Museum Of Me Zapiro

Jonathan Shapiro’s cartoons are woven into South Africa’s history. Best known as Zapiro, he’s loved (and loathed, by some politicians) for his socio-political commentary. The satirist let us into his private archive of beloved items.

- Marli Meyer

Work station with drawing board, electric eraser and his father’s arc lamp

‘This architectural drawing board is from 1977 and was probably about 25 years old when I bought it. When I returned from America (the two and a half years that my wife, Karina, and I were New Yorkers was an incredible time in our lives) I had a cabinetmaker friend take it apart and make a new box. It was put back together on a light box. It has these weird truck levers and it’s screwed onto my father’s old desk with his arc lamp next to it. I’m a dinosaur: I still use dipping pens and ink, and I think I may be the only person in the universe who still uses an electrical eraser. I bought it in New York at the greatest art shop in the world, Pearl Paint, which is now closed. I’ve had to customise it because they don’t make the [eraser] refills in that size any longer. Every few months, something I use – ink, nibs or a type of paper – is discontinued. People like me are gradually being phased out.’

The iconic shower head

‘I had a bigger, slightly more stuffed up one lying around in the first year of doing the shower head cartoon in 2006.I took it with me when I delivered a speech. At one point during the speech I leaned in and lifted the shower head. After that, I used it once or twice as a prop. Now it’s just part of my studio. A photographer approached me and asked whether he could photograph it and make prints of it. I said, “Well, if you think it’s a thing”. Turns out it is.’

New York fire hydrant mirror