Sharlene Khan

Sharlene Khan is a South African visual artist who works in multi-media installations and performances, which focus on the socio-political realities of a post-apartheid society and the intersectionality of race-gender-class. Khan uses masquerading as a postcolonial strategy to interrogate her South African heritage, as well as the constructedness of identity via rote education, art discourses, historical narratives and popular culture. She has exhibited in the UK, Italy, France, Germany, South Africa, India, South Korea, Greece and has participated in various international conferences. Her writings on contemporary visual arts appears in journals, books, art catalogues and magazines including Art South Africa, ArtthrobSpringerinManifestaContemporary-AndThe Conversation Africa, Imbizo: International Journal of African Literary and African StudiesAgenda and The Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education.

Khan has been a recipient of the Abe Bailey Travel Bursary (1998), the Rockefeller Bellagio Arts residency (2009), the Canon Collins/Commonwealth Scholarship (2011), the African Humanities Post-doctoral Fellowship (2017), the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences Award for Visual Arts (2018), and was runner-up winner in the Videokunst Preis Bremen video art award (2015). She has been nominated twice for the South African Women in the Arts award (Painting) and has received funding from the National Arts Council multiple times. Khan has published three books on her work: What I look like, What I feel like (2009), I Make Art (2017), When the moon waxes red… Negotiating Subjective Terrain as an ‘Inside-Outsider’, an ‘Outside-Insider’ (2019). She is co-convenor of the annual African Feminisms (Afems) Conference; runs the Art on our Mind Research Project; the bi-weekly Black Feminist Killjoy Reading Group and the Decolonial AestheSis Creative Lab. She holds a PhD (Arts) from Goldsmiths, University of London and is Associate Professor at the Department of Fine Arts, Wits School of the Arts, Wits University, Johannesburg. 

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES:  Sharlene Khan

WORKS by Sharlene Khan
ARTWORK
EXHIBITIONS
RESEARCH PROJECTS
PUBLICATIONS
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
TALKS, PRESENTATIONS, REVIEWS & JUDGING

PRESS AND REVIEWS
FEATURES & INTERVIEWS

Artist’s website

Artist’s CV

Mary Sibande

Mary Sibande portrait photograph by Mosa Kaiser

Mary Sibande (born in 1982 in Barberton, South Africa, living and working in Johannesburg) engages counter-historical narratives and the language of dress to animate the stories of South African women and critique western imperialist depictions of their lives. Her artistic practice takes heavy influences from processes involved in fashion design as she tailors elements of the narrative directly onto the characters through their clothes, playing with colour, meaning and coded motifs.

Sibande works with large-scale installations and photography to further enhance the worlds she creates and the characters within them. Viewers are introduced to her alter ego, Sophie, whose many incarnations speak to the experiences and livelihoods of Sibande’s mother and grandmother under apartheid. While Sophie’s blue dress and white doek [headscarf] signify her status as a domestic worker, the artist adorns her outfits and gestures with alternate meanings, transforming her context from an ongoing history of servitude and labour to a grander, reimagined reality within a prefigurative, dreamlike space.

Her solo exhibitions include The Wake, Kunstpalais, Germany (2022); The Red Ventrioquist, Musée d’art Contemporain de Lyon (2022); A Red Flight of Fancy, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town (2022); Past Is Present, Herron Galleries, Indiana University(2022); Let me tell you about Red…, Durban Art Gallery, South Africa (2022); Unhand me Demon!, Kavi Gupta, Chicago (2021); Blue Red Purple, The Frist Art Museum, Nashville (2021) I Came Apart at the Seams, Somerset House, London (2019) and A Crescendo of Ecstasy, The Mixed Reality Workshop, Johannesburg (2018).

Sibande has also exhibited in many group shows, including the 2023 Sharjah Biennial 15; Garmenting, Museum of Arts & Design, New York (2022); TEXTURES, Kent State University, Ohio (2021); Like Life, The MET Breuer, New York (2018); All Things Being Equal, Zeitz MOCCA, Cape Town (2018); South Africa: the Art of a Nation, British Museum,London(2017); and Ideal Narratives in Contemporary South African Art, South African Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale (2011).

She is the recipient of the Helgaard Steyn Award (2021) and Smithsonian National Museum of African Art Award (2017).

Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington; Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, USA; and the Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, France, among others.

Sibande received a Diploma in Fine Arts from Witwatersrand Technical College, Johannesburg (2004) and a Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Johannesburg (2007).

WORKS by Mary Sibande

EXHIBITIONS

WRITING on Mary Sibande

BOOKS/CATALOGUES
BOOK CHAPTERS AND FEATURES
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
THESES & DISSERTATIONS
PRESS AND REVIEWS

VIDEOS

Artist CV
[pdf here]

PHOTO DOCUMENTATION: Sophie Peters

Members of the Community Arts Project Mural Collective. From left: Sophie Peters, Mashabalala Mkonto, Mahlomola Seakoloane, David Hlongwane and Hamilton Budaza. Source: University of Cape Town. Libraries. Special Collections BC1195 Community Arts Project. mss_bc1195_s44_3_2-028
https://digitalcollections.lib.uct.ac.za/collection/islandora-29074

