global economic forces and modern political policies.
Key Work
Portions I, 2006.
Acrylic on canvas, 140 cm x 80 cm
Portions (2006) represents an important transitional work that bridges Nel’s figurative work of the mid-2000s, with the oversized representations of baked goods, cuts of meat and wrapped produce that dominated Nel’s output well into the new decade. While most of Nel’s work is intended to be read autobiographically, here Nel portrays herself as the central figure presiding over a simple yet unsettling still life scene. In essence a contemporary genre painting, Portions quietly presents the tools of domestic, and in particular, parental life – a store-bought cream cake atop a display stand, crockery, a creased table cloth.
Seemingly lost in reverie, the matriarch dolefully contemplates the division of the cake – a metaphor, perhaps, for the difficult task of apportioning equal opportunity or resources to her children. Here, Nel paints herself as partially clothed and sunburned, symbols that hark back to the poorly-clad and over-exposed inhabitants of her Postmodern desert landscapes. In some ways, this work pays homage to Nel’s late 80s troupe tableaus, where a male ringleader is commonly portrayed as the caretaker of an itinerant ensemble of children. Painted some six years after the death of her husband, Portions inverts this convention to cast Nel herself as the female family figurehead, eerily unaccompanied by her wards.