Amabheqe emihla ngemihla, 2023. Mixed media Installation. Dimensions variable. Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town
Amabheqe emihla ngemihla is a contemplative installation that brings amasumpa motifs from isiZulu material culture into dialogue with textual excerpts from the Daily Sun and Daily Voice. Traditionally, amasumpa function as carriers of knowledge; here, their symbolic language intersects with contemporary forms of information dissemination to pluralise understandings of knowledge. The work reimagines the amasumpa as both a cultural symbol and an evolving art object, reflecting on its past, present, and speculative futures. Newspaper strips featuring headlines, prices, and portraits lend everyday relevance to the motifs, while their spatial arrangement across walls and floor extends meaning beyond text. The installation invites viewers to read, interpret, and generate new associations between Indigenous and contemporary knowledge systems and lived experience.
process