Sophie Peters at International Children’s Day art workshop. Sophie Peters facilitating International Children’s Day art workshop for pre-school children at Blackpool Hall, Salt River, 1994-06-01. Source:  University of Cape Town. Libraries. Special Collections BC1195 Community Arts Project. mss_bc1195_s8_5-002.
https://digitalcollections.lib.uct.ac.za/collection/islandora-29108
Community Arts Project staff photograph, 1994. Community Arts Project staff photograph. Back: Simba Pemhenayi, Carol Knowles, Nigel Mentor, Zayd Minty, Lawrence Makinana, Barbara Voss, Lungile Bam. Front: Mario Pissarra, Lynette Davids, Sicelo Nkohla, Sophie Peters, Mashabalala Mkonto. Pissarra’s dog Pablo, a regular presence at CAP, is in the foreground. Source: University of Cape Town. Libraries. Special Collections BC1195 Community Arts Project. mss_bc1195_s19_1-001
https://digitalcollections.lib.uct.ac.za/collection/islandora-29016

Sophie Peters CV

Solo exhibitions

2007
Hand to Plough Landscapes, The Framery Gallery, Cape Town

1995
Cry from the Heart, Belville Association of Arts, Cape Town

Group exhibitions

2019
Botanica II, Contemporary Botanical Art at Art B. Gallery in Belville
Lino Printmaking Workshop Hout Bay Contemporary
Digital Museum of Art and Memory, District Six Museum

2018
Woordfees The Endless Horizon Print Portfolio

2010
1910-2010 From Pieneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Gill Alderman Gallery, Kenilworth, Cape Town

2008
Provoke, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town
Some South African Voices, Rose Korber Art Consultancy, Cape Town
Mapping Cultural Echoes – Voyage Ensemble, Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA), Harare

2007
africa south, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town

2006
Art in Business, Artscape, Cape Town
Face (In) Cape Town, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
A Journey Together, Voyage Ensemble, Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town

2005
Botaki Exhibition 2, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town
Botaki Exhibition 4, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town

2004
Her Story, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
Renaissance, Cape Gallery, Cape Town

2004
A Decade of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town

2003
Dreams of Our Daughters, Klein Karoo Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn

2001
The Hourglass Project A Women’s Vision, Art on Paper, Johannesburg; UNISA Gallery, Pretoria
Homecoming, Guga S’Thebe, Cape Town

2000
How the Land Lies, Chelsea Gallery, Cape Town
Greatmore Studios Official Opening, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Exhibitions in Germany and Iceland

1999
Portfolio for Playing Cards, Sasol Art Museum, Stellenbosch; Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria; Gencor Gallery, Johannesburg (Print Exchange)
Ten Years of Printmaking, Hard Ground Printmakers, Sanlam Art Gallery, Cape Town

1998
Siwela Ngaphesheya, Crossing the water, Robben Island Museum, Robben Island
Ekhaya, travelling exhibition, Western Cape
Dis Nag – The Cape’s Hidden Roots in Slavery, Iziko South African Cultural History Museum, Cape Town
Artist for Africa, Sweden
Recent Publications, Hard Ground Printmakers, Grahamstown Festival, Grahamstown

1997
Recent Publications, Hard Ground Printmakers, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
The Body Politic, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
Sicula Sixhentsa Xa Sisonke – The South Africa Aesthetic (USA travelling exhibition), Mississippi, Detroit, New York

1996
Human Rights, South African Cultural History Museum, Cape Town
Barricaded Rainbow, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town
Artists Against Apartheid, Parliament, Cape Town, South Africa

1995 
Relief in Black and White, Brighton Festival, Brighton

1994
Creating Image, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
Exhibition (USA travelling exhibition), Brooklyn, Massachussets

1993
South Africa in Black and White, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Picturing Our World, Grahamstown Festival, Grahamstown; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Women on Women, Seef Trust Art Gallery, Cape Town

1992
Looking Back, Community Arts Project, Cape Town
Visual Arts Group Travelling Exhibition, Zolani Centre, Nyanga East; Uluntu centre, Gugulethu; Mannenberg People’s Centre; Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town
Tapestry Wall, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria

1991
Visual Arts Group Travelling Exhibition, Cape Town
Transitions, Baxter Theatre Gallery, Cape Town
Art in the Avenue, Cape Town

1990 
Zabalaza Festival, Institute for Contemporary Art, London

1989
Nude, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town and Serendipity Gallery, Cape Town

1987
Peace for South Africa, Geneva, Switzerland 
Volkkas Atelier Exhibition, invited artists exhibition, Johannesburg Art Foundation, Johannesburg

1986
The Eye of an Artist, Gugulethu
Young Blood, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town

Collections
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Durban Art Gallery, Durban
Constitutional Court of South Africa, Johannesburg
Western Cape Provincial Government, Cape Town
Mayibuye Centre, University of the Western Cape
Sophie Peters also has work in private collections in South Africa, Europe, the United States of America and Australia


Publications
1997
The Body Politic (portfolio of colour etchings published by Hard Ground Printers

Commissions (mural painting and book illustrations)

2008
Arts Cape mural

2007
Safmarine, Cape Town (four paintings)

2004-05
Pentecostal Rapha Mission (mural)

2004
Adderley Street flower-sellers mural, Sea Point Protea Hotel, Cape Town

1998
Puleng and the Pumpkin (children’s book illustration)
Hair (children’s book illustration)
Truworths’ Millenium Calendar (linoprints)

1997
True Love at Last (written by Ginwala Dowling, illustration)
No More Stars in my Roof (written by Ginwala Dowling, illustration)
The Original Natural Living Diary (illustration)

