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VukuvukuPhila!
A BED CALLED HOME: Shared pain and healing
2022, performance and installation art, Wena Ekhaya Studio (Pretoria), Photographer: Seamless productions - GendV Project Film
'A Bed Called Home: Shared Pain and Healing' is a performance that focuses on lessons about safety. It foregrounds safety as not being the absence of harm but rather a complex complication of how unsafe spaces of safety can be. The performances presented are not only visual expressions of personal experiences and recollections but also a collective outcry against violence. It explores safety concerning childhood stories, especially girlhood by including the themes of menstruation, love, desire, pain, rape, shame, hurt and resilience. The willingness to share encounters of violence as lessons for possible healing provides a powerful reclaiming of social agency.
The title of this performance is taken from the book 'A Bed Called Home: Life in the Migrant Labour Migrants of Cape Town' (1993) by activist, politician and academic Mampela Ramopela, which focuses on issues of migration, labour and violence amongst migrant hostels dwellers in a colonial and post-colonial South Africa. Thus, the performance is concerned with how art plays a critical role in experiences of everyday life that relate to people in public and private spaces - using the symbolism of the bed to convey broader ideas about home, family, intimacy, life, death, memory, etc.
'A Bed Called Home: Shared Pain and Healing' is a performance that focuses on lessons about safety. It foregrounds safety as not being the absence of harm but rather a complex complication of how unsafe spaces of safety can be. The performances presented are not only visual expressions of personal experiences and recollections but also a collective outcry against violence. It explores safety concerning childhood stories, especially girlhood by including the themes of menstruation, love, desire, pain, rape, shame, hurt and resilience. The willingness to share encounters of violence as lessons for possible healing provides a powerful reclaiming of social agency.
The title of this performance is taken from the book 'A Bed Called Home: Life in the Migrant Labour Migrants of Cape Town' (1993) by activist, politician and academic Mampela Ramopela, which focuses on issues of migration, labour and violence amongst migrant hostels dwellers in a colonial and post-colonial South Africa. Thus, the performance is concerned with how art plays a critical role in experiences of everyday life that relate to people in public and private spaces - using the symbolism of the bed to convey broader ideas about home, family, intimacy, life, death, memory, etc.
Reflections of Reflected Self
2023, live performance and art installation, University of Johannesburg, Photographer: Johnsea media - GendV Project
Philiswa Lila and ivukuvuku use the elementals of water to trace memory and cleanse memory. We crack open the memories of significant historical events that shape our lives. Our senses to recollect the patterns of memory are remembered and re membered through the lenses reflected by water in the art installation and performance.
Water! Water! Water!
Reflect unto me reflections of the reflected self
Manzi wokukhanya
Manzi wokuphila
Manzi wempiliso
Manzi anegunya
Ndihlambe, Undihlambulule
Undixikixikisise
Ndithunge!
Philiswa Lila and ivukuvuku use the elementals of water to trace memory and cleanse memory. We crack open the memories of significant historical events that shape our lives. Our senses to recollect the patterns of memory are remembered and re membered through the lenses reflected by water in the art installation and performance.
Water! Water! Water!
Reflect unto me reflections of the reflected self
Manzi wokukhanya
Manzi wokuphila
Manzi wempiliso
Manzi anegunya
Ndihlambe, Undihlambulule
Undixikixikisise
Ndithunge!
E N K U N D L E N I /pouring healing
2023, live performance and art installation, The Melrose Gallery (JHB), Photographer: Johnsea media
We have a place that is set aside by the kraal called Enkundleni.
It’s a place of prayer.
It’s a space for peace.
It’s a space where you can share feelings.
It’s a place for healing.
It’s a place from asking.
It’s a place of humility.
It’s a place of forgiveness.
It’s a place to connect with ancestors.
It’s a place for answers.
It’s a place for a home to cry.
‘E N K U N D L E N I /pouring healing’ is an embodied space that exists as a fluid entity that we, as artists, can carry, transmit and transfer in diverse places. It manifests as an intimate space, a shared space of expressing ourselves. The notion of ‘intimacy’ reflects shared pain, healing and a sharing of love; to be reminder that our stories are intertwined and that our struggles and triumphs are not isolated but shared. Hence, our process is collaborative and shared in all aspects of personal relationships, friendships and working environments between the artists (ivukuvuku and Philiswa Lila), people and places we occupy.
