Six second-year sculpture students from the Tshwane University of Technology’s Department of Fine and Studio Arts will be showcasing their work at an exhibition, titled Di Hlogo (heads), which opens at the Association of Arts Pretoria on 5 March.
The exhibition will feature self-portraits that decentre the Western genre of merely capturing likeness and proclaiming identity. Through a Black cultural lens, this memorialising mode of representation is discarded, offering the viewer a glimpse of a hyperconnected, yet disconnected now.
Anchored in Afrofuturist concerns, these self-portraits explore realms of otherness, manifestations of spiritual beings, and imagined possible futures. The notion of an “imagined self” transmitted through these emerging artists’ works displays resilient young identities traversing the known and the unknown.
The participating artists are Samuel Baloyi, Cartridge Mashiboko, Vhahangwele Mulidzi, Sibongiseni Phasha, Urapeleng Simanga, and Njabulo Tsambo.
The exhibition will be opened by Teboho Lebakeng, Lecturer: Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria.
The Association of Arts Pretoria is situated at 173 Mackie Street, Nieuw Muckleneuk.
Gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday (9:00 to 17:00) and Saturday (9:00 to 13:00).
For more information, phone 012 346 3100.