1996
Robben Island Museum, Cape Town (mural)
District Six Museum, Cape Town (mural)
Department of Health, Cape Town (mural)
Mayibuye Centre, University of Western Cape, Cape Town (mural in celebration of Heritage Day)
The Black Sash Trust Annual Report (book cover illustration)
Day-by-Day English, Maskew Miller Longman, Midrand (book illustration)

1994
Nico Malan Opera House / Artscape Opera House, Cape Town (mural with Tshidi Sefako and Xolile Mtakatya)
Hanover Park Murals, Cape Town City Council
Peace in our Land (mural commissioned by Nedbank)
Mafia and the Aeroplane, written by Max Sed, published by Human & Rousseau

1992
The Old Days (woodcut) in: Staffrider, 10:3, Cosaw Publishing, Johannesburg, p. 17

1991
Transitions, Baxter Gallery, Cape Town (mural with members of Hard-Ground Printmakers Workshop)

1990
Zabalaza Festival, London (murals in collaboration with other artists)

1987
Community House, Salt River, Cape Town (murals in collaboration with other artists)


Workshops & Residencies
2006
Community Art Workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town

2004
Renaissance Printmaking Workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town

2001
Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Caversham Press, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2000
Print 2000, Maastricht, Netherlands

1997
Printmaking Project, Robben Island, Cape Town

1990
Zabalaza Festival, London

Afems 2021

Artwork: Kundai Moyo, Untitled (2020), Relief Print on Canson Edition Blanc Antique with fabric cutout, 380 x 380 mm, Made in Collaboration with Edition Verso
Artwork: Kundai Moyo, Untitled (2020), Relief Print on Canson Edition Blanc Antique with fabric cutout, 380 x 380 mm, Made in Collaboration with Edition Verso

In Search of our Shrines: Feminist Healing and the Politics of Love
African Feminisms (Afems) Conference  

University of Cape Town (GSB Conference Centre), 1-5 November 2021  

The fourth edition of the African Feminisms (Afems) conference will be hosted as a hybrid physical and online event from 1st-5th November 2021 by the University of Cape Town (South Africa), in collaboration with the African Gender Institute, the Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University and the Department of Fine Arts, Wits University.

The renewal of the soul follows a path that cannot be legislated for in parliament or studied at a prestigious university. It is a way of finding a spark that will trigger a loving and compassionate way of being with who we are, after being told that we are of no substance and value. (Mmatshilo Motsei)​

The 2021 African Feminisms conference addresses alternative modes of knowledge production, ongoing implications of the divide between feminist theory and praxis, as well as intellectual and creative feminist strategies. What possibilities are offered by the multimodal, polyphonic, intersectional and deeply political work of feminist healing in societies that care little for women, queer and non-binary bodies and lives?

In a time of ecological collapse, neoliberal modes of governance that extend across institutions, the intensification and resurgence of racist and sexist public cultures, what are the possibilities for building worlds that are life-giving? How can practices of feminist healing ‘teach best what we most yearn for’ to bring about ‘revolutions of love and courage’ (Pregs Govender, 2007). What are the worlds yet to be built? What worlds, already in existence but not recognised by ‘deadened bureaucracies’ (Govender, 2007), can we build on and with for ‘renewal(s) of the soul’ (Motsei, 2007). Afems 2021 will include presentations from various scholarly disciplines and fields including paper presentations, conversations, themed convened panels, video-screenings, creative displays, book launches, as well as self- and group-care student workshops around:

FEATURED PANELS AND ROUNDTABLES

  • The Pregs Govender Roundtable: with Pregs Govender in attendance
  • Transnational Feminisms Panel: Transnational Feminist Currents On Healing, Care and Tides 
  • Environmental Feminisms PanelLove in the Midst of Climate Change (film) and discussion
  • Trans Feminisms Panel: Trans Identities in Africa
  • Feminist Archives Reading Group: Reading Elaine Salo as an Act of Feminist Solidarities and Decolonial Healing

CREATIVE AND LITERAY PROGRAM

  • Virtual Exhibition and Artist Discussion: Art on Our Mind Creative Dialogue with Sophie Peters, Nono Motlhoki and Sharlene Khan
  • Virtual Exhibitions by Rehema Chachage, Kim Reynolds, Nono Motloki and Lebohang Mogul
  • Poetry Readings by Malika Ndlovu, Sindiswa Busuku, Vangi Gantsho, Jaliya the Bird ith Malika Ndlovu, Sindiswa Busuku, Vangi Gantsho, Jaliya the Bird and Natalia Molebatsi
  • Book Launch Discussions with Pumla Gqola, Gabeba Baderoon and Desirée Lewis, Barbara Boswell, Dina Ligaga, Tiffany Willoghby -Herard and Dee Marco
  • Recorded Performance Pieces by Qondiswa James and Gertrude Fester

CAPE TOWN STUDENT WORKSHOPS

  • Healing the Collective Feminist by Michelle Festus, Jude Clark, Busi Dlamini and Rikky Minyuku
  • Re-Membering is Re-Writing (incl. poetry) by vangile ganthso & Malika Ndlovu
  • Magick for healing – a quaternity of UWC’s feminist framily (incl film and word-sound-power) by Monique van Vuuren, Melandri Constant, Amy Brown and Xena Scullard
  • Singing Our Souls – Regenerative Soundscapes That Call Us Home (music) by Injairu Kulundu 
  • Forgive, Forget and Move On (art) by Sophie Peters
  • Kin by Danai Mupotsa  
  • Obstetric Violence: Breaking the Silence of Violence Against Women During Childbirth by Mmatshilo Mostei

REGISTRATION

Registration is free. Our workshops have limited capacity and a registration deadline of 22nd October 2021 (for catering purposes).  There is no registration deadline for the virtual event.

