Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s ntombi zakwaNala eMtyamde from his present Umkhondo: Going Deeper.
Lindokuhle Sobekwa, final 12 months’s FNB Artwork Prize winner, pauses thoughtfully when requested how he hopes his exhibition will make individuals really feel.
“That’s a troublesome query,” he admits. After a reflective second, he provides, “I would like individuals to really feel like they’re studying a poem twice.”
This sentiment resonates as I stand among the many crowd on the Johannesburg Artwork Gallery simply as Sobekwa concludes his speech on the opening of his solo exhibition Umkhondo: Going Deeper.
His earlier phrases echo in my thoughts as I take within the works on show, and I realise his intention is fulfilled — his work does certainly really feel like a poem you retain returning to, every time uncovering new layers of that means.
The exhibition options two our bodies of labor: I Carry Her Picture With Me, a deeply private undertaking that has been become a movie, and Ezilalini (The Nation), an ongoing exploration of rural life in South Africa.
The movie is enriched by a rating by jazz musician Nduduzo Makhathini, whose music provides an emotional depth to the visible narrative.
As Sobekwa talks concerning the works, his voice carries a quiet depth, revealing the emotional toll of revisiting such profound experiences.
“These tasks have prompted me to look into deeper elements of myself and the place I come from,” he says.
This journey, he explains, has meant confronting previous wounds whereas concurrently therapeutic them.
One of the vital poignant items is I Carry Her Picture With Me, which chronicles the disappearance of Sobekwa’s sister, Ziyanda.
But the seek for Ziyanda evolves into one thing extra — a quest for self-understanding and a mirrored image on the collective ache many South Africans endured through the wrestle in opposition to apartheid.
Sobekwa’s work speaks not nearly his private loss but additionally of the numerous South African households who misplaced family members in these turbulent years.
I’m reminded of a second from my very own life — a household who as soon as got here to our dwelling with a photograph of their brother, who had gone into exile in Tanzania and by no means returned.
Of their seek for solutions, they had been directed to my mom, who had buried that painful chapter deep inside her.
She instantly recognised the person within the picture and knew the place he had been laid to relaxation, alongside others who by no means made it dwelling.
My mom helped with the repatriation of his physique and his burial — a narrative that echoes the experiences of numerous South Africans grappling with unresolved grief.
Within the exhibition’s darkened screening room, I watched Sobekwa’s movie about piecing collectively Ziyanda’s life. Because the projector sparkles, I discover myself in tears, haunted by the considered what number of households are nonetheless residing with the unknown, nonetheless trying to find solutions.
Sobekwa’s inspirations embrace documentary photographers similar to Ernest Cole, whose e-book Home of Bondage left a long-lasting affect on him.
“The primary time I noticed that e-book, I cried. There was one thing in these photographs that struck me deeply.
“For a very long time, I needed to create work that didn’t essentially make individuals cry however conveyed the rawness and sensitivity to the topic, very similar to Cole did when documenting the cruel realities black South Africans confronted beneath apartheid.”
Sobekwa’s personal work achieves this, capturing each the sensitivity and rawness he so admires.
Every picture in Ezilalini (The Nation) is imbued with layers of historical past and emotion, inviting viewers to mirror on their very own experiences and the broader South African narrative.
“I hope this work will help individuals relate and mirror, given the historical past of South Africa,” Sobekwa concludes.
His present not solely compels us to revisit the previous however to look inward, connecting deeply with tales that proceed to form our current.
The exhibition Umkhondo: Going Deeper will run on the Johannesburg Artwork Gallery till 25 March.