Please tell us a bit about yourself and how your interest in art began
Okay, so I am Sagwadi Mohlabi, born and bred in Polokwane, Limpopo. I'm 21 years old. I went to the University of the Witwatersrand. I completed a science degree. I studied a BSc in Biological Sciences and completed it last year and I think upon experiencing that journey, that was when I guess the awakening happened for me that there is something greater than what it was that I exposed my regular and, like, daily time in. There's something more that I have to say and contribute to the world. I'd say it really started, like during first year, which was 2021. I could feel I had an urge to do something and work with my hands, to, like, communicate this thing. I had this desire to just question what the itch was about and that's when I delved into textile and tapestry making. I started off with sketches using charcoal, but I could still feel that something more could be explored and done with my hands, you know?
And, yeah, that's when I found a medium that really, like, worked for me and allowed me to answer all these burning questions I had and that's when I further went on to discover texture, tactile texture, to be specific, and explored how far I can go with texture and what texture can mean to me. Uhm, The signs that I was an artist have always existed though. Growing up, poetry performances and sketching were always my points of shine.
What is the creative process behind using the medium that you are using and how do you develop the ideas for your pieces?
The ideas for my bodies of work come from my own existence as a black woman, from having witnessed and existed around other black women and learned about those before me, like their molding and their ways of existence, as well as the encounters and experiences that I share with the people around me that I believe are universal.
From that, I use double knit yarn on monk’s cloth or more frequently, burlap, because it resembles “saka”, which is a material form I grew up around. I don’t know what they call it in other languages but it’s the woven material used for the bag that oranges come in and I know it’s very common in a lot of many black households, it has multiple uses, so when I was figuring out which fabric to use it stood out to me a lot because it speaks a lot to my blackness. So a big part of working with texture is because I wanted to capture the essence of the nostalgic remnants that is always within us, for instance when I see a certain type of fabric, and it makes me remember that my grandmother, for example, had a blanket like this and she used to carry me on her back with it. And all the lovely memories that follow that.
With the actual making of the body of work, I always make it a point that my pieces illustrate women and feminine figures in them as an ode to celebrating them. A lot of women if not all really, are still expected to show up in this perfect manner regardless of the stigmas that are held against us, and regardless of the weight that we tend to carry almost every day for just being a woman, so to kind of hold that space for them to have, although fleeting, an escape to a memory of an endeavor or a time where they didn’t hold any weight of suffering, to kind of remind them that these beautiful moments have also deservingly existed for them and these have also contributed to their moulding, despite the overbearing stigmas weighted onto them. They comprise beauty and joy, despite existing pain and torment.
Which piece is your favourite to date?
My favourite piece is definitely ‘Mother and Daughter’. It was the first piece I completed this year and it held a lot of significance for me because it happened during the time which is a transition between university and actual life. Being a recent graduate, I just found myself being very overwhelmed by whatI wanted my life to look like and be moving forward you know? And it’s important sometimes to ask yourself these hard questions, even though sometimes you won’t get an immediate response but my mother really carried me through that period. My mother reminded me of the greatness that I possess simply because she possesses it too, you know? I decided to uhm, dedicate a piece to her because I feel like now I have the privilege to do more for her, being that I am grown and that I have means to, so I felt like that piece was really a step in that direction. So yeah, ‘Mother and Daughter’ really speaks on that and I really also enjoyed the reception of it, like how other people related to it and how they interpreted it into their own experiences with their mothers. It was also my first sold piece, and this happened through a women-centered group exhibition that I had with Kalashnikovv Gallery titled ‘Boundless’. The piece will always hold a special place in my heart.
You work with tapestry? Please tell us about the experience and skills you had to develop using this medium and the techniques to create your bodies of work.
Exploring tactile texture took me a bit of time to find my landing, I’m not gonna lie, because of the cost of making tapestry. It’s also not as commonly explored I could say, which added to the difficulty of sourcing the material itself and navigating how am I going to do this and how am I gonna go about it. Also, being a self-taught artist meant starting from the bottom. I have no academic background in art and also had no idea how I could build a platform for myself, how am I going to get the world to listen to me and how was I going to gain traction. I had these questions but I managed to counteract by trusting that I’ve been called to do this thing and I’m equipped with all that I need to do it. The right people will follow through. The right people will listen and listen and from there I think I just went on about it.
That is actually one of the major skill sets I would say this medium has taught me. The ability to trust that although it might currently seem directionless, continue being proactive in contributing to the build-up of a vision because you will ultimately see it through. Patience and honouring my authenticity have also been acquired. Tapestry making involves a lot of isolation and the looping until completion does get mundane at times. I think, uhm, this has truly pruned my ability to listen to understand myself more, as well as to appreciate and savour routine and the ordinary as passionately as the superlative.
How do other artists or art genres influence your aesthetic?
I always go back to Chinua Achebe with this question and a lot of people then ask me how Chinua Achebe relates because he is a novelist. Uhm, so Chinua Achebe is the first author whose work I intensely invested my time in exploring and reading and I think it’s because of his style of writing. It is sharp and has a very direct significance but he still uses simple language. There's this force that is exerted but in a very minimal way and I think that for me, my bodies of work aim to represent that as well. I think it also speaks to my general carrying by God. God carries me in a very graceful way that, uhm, even in the most challenging and trying periods, I never get to a point where I feel like I’m fully alone or as though my life would be better as a non-existent factor than as existent. That light, no matter how dimly, still shines, you know. And I always make it out such as a product that is so great. So, I think Achebe’s writing has molded my style in that sense that I don’t have to kind of necessarily put too much in a piece for it to be significant. In the most minimal way, I want my work to still carry weight and fulfill the message I have very accurately and sharply.
I think in terms of visual artists, it’s definitely Lulama Wolf for the same reasons.
Any fun projects that you are currently working on?
I’ve been using June to evaluate the manners that exist for me to assess my current art style. I’ve been solely using double knit yarn in a rectangular form for almost all my pieces, so I have gotten to a point where I want to explore how far I can take it with texture, like what more textural elements exist for me to explore. So, I’m currently using t-shirt yarn and blending it to my current art style. I’m very excited to see how that goes because currently, a lot of exploration that exists for t-shirt yarn is used for accessories like bags, maybe hats and pillowcases etc., so I want to see how that will look like in rug making and tapestry so yeah, I’m very excited and I can’t wait to share.
Follow Sagwadi on Instagram @sagwadimohlabi
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So so beautiful, ndincume yade yayophela learticle. Kuhle kuhle.