Controversial Visual Artist Ayanda Mabulu is at it Again

According to IOL, The infamous visual artist Ayanda Mabulu is back in the limelight. This time, it's for having slaughtered a goat at the Kalashnikovv Gallery in Johannesburg where his exhibition entitled Ubuhle Bekhiwane Ziimpethu was being showcased.

Mabulu is certainly no stranger to controversy. In fact, it appears at times that second to his beloved art, is his deliberate pursuit of the controversial. Mabulu is well-known for his graphic artworks which have included the late Nelson Mandela in a Nazi salute against the backdrop of a swastika, and another artwork depicting Mandela and former President Jacob Zuma engaging in an apparent sexual act.

Last year, Mabulu was arrested after he exhibited an artwork entitled Blame it on the Boer outside the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The artwork was surrounded by the severed heads of pigs.

Continuing with his love for the seemingly unusual, Mabulu first burned incense and proceeded to slaughter a goat a short distance from the gallery with the help of two individuals. Thereafter, traditional dancers invoked the ancestors throughout the evening and neither Mabulu nor the curator, made any speeches.

Ubuhle Bekhiwane Ziimpethu is a Xhosa proverb which cautions those who are easily enamored with beauty to be wary.

One of the artworks that were unveiled at the exhibit was that of the late anti-Apartheid veteran Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. In contrast to his usual paintings which have often harbored on the pornographic, the artwork depicts a fierce Madikizela-Mandela atop a horse in what can be described as a "knight in colorful armor".