Diane Victor is one of South Africa’s most prominent and recognisable contemporary artists, renowned for her masterful draughtsmanship and printmaking. Her work typically deals with difficult, confronting and often uncomforatbel subject matter, usually covering different aspects of social and political life in contemporary South Africa. She boldly challenges controversial issues such as corruption, unequal power distribution, violence and social injustices, by skillfully weaving together provocative scenes laden with affective details and layered symbolism.
In Victor’s recent series Mundo Inverso, or ‘the world upside down’ as it translates, the artist’s typical use of parody is translated at a more intimate scale. The idea of an upside down world relates to the medieval concept of the absence of an ordering presence of God. The wrok depicts the everyday craziness in our society with recognisable events. These events – both real and imagined – seem so out of place, almost belonging to a world turned on its head. Absurd as they are, these scenes are almost acceptable through their frequent occurence and society’s desensitisation thereof.