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

https://uctcmc.eventsair.com/afems-2021/virtual-conference-registration

CAPE TOWN WORKSHOP REGISTRATION 

https://uctcmc.eventsair.com/afems-2021/cape-town-workshop-registration

ENQUIRIES

Please direct all queries to: afems2020@gmail.com

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

Keynote Speakers

Mmatshilo Motsei

Mmatshilo pic _ credit Kamogelo Litheko .jpg

Mmatshilo Motsei is an author, healer, spiritual health coach with a keen interest in integrating indigenous knowledge with modern innovation. She is the Founding Director of the Afrika Ikalafe Spiritual Health Institute. Aptly called Afrika Ikalafe, which means Afrika Heal Thyself, the aim of the Institute is to indigenise health and development and by so doing, build an African consciousness that will provide fertile ground for healing of wounded individuals, families, and communities.  One of the key projects of Afrika Ikalafe is Marumo Fatshewhose focus is to use technology in a search for indigenous African healing justice framework in responding to sexual violence in South Africa.A Sociology Doctoral Student with an MA in Creative Writing and BA Hons Psychology, she started her career as a nurse, midwife, social science researcher, rural development facilitator and healer. She is a recipient of two honorary doctorates namely: University of Zululand (Community Psychology) and Nelson Mandela University (Faculty of Health). She has written and published several books. Her scholarly work includes teaching and facilitating seminars at UNISA, Wits, Stellenbosch, Mpumalanga, and Rhodes Universities. Using a combination of nursing, midwifery, physiology, psychology, creative writing and African spirituality, Mmatshilo Motsei perceives her work as a bridge for people to move beyond their smallness and limitations. Through years of facilitating workshops, seminars, and healing circles, she has learnt the art of igniting the genius in people. By grinding her own fears, she has also learnt to harvest the power within. 

Websites: www.mmatshilomotsei.com and www.afrikaikalafe.org

Mmatshilo’s Motsei’s profile pic credit – Kamogelo Litheko

Tiffany Willougby-Herard

willoughby-herard 1.jpg

Tiffany Willoughby-Herard (Associate Professor of African American Studies, University of California, Irvine) is a Black political scientist who focuses on Black political thought and the material conditions of knowledge production, Black movements, South African historiography; blackness in international relations, diaspora, third world feminisms, decolonizing theory, feminist pedagogy, Black & African feminisms, and racial capitalism/gendered racisms/sexuality in international relations. Her current work explores cross-generational youth-led political organizing around land return, sexual violence, and colonial legacies in South Africa. She is concerned with political consciousness across generations and creative sites for political education. She is the author of Waste of a White Skin: The Carnegie Corporation and the Racial Logic of White Vulnerability (University of California Press 2015). Willoughby-Herard is also the co-editor of numerous journal special issues; a new book on Black feminist cultural studies in contemporary South Africa entitled Sasinda Futhi Siselapha: Black Feminist Approaches to Cultural Studies in South Africa’s Twenty-Five Years Since 1994 (Africa World Press 2020), and a textbook Theories of Blackness: On Life and Death (Cognella Press 2011). Willoughby-Herard is a founding member of the Transnational Black Womxn Scholars of African Politics Research Network; and a founding member of the Black Women and Gender Non-Binary research and creative writing group, #InForUs. As President of the 52 year old National Conference of Black Political Scientists Willoughby-Herard and a member of the LGBTQ+ Caucus and the Association for the Study of Black Women in Politics, she/they has found space to grow as a poet, an editor, a reader, a mama, a member of a church choir, a teacher, an undergraduate research supervisor, a friend, an ethical and grounded political scientist, and a Black internationalist lesbian feminist who survived.

Peace Kiguwa

Peace.jpg

Peace Kiguwa (PhD) is Associate Professor in Psychology at the School of Human and Community Development, the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her research interests include critical social psychology, affective politics of gender and sexuality, racism and racialization and the nuances of teaching and learning. Her research projects include focus on young women’s leadership in Higher Education in partnership with the African Gender Institute (AGI) and the Destabilizing Heteronormativity project in partnership with Aids International (AAI). She has co-edited three books (UCT and ZED press releases) and has published in both local and internationally accredited journals. She is currently Editorial Board member on three accredited journals and has co-edited three Special Issue journals: Rethinking Social Cohesion and its relationship to Exclusion, Papers on Social Representations and Micro-politics of Belonging in Higher Education. She is the current Chair of the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychology Society of South Africa (PSYSSA) and recent recipient of the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Rising Star Fellowship at Wits University.

