peter mammes

about the artist:

Peter Mammes was born in Krugersdorp, South Africa on July 6, 1986, Into an Afrikaans-speaking community. He moved to Johannesburg at the age of 11 and attended the National School of the Arts in Braamfontein, where he received his only formal training in art. Interested predominantly in drawing and painting, he had his first solo exhibition at the age of 16.

 Peter started working in isolation after high school, developing his drawing skills and making artworks based on medieval European woodcuts. He set up a studio in India in 2013 and later in Russia, where he  researched and developed the themes that have become inherent in his work. In 2018 Peter set up a studio in Cairo, Egypt, where he made a series of drawings informed by his research into both ancient Egyptian art and hieroglyphics and contemporary local politics.

Peter travels extensively around the world to find ideas and imagery for his work, collecting patterns that he finds on stone carvings and reliefs on temples, facades and graves. He was recently commissioned to design a commemorative coin  for circulation for the South African mint, released in 2019.

 Peter currently resides in London and creates in his studio in Whitechaple.

Mammes talks about his work, ”I wanted to explore various ideas and techniques that are new to me since I came and worked in London . I found my reference material in the Welcome library which specializes in medical books and texts. I focused on Victorian era medical books especially books about disease and pathology. Through extensive research I came across books about applying bandages and that started a new line of thinking for me. I use bandages as a symbolic way of depicting many ideas, ideas around healing, mending, and the power of authority. Bandages and wrapping show an attempt at fixing something that is broken, or sickly. I first encountered bandages in Egypt as the mummies are wrapped in cloth and the idea flourished from there.

I frequently depict children in my work, and often children with medical dressings on their faces. For me Children are symbolic of innocence and potential.”

“The other side of the work involves images of WW1, I used the National Army Museum archives in London to source original photographs as reference material.

The First World War is fascinating as it was the first time true modern warfare was employed, yet still mixed with primitive cavalry and some cannon pulled along by horses. Our founding myths of western civilization where started in ww1 and I depict these images to evoke thoughts about those myths. I am also personally fascinated by the overlap of The Boer War in 1899 with the technology and figures that played a role in the First World War, Lord Kitchener and Lord Roberts as examples.

I wanted to create a feeling of modernity and show how everything is connected in the modern world and I achieved that with the use of super neon colour and modern techniques of painting.

My work is a mixture of modern and traditional with a focus on drawing technique.

I am of the opinion that the artist studio should be a laboratory to test new ideas and techniques. I am constantly playing around with new ways to make artwork.

The relief artwork are my drawings made into three dimensions, I cold cast the relief sculptures in bronze, steel, copper and marble.

The artworks give an aura of being an ancient museum relic, found worn down and tarnished and displayed as found.”