WITSIE WITH THE EDGE

BUHLEBEZWE SIWANI [BA FA 2012]

2021 Standard Bank Young Artist: Visual Art

“Objects perform, paper performs ... As an artist, it’s my job to blur the line, to see a piece of paper becoming something else – a carpet, a chair – and to make this believable, to allow the object to transcend the initial physical limitations that we place on it,” says Buhlebezwe Siwani (BA FA 2012), the 2021 recipient of the 2021 Standard Bank Young Artist Award in the Visual Art category.

The annual award programme, which was established in 1981, is considered a prestigious acknowledgment for artists who demonstrated “exceptional ability in their chosen field”. She will receive a cash prize as well as financial backing for an exhibition at the National Arts Festival.

“Honestly, being recognised by the people who map out the arts in our country is wonderful, everyone wants to be seen and so I am honoured to be seen in this category specifically,” she says via email.

Siwani works in a variety of media – performance, installation, photography and video but also explores the creative possibilities of paper and sculpture. The National Arts Festival Artistic Committee says she has “a versatility which is especially notable in COVID-19 times”.

At Wits, she was awarded the Heather Martienssen Prize (now Wits Young Artist Award) in 2010 and describes her experience at the university as “pretty intense”. “It changed the way I think. I went from regurgitating to actually formulating my own thoughts,” she says.

Siwani went on to complete her postgraduate degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts with distinction in 2015 and was awarded the Katrine Harries postgraduate prize for “an outstanding body of work” for her master’s graduate show, titled "Imfihlo" (the secret). This was later published as a book.

Following residencies in Switzerland, the Netherlands and France, her work has been exhibited globally. “I am currently in Paris. I have been lucky enough to travel throughout the pandemic, although not during the lockdowns when I have been stuck at home in Amsterdam.”

From "Yimbasa Yelizwe" from the "Living, Forgiving, Remembering" exhibition in 2020 at Museum Arnhem, Netherlands.

"Nzunza Performance"

She’s cryptic about what we can expect from her work in anticipation of the 2022 National Arts Festival: “You will have to come and see it. All I can say is there will be a bit of everything.”

Siwani is a sangoma and her work is deeply rooted in spirituality, a journey that began as an undergrad at Wits. “I’m not first a sangoma and I’m not first an artist. Those things happen harmoniously and they happen together. In my art I speak about iSangoma and I speak about my journey to become a sangoma. My journey is my work, and my work is my journey. Ubungoma [being a sangoma] manifests itself in my work, so there are no conflicts. The only conflict and conflict resolution I have in negotiating this [art] space is concealing and revealing. How much of what I’ve been taught [as a sangoma] do I not show other people? Do I keep it hidden or do I let people into it so they can decide by themselves? History informs me and history informs my decisions. So, I’m in harmony with my spirits and my work,” she told Lwandile Fikeni during an interview in 2016.

"The Power of My Hands"

ANA Silva O Fardo LoRez