Featured Guest

Pregs Govender

Pregs Govender.jpg

Pregs Govender is a writer, educator, and author. Pregs was active in the student, teacher, women and trade union movements that fought Apartheid in the late 70’s and 80’s. During South Africa’s transition, she managed the Women’s National Coalition campaign for equality and women’s rights in the Constitution and future SA. As an ANC MP from 1994, she proposed that SA develop the ‘Women’s Budget’ and steered its political mpact on the 1998/1999 National Budget. She chaired Parliament’s committee on women, that ensured Parliament enacted over 80% of women’s  legislative demands. In 2002, she resigned after being the only MP across parties to register opposition to the arms deal in the defence budget vote and after chairing HIV/AIDS public hearings (breaking the silence of the ANC Caucus on treatment). In 2009, Parliament unanimously elected her to the South African Human Rights Commission which she served as Deputy Chair until 2015, where her feminist approach advanced socio economic rights  especially on water and sanitation in SA and globally. Pregs is the author of  Love and Courage, A Story of Insubordination which has been used as a toolkit, guide and curriculum resource by individuals, organisations and movements, including feminist activists, teachers, writers, trade unionists, and parliamentarians. It is used to teach anti-racist and anti-capitalist feminism, writing political memoir, personal and political transformation, budgets, economics and law-making, political transitions and women’s coalitions, meditation & activism. Pregs currently holds a Sonke Gender Justice Fellowship to establish an Institute for Transformative Feminist Leadership.

Website: www.pregsgovender.com

Pregs Govender bio and profile pic courtesy of Gcina Mhlope

Featured Artist

Sophie Peters

Sophie Peters profile pic.jpeg

Born June 23, 1968 in Johannesburg  before moving to Cape Town, Sophie Peters has taught in a variety of places and organizations including the Child Welfare Society, the People’s Centre in Nyanga East, the Sakhile Children’s Art Project in Mitchells Plain, the Visual Arts Group at Luyolo Community Centre in Gugulethu as well as numerous projects and workshops for children and adults. Anartist in her own right, Sophie has produced work in various mediums from linocuts to cast iron sculpture to oil paintings. Peters has exhibited both nationally and internationally and in recent years her works has been featured in several major South African exhibitions including “Peace for South Africa” in Switzerland ( 1995), “Woman on South Africa” (1995) in the Paarl Museum and ‘South African Artist” (1990) in London just to name a few. When asked about her artistic influences she replied, “My work is an expression of myself. I am not really influenced by any one artist but only by my own particular experiences”.An avid muralist, Sophie Peters has contributed her skills back to the community many times over including several in the Cape Town area as well as four murals in London co-designed with other participating South Africa artist for the Zabalaza festival in 1990. Her work has been extensively featured South African magazines and collected by the South African National Gallery.

Featured Film

Love in the Midst of Climate Change

The Midst Of Climate Change is a documentary that highlights ordinary people doing extraordinary things to survive and lead decent lives in the teeth of adverse circumstances. It chronicles the work of climate change activists in Cape Town, SA and Newark, New Jersey as they work to bring the reality of climate change home to the people who are most affected. We believe that only as a mass movement can we effect change, so the mission of this film is to reach as many as possible. Thanks to the contributions of many (not least AFEM 2018), we raised enough money to complete a 20 minute short which screened in the US, Morocco and Finland. We continue to seek funding to complete the full project, Please donate!

Crowdfunding link: http://www.commonmindsmedia.com/

INTERVIEWS/FEATURES: Sophie Peters

Audio-visual interviews/features

Oral history interviews with Simba Pemhenayi, Sophie Peters and Thembinkosi Goniwe, May 1997 Part 1 and 2

Pemhenayi was a performing arts educator at the Community Arts Project (1994-1998). Peters was a visual arts student (full-time) and child arts educator (part-time) at the Community Arts Project (circa 1987-1997). Goniwe was a part-time visual arts student and educator at the Community Arts Project (late 1980s-circa 1997). The interviews were conducted by Robyn Denny and commissioned by Mario Pissarra for Community Arts Project ‘Histories of CAP’ project.

Access part 1 here (starts at 19:50)

Access part 2 here (ends at 2:50)

South african artistsWhat’s next? Episode 3: Sophie Peters 
by Pierre Tremblay


Sophie Peters feature by African Art Group

Interviews / features online and in print

Soudien, Amie (2022) Hope and indictment: the work of Sophie Peters. Creative Knowledge Resources. Oct 6, 2022.
Available at: https://www.creativeknow.org/bopawritersforum/sophie-peters
[download pdf here]

Jobo, Thabo (2014) Charity Concert In Aid of the Needy. Eldorado-Times September, p. 11
[download pdf here]

Van Jaarsveld, Deur Dalena (2009) Sophie Die Heldersiende Kunstenaar. Kuier 25 November 2009, pp. 16-17
[download pdf here]

Koloane, David (2008) The Greatmore Studios celebrate 10 years. SA Art Times 3:11, p. 15
[download pdf here]

Kariem, Durelle & Adams, Sheena (2008) Spiritual Sanctity. Destiny August 2008, pp. 131-132
[download pdf here]

Velaphi, Sipho & Linda Nkosi Ngwenya (2007) Beyond Borders. Voyage Ensemble, Rootz, pp. 70-71
[download pdf here]

Bao, Peng Li (2006) I paint ‘from the heart’. TygerBurger 23 March 2006
[download pdf here]

Carew, Douglas (2004) This Sea Point Hotel is a Collector’s Item. Weekend Argus 31 January 2004
[download pdf here]

Van Bosch, Cobus (2000) Kunstenaars Kyk Na Die Landskap as Politieke Terrein. Beeld, Kuns en Vermaak 28 August 2000
[download pdf here]

Pollak, Lloyd (1999) Truth, reconciliation in art. Cape Times Arts & Lifestyle. 28 September 1999
[download pdf here]

no author (1997) Sophie Peters. Fair Lady 22 January 1997, p. 53
[download pdf here]

Rothbart, Tamara (1997) Sophie Peters “Breek of baas”, Marie Claire June 1997, p. 32
[download pdf here]

