Habitat is Mbali Mdluli’s second solo showing with the Johannesburg-based project space and gallery. The works presented reflect on the artists’ sustained concern with the dimensions of photography and the medium’s lassitude in the face of a lived experience. The personal narrative that informs this latest body of work relates to a moment of displacement that the artist experienced in recent months. From the strewn belongings the artist retrieved a large collection of home décor and design magazines, which she then used as a medium for the creation of this body of work. In this moment, the artist felt an urgency to cut, rip and tear into them as acts of meditation, to essentially transform them into undulating and contoured images presented as artworks in this exhibition. As such, these works are a result of a deep-seated, angry, dark state. As objects, they function as emotional residue.
