giclée print on Hahnemühle Museum Etching Paper mounted on metal

Artwork date: 2016
Signature details: embossed with the artist's signature; accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist
Edition: number 4 from an edition of 8

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image size: 59.5 x 41.5 cm, sheet size: 64 x 45 cm

Notes:

Nobukho Nqaba was born in Butterworth in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. She is a graduate of the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, where she majored in photography (2012). In 2012, she was awarded the Tierney Fellowship and was the recipient of reGeneration3, a photography focused initiativeby the Musée de l’Elysee, Lausanne. Nqaba holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in Visual Art and Theory (2013) from the University of Cape Town, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Library & Information Studies (2019). She has embarked on several teaching endeavours through her role as Visual Art and Digital Photography Educator at the Peter Clarke Art Centre, and is currently a Lecturer of Photography at the Red & Yellow Creative School of Business in Cape Town. Nqaba’s work explores the precariousness of home and opportunity. Using checkered plastic bags commonly known as ‘China bags’, plain grey blankets, and worn overalls, she points to the fragility and impermanence of home. Her work reflects on personal memories of growing up in an informal settlement in Grabouw, a town located in the Western Cape province of South Africa, and the complexities of migration and labour. Ndiyayekelela (Letting go) embodies the artist’s struggle to come to terms with the loss of her father – a migrant worker in the rural Eastern Cape, where Nqaba was raised. Using symbolic materials that recall her past, Nqaba battles with feelings of guilt, fondness and confusion – reinforcing her physical presence. The artist’s movements, together with the carefully selected materials, conjure up oldmemories, bringing them to life through photography. The workers' overalls and blankets tell the story of many South Africans, defined by their role in the working class. Much like the bags in Umaskhenkethe Likhaya Lam, the overalls and blankets represent the impermanence of a homespace, and the search to find comfort in the familiar: to carry a part 'home' with you, and to come to grips with the burden of its weight. Continuing the conversation on migrancy, Nqaba physically confronts and challenges (the value of) the materials, which in turn take on their own agency. This work was previously exhibited at the Also Known As Africa (AKAA) art and design fair in Paris (2016); Displacement, 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town (2017); New African Photography II, Red Hook Labs, New York (2017); and Connections, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town (2019).