The exhibition, Intertwined 2004-2018, is a comprehensive survey of her critical themes over the course of the last fourteen years. The exhibition includes Old, Gaol (2004/2017), Fragments (2005), Trading Lies (2006/2010), Self Portrait Project (2007/2013), Inquietude (2009), Dream Sweeper (2010), The Flood (2013) and In Living Colour (2015).
The artist, represented by Erdmann Contemporary, will be present at the official opening, with Nelson Mandela University’s Visual Arts Department Professor Vulindlela Nyoni, delivering the opening address.
Nomusa Makhubo was born 1984 and lives and works in Cape Town. She holds a BFA, MA and PhD from Rhodes University and is an award-winning artist, academic and full-time lecturer at Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. Makhubu was appointed to the National Arts Festival committee and served from 2011 to 2015. Accolades include co-editing a Third Text Special Issue: The Art of Change (2013) and being a recipient of the CAA-Getty travel award in 2014.
In November 2013, Makhubu participated in the Semiha Es - Women Photographers International Symposium, in Istanbul, Turkey where her paper, The Power and Terror of the Enactment of Collective Memory in Performative Photography, commented directly on her own work, particularly the Self-Portrait Project series. In 2014 she was one of Mail & Guardian newspaper’s Top 200 Young Achievers (Academia).
Makhubu’s series, Self-Portrait Project alludes to the continued alienation and estrangement in an era where the focus is inclined toward self and individual identity as opposed to collective and communal life. “My photographs are an exploration of my own identity. Having grown up in townships in the Northern part of the country, I lost touch with my cultural traditions. And every attempt to understand this background, turned seemingly fabricated” says Nomusa Makhubu.
The exhibition will be open to the public from 9 March until 6 April from 09:30 to 15:00 during weekdays.
For more information, visit the Gallery’s Facebook: BirdStreetGalleryNMU or Instagram: @birdstreetgallerynmu
jonathan.vanderwalt@mandela.ac.za