ARTIST STATEMENT
Ingoma ka Tiyo Soga is a multidisciplinary project which spans two years. It first premiered at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town and was featured at the Institute for Creative Arts launch of the book Acts of Transgression: Contemporary Live Art in South Africa. In 2019, Ingoma ka Tiyo Soga was featured at the National Arts Festival, Makhanda, with contributions from musicians Christopher Jardine and Wandithanda Makandula, as well as historian Dr Nomathamsanqa Tisani, who gave a lecture on Soga’s family history and genealogy.
Ingoma ka Tiyo Soga for the ICA online fellowship will feature a 3-channel film shot at Mgwali village and Thuthura near Centane. These films and audio recordings engage with both Soga’s family history and with elders such as bawo Maphukatha, bawo Bhevu and Bulelwa Mbangu, who is the Tiyo Soga Community Museum Manager. This iteration of the work for the ICA Online Fellowship focuses on architectural buildings and landscapes in Mgwali and Thuthura where Reverend Tiyo Soga resided and built schools as a contribution to the education of black children.
THIS WORK IS BASED ON...
Mgwali 1 and Mgwali 2 films are a starting point for the project, which was shot in 2019. They are followed by an interview with Mr Maphukatha who is a resident of Mgwali, and a congregant of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa. The Thuthura film is short, featuring a great great granddaughter of Rev. Tiyo Soga who currently resides at his house and looks after his grave at Thuthura in Centane.
Sikhumbuzo Makandula
Sikhumbuzo Makandula is a Cape Town-based visual artist, with a Fine Art degree from Rhodes University and a Masters in Live Art, Interdisciplinary and Public Art from the University of Cape Town. His first solo exhibition, titled In Search of A Nation, was in 2016 at Njelele Art Station, Harare – and since then he has exhibited widely, both locally and internationally, including at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, at the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna, and at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in New York. Recent performances include Zizimase, performed at the Infecting the City public arts festival in 2019, and Ingoma ka Tiyo Soga performed at the ICA Live Art Festival in 2018 and at the 2019 National Arts Festival.