IYEZA By Buhlebezwe Siwani
Go beneath the surface of our heritage
The Standard Bank Gallery is proud to present iYeza, a solo exhibition of recent work by Buhlebezwe Siwani. First exhibited in Makhanda, as part of the National Arts Festival, the exhibition now moves to Johannesburg in celebration of a significant milestone – the artist’s selection as the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2021.
As a multidisciplinary artist, Siwani demonstrates profound range, she creates art that is a continued meditation on the intersections of spirituality, indigenous practices, culture, history and religion, through centring the black female body and lens.
Through a wide range of materials – including soap, wool, and her own body – Siwani’s oeuvre pulses with her belief in the performative possibilities of everything, and demonstrates a vocational practice, unconstrained by mode and medium. Negotiating our contemporary reality, iYeza draws on Siwani’s memories, journey and practice as an initiated traditional healer. Named for the isiXhosa word for (usually plant-derived) medicine, it is also a broader reference to “a substance that is meant to ward off dark spiritual energy”.
The life force of the exhibition, by leaning into this multiform and dynamic questioning, is the symbiotic relationship to, and with plants, their meaning and our history. Through video and sculpture, Siwani physically presences the flora of the show’s title – using wood, imphepho, eucalyptus tree stumps, grass, alongside imbola, umkhando and soil as part of the materials that create these works.
Exhibition runs from 24 Feb – 08 Apr
Monday–Friday: 8am – 4pm
Saturdays: 8:30am – 1pm
The Standard Bank Gallery
