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Beginning with the Side Gallery series in 2007 and continuing with RAMP in 2015, Stevenson has hosted a number of projects aimed at giving younger, unrepresented artists a platform at the gallery. With STAGE the gallery continues this tradition. Besides offering a literal stage, the title also highlights that these artists are at a very particular point in their careers: no longer students, not yet professional artists. At the same time, it brings to mind the stages of lockdown and load shedding, part of South Africa’s daily reality in 2021. The latter association acknowledges the uncertainty and anxiety present in the lives of young artists working amidst overlapping local and global crises.
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For STAGE, Johannesburg-based artist and writer Khanyisile Mawhayi exhibits works from The Ambivalent Blueprint, a body of cyanotypes that the artist says ‘was heavily influenced by process – the process of having conversations with my mother, with my friends, with taxi drivers and lecturers; and the process of drawing and printing and making’. The Prussian blue impressions fade and form around her family history, spotlighting how she manoeuvres through different spaces with a heightened awareness of the ways in which her identity is positioned and perceived.
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'As I looked through the history of cyanotypes and how it was used to make blueprints for architectural plans, I started to think about what makes the blueprint for a human being and myself. I thought about my parents and their histories, they are my blueprint. My dad is Tsonga and my mom is Zulu. I took pictures of myself interacting with these two chairs. I put my mother's suit on one side and my dad's suit on the other. I was trying to figure out how their relationship was and how it came to affect me.'
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Mawhayi's works examines various influences on identity formation and explore perceptions of cultural and societal belonging. Mawhayi often works with the female body, using its presence or absence to complicate notions of resilience, lineal customs and the performance of femininity.
‘A blueprint is something that you are sure about, you have to follow the blueprint as it is. The two words 'ambivalent’ and ‘blueprint’ I felt work well together. I like the idea of juxtaposing something that is unsure with something that is solid, that is how the title came about. You can be sure of who you are as a person but you are constantly changing. Sometimes you aren’t even sure of who you are. The series is still at the beginning and as time goes on things might change. My ideas about who my parents are/were and my relationship to both cultures might shift.’
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'I have always been aware of the many negative connotations surrounding the Xitsonga culture so I have always done my best to assimilate to my environment and cover up that I am Tsonga. For the most part this has worked just fine, but it has taken away from understanding my culture and how to speak the language or how I choose to perform this culture. I believe there is an element at play which further taps into the core of my position as a Tsonga woman. It stems from the lack of a relationship with the individual who brought me this heritage: my father. A tumultuous tango between what he could have given me and what he left me with, a grappling with identity.'
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‘I use my body in the images because it is my story, it’s quite a personal story. I was finishing university at the time and I had to figure out what I was going to do with my life. It was an important journey for me to take; I found it quite therapeutic. There are things that sometimes you cannot say to your parents; through my work I tried to let it all go. That’s why it was important to use my own body so that I could physically go through the process as much as I was going through it spiritually and mentally.’
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In the series of pastel drawings on canvas titled Soshangane/ Shiyangane/ Shangaan, Mawhayi uses as reference the Xibelani dance, a traditional dance of Tsonga women which shares its name with the multicoloured skirts worn during its performance. She recreates the pleated cloth and woven wool through layers of rhythmic mark-making. What emerges are unfettered compositions, tactile traces of Mawhayi’s process of unpacking her relationship to her Tsonga upbringing. The artist says:
'The drawings started with a painting called A chip on my shoulder, sparked by a jarring comment made by a taxi driver. I started to think about how people relate to the Tsonga culture and how they validate it. It is usually through the music and the clothes. I wanted to focus on the clothes because they are such a big part of the culture. I am very attracted to the idea of colour blocking which is often attributed to Tsonga people.'
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STAGE: Khanyisile Mawhayi
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