Making of Ourselves

In our own image: BKhz sculptural show

So much has changed since the 1930s, when toy soldiers made their debut on the market. Yet the plastic figurines remain the same minuscule, green depictions of men, fashioned in combat stances while holding lethal weapons. Years later, somewhere within Mary Sibande's body of work, I n the Midst of Chaos there is Opportunity, the artist intervenes by fashioning toy soldiers in her own image. The life-size figures are a double edged sword as they address the erasure of the black militant woman while testifying to how powerful the physical manifestations of an unyielding imagination can be. So too are the other works that will feature in the upcoming BKhz group show, Making of Ourselves.

Making of Ourselves is a two-fold-first for BKhz. In addition to being the first show dedicated exclusively to sculptural work, it fulfils BKhz’s longstanding need to foreground womxn in the space by being the first show where all featured artists identify as womxn. To carve out this space, BKhz has created a temporary home for works by Bronwyn Katz, Frances Goodman, Mary Sibande, Cow Mash, Zenande Mketeni, Sarah Walmsey and Bulumko Mbete.

The show focuses on the various artists’ creative trajectories by demonstrating the varying ways that the discipline is being used to create visual commentary that takes up three-dimensional space. Through these firsts, the show looks to facilitate a kind of engagement that encourages the audience to delve into the artists’ respective practices, in a manner that is not determined by (or confined to) their identity as womxn. As such, the show looks to celebrate their respective crafts while inviting patrons to study the ways in which they collectively question, evolve and establish their own definitions of sculptural work.

Consider how Cow Mash’s work calls attention toward the proverbial weight that BaPedi attach to cows. In Tšwela pele ( 2019), the artist uses cement, wool, fabric and zinc to fashion a scenario where a human-like figure uses their body to pull two zinc basins. To perform this act, the figure adopts the stance of a cow that is carrying a load or ploughing through a piece of land. As a result, Tšwela pele — which is the Sepedi call to carry on — makes use of a long standing indigenous symbol to comment on how we continue to push forward in spite of the burdens we carry.

In addition to unpacking the layers of their commentary, the show asks audiences to consider the artists’ existing (or potential) influence on contemporary art. It also asks that we acknowledge their material and scale choices against the backdrop of what they have access to in the South African contemporary art landscape. It’s in the way that Sibande uses fibreglass and vinyl, the manner in which Katz repurposes bed springs or how Goodman assembles acrylic nails.

In choosing to work with alternative materials, the artists’ selections also comment on the innovative, problem solving nature that comes with being a South African artist. Unlike group shows where artists are commissioned to create pieces that speak to a particular thought, the intention behind Making of Ourselves allowed BKhz to borrow from the artists’ existing bodies of work.

To make their selection, BKhz sought after artists who would demonstrate the range offered by South African womxn working within the discipline while considering the aesthetic conversation that the works would have in relation to each other.
With the exception of works by Katz and Sibande, who are loaning BKhz pieces from their personal collections, all the works that form Making of Ourselves a re on sale.

'Making of Ourselves' runs from January 25 to February 29 at BKhz, 68 Juta Street, Braamfontein. For more information visit www.bkhz.art.

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