NewAfricanWoman Issue 49 - Flipbook - Page 85
ARTS & CULTURE
Hair, with its profound symbolic relationship
to Blackness, remains a relevant source of
inspiration and dialogue within contemporary
cultural discourse.
The manipulation of Black hair
Many of the historic and contemporary hairstyles that
Zizipho references include architectural constructions where the hair (or artificial extensions in many
cases) is wrapped over armatures. These include the
complex crested arrangement worn by Fulani women
from West Africa and the fan-shaped headpiece of
the Zande from Congo.
Having specialised in textile design at university,
Zizipho was drawn to the process of constructing
each hairstyle and the meditative aspect of crafting their patterns. The manipulation of Black hair is
a long-recognised traditional art form that has only
recently entered the mainstream lexicon of cultural
iconography.
The works in uBuhle boKhokho are palimpsests in
their visual power, echoing a lineage of artistry that
includes traditional hairstyles documented in archival
materials, the iconic images of Nigerian photographer
J.D.’Okhai Ojeikere and the contemporary creations
of Chicago-based artist Shani Crowe. Like the work
of Ojeikere and Crowe,
in Poswa’s ceramics, the ephemerality of these
cultural symbols finds a new transcendental sense
of permanence.
This exhibition expands on Zizipho’s earlier Magodi
series, titled after the Shona word for traditional African hairstyles, in one sustained and more in-depth
body of work. Curated throughout the entire gallery
space, the exhibition invites the viewer to walk
through an assembly of selves with each work reflecting a different hairstyle worn during the project’s
embodied research.
Some of the exhibition’s sculptures were titled after
specific hairstylists whom the artist knows, and their
country of origin. Others refer to historical female
figures, the regional names given to specific hairstyles, or groups known to wear the depicted coiffure
and their geographical origins. In so doing, Zizipho
interweaves the personal and historic; situating
herself in a vast and ever-expanding network of Black
women who continue to self-define and affirm their
own standards of beauty. ▶
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March 2023 New African Woman
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