There is healing Enkundleni, there by the water.
If you are sick, share your pain.
If you are suffering mentally, share your pain.
If it's your spirit is torn apart, it will be sewn together.
We have a place that is set aside by the kraal called Enkundleni.
It’s a place of prayer.
It’s a space for peace.
It’s a space where you can share feelings.
It’s a place for healing.
It’s a place from asking.
It’s a place of humility.
It’s a place of forgiveness.
It’s a place to connect with ancestors.
It’s a place for answers.
It’s a place for a home to cry.
‘E N K U N D L E N I /pouring healing’ is an embodied space that exists as a fluid entity that we, as artists, can carry, transmit and transfer in diverse places. It manifests as an intimate space, a shared space of expressing ourselves. The notion of ‘intimacy’ reflects shared pain, healing and a sharing of love; to be reminder that our stories are intertwined and that our struggles and triumphs are not isolated but shared. Hence, our process is collaborative and shared in all aspects of personal relationships, friendships and working environments between the artists (ivukuvuku and Philiswa Lila), people and places we occupy.
There is healing Enkundleni, there by the water.
If you are sick, share your pain.
If you are suffering mentally, share your pain.
If it's your spirit is torn apart, it will be sewn together.
EKHAYA: Kept Silence
2023, live performance and installation art, Melrose Gallery (JHB) in the group exhibition Quiet as it’s kept curated by Ruzy Rusike
This work reimagines cultural geographic and personal experiences to reconnect in the spaces /places that re-align and restore our core essence of oneness through the characterisations of sites of memory. Through water we lose ourselves, we lose traumatic experiences, and every burden we carry with our hearts, minds, body and soul. We lose ourselves in order to regain conscious memories of who we purposefully are. Water ripples underneath the scabs of our internal and external personal experiences of home, identity, spirituality healing and humanity.
This work reimagines cultural geographic and personal experiences to reconnect in the spaces /places that re-align and restore our core essence of oneness through the characterisations of sites of memory. Through water we lose ourselves, we lose traumatic experiences, and every burden we carry with our hearts, minds, body and soul. We lose ourselves in order to regain conscious memories of who we purposefully are. Water ripples underneath the scabs of our internal and external personal experiences of home, identity, spirituality healing and humanity.
E N K U D L E N I / gathering healing
2024, live performance and installation art, Frankfurt LAB, Germany
Water embodies wisdom, co-creating, transforming, and responding to those who seek its guidance. Cultures have long recognized water's ability to absorb energies, becoming a bridge between the spiritual and physical worlds. It carries the memory of ancient rites, capable of cleansing both body and soul.
In the performance "E N K U N D L E N I /gathering healing," water becomes a living, intimate space where pain, healing, and love merge. This reflects our interconnected stories, shared struggles, and triumphs. Water's role in our creative process highlights collaboration with people, places, and communities, becoming a passage to renewal.
As artists, water is more than an element; it's a sanctuary for spirits and a metaphor for the merging of spiritual and physical realms. Its fluidity mirrors our emotional and personal journeys, guiding us to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our origins.
Ultimately, water teaches us that everything is interconnected, fluid, and cyclical. As it moves through its natural cycles, we, too, undergo transformation, reminding us of our place in a vast continuum that links us to the past, each other, and the infinite possibilities of the future.
Water embodies wisdom, co-creating, transforming, and responding to those who seek its guidance. Cultures have long recognized water's ability to absorb energies, becoming a bridge between the spiritual and physical worlds. It carries the memory of ancient rites, capable of cleansing both body and soul.
In the performance "E N K U N D L E N I /gathering healing," water becomes a living, intimate space where pain, healing, and love merge. This reflects our interconnected stories, shared struggles, and triumphs. Water's role in our creative process highlights collaboration with people, places, and communities, becoming a passage to renewal.
As artists, water is more than an element; it's a sanctuary for spirits and a metaphor for the merging of spiritual and physical realms. Its fluidity mirrors our emotional and personal journeys, guiding us to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our origins.
Ultimately, water teaches us that everything is interconnected, fluid, and cyclical. As it moves through its natural cycles, we, too, undergo transformation, reminding us of our place in a vast continuum that links us to the past, each other, and the infinite possibilities of the future.
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