Lukova at work
Lesang Maswabi | Friday July 3, 2015 14:53
She says she enjoys working for these as her work is immediately gets in the hands of people and not lie at the galleries. To her, the newspaper medium is amongst the best as it possesses an immediate connection to life and reminds all that journalism (writing) will always need some images to drive home the message.
She says her work has also been part of The Society for News Design’s (SND) annual Best of Newspaper Design exhibition.
The following are a key collection of her illustrious works that she has exhibited and continues to showcase around the world;
Income-gap – Depicts the social injustices and/or inequalities amongst the haves and have-nots all around the world.
Ecology – Is an illustration of the harm that humans cause in relation to their physical surroundings or environment, especially the de-bushing of forests or cutting down of trees.
Censorship – Is a piece that echoes an imagery of the pain that artists sometimes have to endure through censorship when in pursuit of self-expression or freedom of expression.
Brainwashing – The poster basically shows the junk the media sometimes feeds unsuspecting readers.
Dialogue – This one is self-explanatory i.e. dialogue and not war is the answer or as they say sometimes, it is better to jaw-jaw than war-war!
Peace – Portrays a symbol of peace through what the world could become out of the energies and resources that countries are currently investing in.
When quizzed to give her opinion on the topical issue of the threat of Electronic media on Print media, she acknowledges that, “though there’s that realistic threat, I do not think that Print will disappear”.
She rather feels it will mostly be first world’s local publications (like in America) that will shrink dramatically. In her opinion it is more a question of economics as she is quick to point out that; “What happens in the US does not necessarily apply immediately all over the world.
Of course, much as I advocate for less cutting of trees to produce paper, I am also alive and realistic to the fact that most of the gadgets and utilities for the electronic media are and will not be readily available to the larger part of the world”.
Her last visit to this part of the world in 2013 had coincided with our neighbour’s controversial exhibition of ‘The Spear’ portrait of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma by Cape Town-based, Brett Murray.
When asked to give her opinion on the artist’s work, she said, “I feel that there was really nothing that much special about it.
The gallery must have planned it to gain publicity. Maybe the President needs to be criticised, but I feel it may have been the wrong choice of platform or media. I am not necessarily impressed by the artwork.
Freedom of Expression and government should also not be seen to be infringing on other people’s rights and/or suppressing freedom of expression by artists”.
She suspects the smearing of the same painting by the young black and middle-aged white protesters may have been arranged too, likening it to common egg throwing by protesting audiences at the operas around the world.
In her view on the current state of visual arts across the world, Lukova had this to say, “It is not for getting rich, but those in it have to do well. In general visual arts have been detached from the public. I mostly prefer poster media.
Graphics Design has great power because they are more meaningful and beautiful. My other inspiration is folk art, modernist, humanism, language and music literature from all over the world.”
About typography, which also makes part of her illustrations Lukova emphasised its importance. She says has been more enthused by the German and Swizz schools of typography.
She concludes by giving a warning to most wanna-be-artists that, “many people think they can be designers just because they know how to operate a computer. No, it’s just not that simple. It takes a lot of imagination, creativity and training. I was most impressed by the students amongst the workshop’s attendees as I feel they have high potential”.