Endo-Scape by Mandisi Lean

Last week Thursday 6th December 2012, I and a couple of other familiar faces had the pleasure of attending the Endo-Scape Exibition at GrayScale gallery (33 De Korte. Braamfontein), an exhibition by a East Rand based fine arts student, Audio and visual artist, music composer and writer known as Mandisi Msingapantsi or rather aGord Lean in the streets.

Endo-Scape art pieces introduced me to a visual aspect of an existentialism question that most urban African boys/men commonly face, The question of what does it mean to be a “man” in both cultural and urban context and further explores the meaning of manhood and masculinity. An interesting topic with Mandisi about his pieces led me to the realisation that male genitals remain a common determining feature in determining one’s legitimacy as a “man” across various spaces and time (The size of your “dick” in a urban context and the initiation that involves circumcision in a rural Xhosa cultural context). There so much more to discuss about Endo-Scape pieces, enough to write a short essay on, an exercise I may commit to in the near future, until then take the opportunity to view Endo-Scape art pieces at Grayscale gallery before the14th of December 2012.