Blerk, Gareth van (1995) Life’s experiences as Art, n.p.
[download pdf here]

Eastern Reporter (1995) Resolute Sophie fulfils her dream. The Argus, Wednesday 14 June 1995, p. 16
[download pdf here]

no author (1995) Sophie Peters: A Cry From the Heart, Belville Arts Association
[download pdf here]

Neill, Shannon (1994) Sophie’s choice. South Side – Life and art, 1-5 April 1994
[download pdf here]

Northern Reporter (1994) Sophie ‘Made A Deal With God’ To Become An Artist. The Argus June 1994
[download pdf here]

van der Merwe, Lydia and Ina Duvenage (1994) Die Drie Vrou Kan n Kwas Swaai. Sarie 30 March 1994, pp. 34 – 35.
[download pdf here]

An interview with David Koloane, Helen Sibidi, Bhekisani Manyoni, Maggie Makhoana, Sophie Peters, Tshidi Sefako. In: Oliphant, Andries Walter (ed.) (1993) Culture and Empowerment: Debates, Workshops, Art and Photography from the Zabalaza Festival. Johannesburg: COSAW
[download pdf here]

Adams, Shireen (1993) Sophie skets ‘wat sy voel’. Metro-Burger, November 1993
[download pdf here]

no author (1993) Group Show. Sophie Peters.  Femina
[download pdf here]

WORKS: Sophie Peters – Workshops and Residencies

Workshops facilitated by Sophie Peters
2006
Community Art Workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town

2004
Renaissance Printmaking Workshop, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town

2001
Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Caversham Press, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2000
Print 2000, Maastricht, Netherlands

1997
Printmaking Project, Robben Island, Cape Town

1990
Zabalaza Festival, London

WORKS: Sophie Peters – Exhibitions and Commissions

Exhibitions by/with Sophie Peters

Solo exhibitions

 2007
Hand to Plough Landscapes, The Framery Gallery, Cape Town

1995
Cry from the Heart, Belville Association of Arts, Cape Town

Group exhibitions

2022-2023

When Rainclouds Gather: Black South African Women Artists, 1940 – 2000, Norval Foundation, Cape Town.
Access exhibition page here

2019
Botanica II, Contemporary Botanical Art at Art B. Gallery in Belville
Lino Printmaking Workshop Hout Bay Contemporary
Digital Museum of Art and Memory, District Six Museum

2018
Woordfees The Endless Horizon Print Portfolio

2010
1910-2010 From Pieneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Gill Alderman Gallery, Kenilworth, Cape Town

2008
Provoke, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town
Some South African Voices, Rose Korber Art Consultancy, Cape Town
Mapping Cultural Echoes – Voyage Ensemble, Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA), Harare

2007
africa south, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town

2006
Art in Business, Artscape, Cape Town
Face (In) Cape Town, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
A Journey Together, Voyage Ensemble, Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town

2005
Botaki Exhibition 2, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town
Botaki Exhibition 4, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Cape Town

2004
Her Story, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
Renaissance, Cape Gallery, Cape Town

2004
A Decade of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town

2003
Dreams of Our Daughters, Klein Karoo Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn

2001
The Hourglass Project A Women’s Vision, Art on Paper, Johannesburg; UNISA Gallery, Pretoria
Homecoming, Guga S’Thebe, Cape Town

2000
How the Land Lies, Chelsea Gallery, Cape Town
Greatmore Studios Official Opening, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Exhibitions in Germany and Iceland


1999
Portfolio for Playing Cards, Sasol Art Museum, Stellenbosch; Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria; Gencor Gallery, Johannesburg (Print Exchange)
Ten Years of Printmaking, Hard Ground Printmakers, Sanlam Art Gallery, Cape Town

1998
Siwela Ngaphesheya, Crossing the water, Robben Island Museum, Robben Island
Ekhaya, travelling exhibition, Western Cape
Dis Nag – The Cape’s Hidden Roots in Slavery, Iziko South African Cultural History Museum, Cape Town
Artist for Africa, Sweden
Recent Publications, Hard Ground Printmakers, Grahamstown Festival, Grahamstown

1997
Recent Publications, Hard Ground Printmakers, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
The Body Politic, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town
Sicula Sixhentsa Xa Sisonke – The South Africa Aesthetic (USA travelling exhibition), Mississippi, Detroit, New York


1996
Human Rights, South African Cultural History Museum, Cape Town
Barricaded Rainbow, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town
Artists Against Apartheid, Parliament, Cape Town, South Africa

1995 
Relief in Black and White, Brighton Festival, Brighton

1994
Creating Image, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
Exhibition (USA travelling exhibition), Brooklyn, Massachussets

1993
South Africa in Black and White, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Picturing Our World, Grahamstown Festival, Grahamstown; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Women on Women, Seef Trust Art Gallery, Cape Town

1992
Looking Back, Community Arts Project, Cape Town
Visual Arts Group Travelling Exhibition, Zolani Centre, Nyanga East; Uluntu centre, Gugulethu; Mannenberg People’s Centre; Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town
Tapestry Wall, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria

1991
Visual Arts Group Travelling Exhibition, Cape Town
Transitions, Baxter Theatre Gallery, Cape Town
Art in the Avenue, Cape Town

