Masemola Road is a new solo exhibition of works by Simphiwe Ndzube, produced over recent months in his new Cape Town studio, and presented at Stevenson Cape Town from 1 October to 19 November 2022.
Comprising oil painting, photography and mixed-media sculpture, Masemola Road marks the beginning of a new set of visual concerns in the artist’s practice. The ecstatic, allegorical creations of previous bodies of work are exchanged for portraits and scenes drawn from autobiographical material, including family photo albums and snapshots of friends. Here, Ndzube moves away from the imaginative territory of the Mine Moon, situating his subjects in the environs of the Western and Eastern Cape, translated through his magical realist vernacular.
This shift, he says, is attributable to a more concrete way of working and living between South Africa and the United States, the title being drawn from the place where he grew up in Masiphumelele.
Celebrate and share
Through his images of aunts, nieces, sisters and grandmothers, Ndzube seeks to celebrate and share the significance of each of these to him and each other. Gentle distortions and vivid colours recur in the paintings, with Ndzube presenting figurative images for their sensory and affective resonance.
Alongside experiments with form and forays into autobiography, Masemola Road foregrounds universal concepts of connection, renewal and the bonds of memory across generations. These concepts are further articulated in a new series of sculptures taking the form of jumpsuits. Created in collaboration with family members and young artists Nzdube grew up with, these hybrid figures unite his fantastical and filial interests. He conceives of this ‘small army’ gesture of acknowledgment for his community, adding: ‘They remind me of amaPantsula from South Africa’s townships, but also, with employment being an issue for a lot of people, I thought about an overall as something like armour, a garment of protection for hard labour and other difficulties.’
What: Simphiwe Ndzube – Masemola Road
Where and when: Stevenson Cape Town from 1 October to 19 November 2022
WS
