‘‘I don’t represent only myself, I represent all the others that I belong to, that are part of me […] in my character you will find more than just me.’’
—Cinga Samson
Mesmerising and mysterious in equal measure, Ubuhle Beenkanyezi I belongs to self-taught South African artist Cinga Samson’s captivating body of portraits that explore contemporary masculinity and the tensions between tradition and modernity, family and individuality that shape it. Standing proudly in front of the fronds of a palm, the figure possesses the shaved head and opalescent eyes that have become so characteristic of Samson’s work, endowing the young man with a powerful air of self-possession and mysticism that is deeply tied to the artist’s cultural heritage captured perfectly by the title which translates from the Zulu dialect as ‘The Beauty of the Stars’.
As in other works from this series, this more spiritual dimension is cleverly counterpointed by the trappings of contemporary consumer culture, the young man casually dressed in low-slung blue denim jeans, a length of rich, gold fabric hanging down across his bare torso offset by the pair of red Nike sneakers looped around his shoulders. In this respect, the highly stylised Ubuhle Beekanyezi I balances an outward-looking youthful aspiration with a more introspective connection to the traditions of our ancestors. While this is consistent with Samson’s work broadly speaking, these tensions are especially prominent in the 2018 series of self-portraits to which the present work belongs, the artist self-consciously turning his gaze inward to ‘celebrate myself and project […] elements that make me, as an African, as a young man, and as an artist.’ i
