Through the themes of time and space, Snelihle Maphumulo explores her curiosity about the Zulu Culture, producing her body of work 'Zikode Omkhulu' to honour the Zulu Culture.

Image is courtesy of Snelihle Maphumulo

Please tell a bit about yourself and take us back to when your interest in art began

I am Snelihle Asanda Maphumulo, born and bred in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal. I am now currently based in Makhanda, in the Eastern Cape where I am completing my final year in Bachelor of Fine Art at Rhodes University. My interest in art started in my early childhood, I am fortunate that my family allowed me to study art and supported me, I did art in high school and I am now pursuing a degree in fine art.

You recently exhibited ‘Zikode Omkhulu’ during the National Arts Festival, tell us about the creative process. How did you develop the ideas behind this body of work?

Growing up I wasn’t exposed to culture, particularly my culture which is the Zulu culture, I think it was in my late high school years when I was introduced into the culture including ceremonies and rituals and as a young woman at that time I had a lot of questions as to why women are not allowed in certain spaces. There was this specific ceremony where I observed men reciting clan names in the kraal, a part of me wanted to be in there but when I asked the older women, in the context they said that we are not allowed to. I was kind-of, I guess at that point, rebellious against the idea of women not having access to the kraal, unaware at that time that there are reasons as to why we can’t go in, so with my rebellious motive, I just wanted to break it down.

At that time, we were working with the theme of space and time so I chose the kraal as that space and my time being the notion of growth and the notion of understanding about the Zulu culture and the intersectionality within the Zulu culture, so with those themes I basically I broke the kraal down, I broke down the space which is the kraal into a 100 pieces of cross-like structures.

The process of the work was really laborious in terms of the collection of materials, like for instance I had to go to the bush to collect sticks that I used to imitate the kraal and in the process of doing that I found out that I was somehow tapping into the masculine side of myself and I kind of liked how that was complemented by the feminist point of view that I had vs the labour that I was doing which was pretty masculine, the tearing down of the bark, the tying of the crosses with bark.

I like to work in multiples for my installations which is why I had the 100 pieces which represent the other questions that I have about myself, about my identity so each cross represents a question that I have. Funny enough, towards the end of the process of producing the body of work, it was pretty fascinating to see how the women in my family whom I interviewed were able to give me answers which I understood in my rebellious state. I grew to learn that I have to immerse myself into my culture and respect the reasons why we’re not allowed in certain spaces and also recognizing that I’m not the first young woman to have these kind of questions, so in a way, I was also reflecting through my body of work, so that just speaks to how I process the thoughts in my head and the feedback I received.

What skills did you have to learn while producing this body of work?

Sho, I had to learn a lot because I lived in my own box, so having to adapt from painting and drawing to installation was really hard because I realised that I had to go out there myself to find materials and find people who would be willing to help me and I’m so grateful for the support from the fine arts department at Rhodes. The stuff in our department makes it so easy for us to learn new skills, from the lecturers to technicians, there is always someone willing to help and guide you in your creative process. The other skill, I had to learn is being okay with things not working out as an artist and letting things be at the back of your mind and to allow things that did not work at a certain time on a certain project to be revived again in another project. The other thing that I learnt is the technicality of things like documenting your work process, interviewing people and just really pushing myself. ‘Zikode Omkhulu’ really taught me the skill of networking, the skill of speaking and also entrepreneurship.

How have other artists influenced your aesthetics?

Sho, with my recent body of work, I’ve been looking at the artist, Nandipha Mntambo and how the artist works with cow hide. I am fascinated by the choice of medium and Nandipha’s ability to manipulate it, the skill and process it takes to manipulate cow hide, which isn’t something that can be done by an ordinary person. There are a lot of similarities between my work and her work in terms of conceptual backing. In terms of art genres, I just like to go with the flow when it comes to my creative process because I realised that from year to year, I am in different seasons, during first and second year, it was a season of exploration and learning about art till my third year, we had to move towards self-directed works and I realised that it was becoming more personal in terms of my identity and history.

Any fun projects that you are currently working on?

Yes, many exciting projects, there is a collective within the fine art department that I am working with on putting up an exhibition with both artists at Rhodes and artists outside of the institution, artists that work with the notions of culture and intersectionality, we will be collecting works from artists that have never exhibited before. There’s also the final year exhibition coming which I’m really excited for because it will be my first big exhibition, and for this show I am working with the notions of gender and fluidity within the Zulu culture. Lastly, my submission has been selected for the Sasol New Signatures so I’m really excited to see how far it’s gonna go, yeah.

Follow Snelihle Maphumulo on Instagram @artbysne_

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