1990 
Zabalaza Festival, Institute for Contemporary Art, London

1989
Nude, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town and Serendipity Gallery, Cape Town

1987
Peace for South Africa, Geneva, Switzerland 
Volkkas Atelier Exhibition, invited artists exhibition, Johannesburg Art Foundation, Johannesburg

1986
The Eye of an Artist, Gugulethu
Young Blood, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town

Commissions: Murals and Book Illustrations

2008
Arts Cape mural

2007
Safmarine, Cape Town (four paintings)

2004-05
Pentecostal Rapha Mission (mural)

2004
Adderley Street flower-sellers mural, Sea Point Protea Hotel, Cape Town

1998
Puleng and the Pumpkin (children’s book illustration)
Hair (children’s book illustration)
Truworths’ Millenium Calendar (linoprints)

1997
True Love at Last (written by Ginwala Dowling, illustration)
No More Stars in my Roof (written by Ginwala Dowling, illustration)
The Original Natural Living Diary (illustration)

1996
Robben Island Museum, Cape Town (mural)
District Six Museum, Cape Town (mural)
Department of Health, Cape Town (mural)
Mayibuye Centre, University of Western Cape, Cape Town (mural in celebration of Heritage Day)
The Black Sash Trust Annual Report (book cover illustration)
Day-by-Day English, Maskew Miller Longman, Midrand (book illustration)

1994
Nico Malan Opera House / Artscape Opera House, Cape Town (mural with Tshidi Sefako and Xolile Mtakatya)
Hanover Park Murals, Cape Town City Council
Peace in our Land (mural commissioned by Nedbank)
Mafia and the Aeroplane, written by Max Sed, published by Human & Rousseau

1992
The Old Days (woodcut) in: Staffrider, 10:3, Cosaw Publishing, Johannesburg, p. 171991
Transitions, Baxter Gallery, Cape Town (mural with members of Hard-Ground Printmakers Workshop)

1990
Zabalaza Festival, London (murals in collaboration with other artists)

1987
Community House, Salt River, Cape Town (murals in collaboration with other artists)

WORKS: Mamela Nyamza – Choreography

Select solo and group performances by Mamela Nyamza

2022

Andizi, perfomed by Mamela Nyamza, Lulu Mlangeni and Thandazile Sonia Radebe at The Market Theatre, Johannesburg.

2021

GROUNDED, Festival Theater der Welt 2021 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

2020

Pest Control, premiered on the 26th of June 2020 on the Virtual National Arts Festival website.

2018

Black Privilege, National Arts Festival in Makhanda.

De-Apart-Hate at the 5th annual Plett ARTS Festival.

2017

De-Apart-Hate at Johannesburg, Dance Umbrella, 2017

Afrovibes Festival 2017, The Netherlands

In DE-APART-HATE award-winning South African dancer, choreographer and arts activist Mamela Nyamza shows the oppression of women and (gay) sexuality by the church and how to overcome this. The performance is a search for personal freedom, a breathless duet in which she dances with the Bible between her legs. Mamela explores the limits of dance, performance and provocation. DE-APART-HATE gives a glimpse into the current power structures of South Africa where a cry is rising for decolonization of culture. 

2015

The Last Attitude, Nelisiwe Xaba and Mamela Nyamza.
Mamela Nyamza and Nelisiwe Xaba take us with them on this exploratory piece, The Last Attitude, which pushes the boundaries and acceptable norms of ballet. Taking on themes of lightness and heaviness, strict movements and free experimentation, they switch effortlessly between the male and female roles. The piece sets out to explore the relationship between men and women in ballet, juxtaposing male and female, support and exploitation, they travel through a number of scenarios in which the typical dynamics of ballet are subverted. Report by Campbell Easton & Aphile Aphile Silolo School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University.

19 BORN 76 REBELS

Conceptualised and designed by Mamela Nyamza; performed with Faniswa Yisa
Originally co-produced with the SADC, Festival d’Avignon for the France-South Africa seasons 2012- 2013; previously presented at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, 2014.

Video preview from the Festival d’Avignon.

19 BORN 76 REBELS at Zeitz MOCAA

2013 

Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo at Infecting the City, ICA, Cape Town

Having recently returned from sold-out performances at the Ovalhouse in London, highly acclaimed choreographer and Donald Gordon Creative Arts Fellow, Mamela Nyamza, presents a startling dance performance Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo (The Meal), for which she received a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival 2012. Also featuring Dinah Eppel and Kirsty Ndawo, the work celebrates the creative capacity of young South Africans to subvert and transform instruments of oppression and denigration into expressions of ecstasy and beauty; and reflects on the relationship between women from different generations and races.

A short preview of Mamela Nyamza’s – Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo / The Meal. Filmed live at The National Arts Festival 2012 in Grahamstown, South Africa. 

2012 

I Stand corrected, physical theatre, with the British theatre producer Mojisola Adebayo. Ovalhouse, London; Soweto Theatre, Johannesburg; Artscape, Cape Town.

Okuya Phantsi Kwempulo (The Meal). Three women show, South African National Arts Festival 2012 (Standard Bank Ovation Award)

Conceptualised, choreographed and directed by Nyamza, the work is performed together with Dinah Eppel and Kirsty Ndawo. Okuya Phantsi Kwempulo considers cooking, eating, art, love and sex. “Before a meal can be eaten, preparation is necessary. The most basic division is between the creator of the meal and those who are being served. This work examines the process in which the eater becomes one with the meal, though the process of reaching satisfaction can take many forms”, Nyamza comments.

