PRESS RELEASE
LADY SKOLLIE | Sour Grapes
Apr 25 – May 16, 2026
LADY SKOLLIE | Sour Grapes
25 April - 16 May 2026
Everard Read Franschhoek
20 Huguenot Road
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, 25 April 2026 at 11AM.
‘Papsak Propaganda’ is a concept coined by artist Lady Skollie in 2017 to highlight the effect of the ‘Dop System’ - a colonial labour practice in which farm workers were paid in alcohol instead of wages, which was only formally outlawed in 2004.
The dismantling of this system did not erase its impact. In many farming communities across South Africa, patterns of dependency persist across generations, shaped by histories in which alcohol functioned as both currency and control. Contemporary data continues to reflect the scale of alcohol-related harm across the continent, yet dependency is often framed as an individual condition rather than as the enduring legacy of these systems.
Today, the Cape Winelands are synonymous with leisure and luxury; wedding destinations, fine dining, curated tastings and pastoral beauty. For Lady Skollie, however, these landscapes remain inseparable from personal and inherited memory:
“As a brown woman I can’t stop seeing the slave bells first and remembering that their tolling called white land owners to church while demanding the workers to receive their twice hourly tot of wine to numb the scorching sun and the bitter longing for freedom in their hearts. ” - Lady Skollie, 2026
Developed in part during her residency in Franschhoek, the works in this exhibition are situated within this layered geography, where histories of pleasure and violence remain entangled.
Using herself as both subject and test case, Lady Skollie probes the embodied experience of intoxication, sobriety, consumption, and exchange: “Using myself as guinea pig, I try to understand the effects of being drunk, being sober, taking payment in MCC, and spending my money on wine…”
‘Papsak Propaganda’ has previously been explored in exhibitions including Good & Evil (2019), Bound (2021), Madi-Madi (2025), and Lust Politics (2017, UK), as well as at Eastside Projects, Birmingham.
EVERARD READ FRANSCHHOEK
20 Huguenot Road, Franschhoek, 7690
+27 21 876 2446 l fgallery@everard.co.za
Monday – Sunday | 09:30 - 17:00
If you are looking to add to your collection and you are unable to make it to our gallery during operating hours, please contact us via fgallery@everard.co.za to make an appointment outside of these hours.
