Iinkumbulo

IINKUMBULO is the debut solo exhibition of Songezo Zantsi (b. 1991, Cape Town), presenting a selection of paintings related to the artist’s upbringing in the Eastern Cape during the early 1990s.

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With Iinkumbulo (‘Memories’ in English), Zantsi reckons with the past and considers how his childhood fits within a national story of power and violence.

Zantsi includes images drawn from his family archive alongside portrayals of massacres and upheaval occurring during the same period.

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Using well-respected South African photographers, particularly Greg Marinovich, as a primary reference point, Zantsi represents violence within political and social behaviour. The Bisho and Boipatong Massacres (both in 1992 and depicted in examples Ungalibali 1 & 2, Abafazi 3) are important historical markers of culture in South Africa - to Zantsi they are also archeptyal:

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"Violence for me stems from people wanting to protect what they have or trying to take overwhat they don’t have – it exists across all ethnic groups. As South African’s we have a particular understanding of violence as a form of social behaviour I feel it is important to reflect on how we have experienced it and to share our understanding with the rest of the world."

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Personal scenes depict the artist’s first birthday, as well as his grandmother, a domestic worker, teaching her employer’s daughter how to paint. Sisonke (2022) features children playing on the street and offers a contemporary note to this body of work. Zantsi observes:

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"These calm scenes balance a lot of the violence that I saw was happening during this time. I feel the balance is needed because if I only depicted one side of society, I would be robbing myself as a creative and as a thinker. There is a scene, Abafazi 3 (2022), which depicts a very young child who was killed in the Boipatong massacre. For me, though it may seem strange, this scene relates a lot to me celebrating a first birthday (Usapho (2022)). I wanted to state these social norms outright and represent these complex relationships in society."

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Gentle distortions and pastel-like colours recur throughout the paintings as Zantsi integrates disparate scenes through a personal style. In some instances, he adds or removes elements from his reference images and in others the original composition is retained. Using semi-dried oil paint Zantsi achieves a softness and integrity to his detailing which is complemented by his angular forms and unique palette.

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With this body of work, Zantsi offers his perspective on the recent past, personal and political, while announcing himself as a contributor to South African painting.