2011 

Isingqala and Amafongkong are collaborative productions with the Adugna Dance Theatre Company (Ethiopia) at the National Arts Festival (Grahamstown, South Africa, 2011), and African Footprints (2006).

Isingqala, performed, directed and choreographed by Mamela Nyamza, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown South Africa; Different Voices – Bates Dance Festival, USA; Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Slovenia.

Bates Dance Festival, Danse Afrique Day 3

Amafongkong 
Ethiopian Adugna Dance company; South African National Arts Festival 2011 

Abangxolayo (Noise makers) choreographed by Mamela Nyamza, premiered at GoetheonMain

Nyamza describes the Noise Makers as “all of those who are no longer in our existence, their names are written everywhere and we still hear of them even today”.

About the performance, which she will create in a collaborative process with a group of dancers at GoetheonMain, Nyamza explains that “it’s like a beauty contest, a function, but yet we are going to mourn or commemorate all of those who have left us with something to celebrate. It talks about the past at once and moving forward with what has been powerfully done by those who never kept quiet, be they artists, politicians, students, children or philosophers. This is a piece written by bodies creating moving images that will not be understood but yet will say something powerful to the viewer.”
Artslink

2010

Hatched performed, directed and choreographed by Mamela Nyamza at Out The Box Festival 2010 (Grahamstown South African National Arts Festival 2010); Dance Umbrella, London 2011; the 8th Pan-African dance biennial, Danse l’Afrique danse! in Mali, Bamako.

Art Africa Magazine: Danse l’Afrique danse!

Festival Brochure

HATCHED by Mamela Nyamza

Dance Umbrella 2011, Performed on 28 and 29 October at The Place

Mamela Nyamza’s autobiographical and passionate Hatched reveals an intriguing tension between Western balletic conventions and traditional African forms. A moving and evocative piece, Hatched conveys the challenging issues of a woman’s evolving sexuality within the customary rites and rituals of marriage. 

SHIFT by Mamela Nyamza

The performance celebrates the lives of, and commemorates, all women in sport, including Eudy Simelane, the Banyana Banyana soccer player who was stabbed 27 times because she was acting ‘like a man’. The work draws attention to the stryggle of women in sport and to girl children who experience discrimination in their own country, such as is currently the case with Caster Semenya. Mixed media link the drama and the dance, the 1960s and the present day, contextualizing the stories and serving as a bridge between different places, times and spaces, giving context to the idea that issues relating to sexuality necer take place in isolation.

Fifteen years after democracy, what are the gaps between anti-apartheid aspirations and present day realities? Hoe can the most progressive constitution in the world, which was worked our and earned through a historic liberation struggler in South Africa and which enshrines equality  for people of all sexualities, be fulfilled in reality? It looks at private and public life, tradition and the law, the state and the individual, and at the struggle against apartheid and for sexual liberation. (Artist statement)

Fancy footwork, now world’s at her feet. The Star 27 Oct 2010.

Mendi 2, Dance Factory, Newtown
Sunday Times 14 February 2010: Moving Bodies made to tell stories that matter

2009 

Kutheni, two women show performed by the members of Jazzart Dance Theatre, commissioned work for the FNB Dance Umbrella

I-Dolls,performed by the Cape Dance Company, commissioned by the South African National Arts Council

2008 

If Clothes Could Talk, performed by the Cape Junior Ballet

Our Fear, outreach project performed by Dance for All students

HATCH,one woman show, performed by Mamela Nyamza, On Broadway, Cape Town

“Hatch is a dance piece that seeks challenging issues of culture to convey, tradition and woman’s evolving sexuality with and outside the customary rites and rituals of marriage, starting from the time a girl-child is born until she realises her true identity after years of hardship in a loveless marriage.”
Mamba Online

Mexico: Foro Performatica, festival brochure

2007 

The Classroom, performed by the Zama Dance School

2006 

Some of Us Can Change, performed by the Zama Dance School

2005

Angels in Strip, with the Free Flight Dance Company at Arts Cape; Window into a World

2003 

Umakoti welixesha,The Woman’s Festival at the Dance Factory, Johannesburg

2002

Performed at the opening of the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

2000

Lead / Principal Dancer for hit musical(2000). Toured in London, UK and Atlanta, US

1999 

Reality Check,The State Theatre Dance company, Johannesburg

1997 -2000

Performed with State Theatre Dance Company,SA. The first public performance with the company, FNB Dance Umbrella, followed by the KKNK in Oudtshoorn; Oude Libertas; Grahamstown National Arts Festival; Dance Factory and the Civic Theatre seasons. First trip out of the country with the company: Israel, performed in Eilat and Ranana. Collaborated with The Danish Company (1997- 199) and performing inDenmark, Finland, Switzerland. performed internationally choreographed pieces by Robert North, Edd Wubb, Redha and Bebe Miller and South African choreographed pieces by Candice Johnstone, Esther Nasser, Alfred Hinkel’s famous Bolero, Debbie Rakusin; Sean Bovim & Christopher Kindo’s Me and You.

1995-1996

Performed with Pretoria Dance Technikon in all of their seasons, performed in works of South African acclaimed choreographers such as

Vincent Mantsoe, Moeketsi Koena, Boyzie Cekwane, Robyn Orlin; David Matamela; Debbie Rakusin and Sonia Mayor.

1986 -1993

Grahamstown Arts Festival; FNB Dance Umbrella; Sea Point Eistedford with the Zama dance school. Works choreographed by Arlene Westergaard and the students of the school.