Isiqhaza saseGiyane (2020)
Sandile Radebe
South Africa
Artist statement
“I am interested in isiZulu material culture and how it is a signifier of blackness and an account of events. My wooden sculpture, “Isiqhaza saseGiyane,” is based on ukuklekla, the Zulu practice of slicing earlobes open to adorn them with earplugs known as iziqhaza. The sculpture, my interpretation of iziqhaza, plays with balance, harmony, symmetry, ambigrams, mirroring, repetition, rhythm, complementariness and colour.
My iziqhaza is rooted in a different context to that of ukuklekla. Mine is a critique on how we as amaZulu, and as human beings in a broader sense, understand who we are and what identifies us in the modernised global world. Between isiZulu epistemes and those of the west, I seek to find the world I inhabit.”
— Sandile Radebe
“I am interested in isiZulu material culture and how it is a signifier of blackness and an account of events. My wooden sculpture, “Isiqhaza saseGiyane,” is based on ukuklekla, the Zulu practice of slicing earlobes open to adorn them with earplugs known as iziqhaza. The sculpture, my interpretation of iziqhaza, plays with balance, harmony, symmetry, ambigrams, mirroring, repetition, rhythm, complementariness and colour.
My iziqhaza is rooted in a different context to that of ukuklekla. Mine is a critique on how we as amaZulu, and as human beings in a broader sense, understand who we are and what identifies us in the modernised global world. Between isiZulu epistemes and those of the west, I seek to find the world I inhabit.”
— Sandile Radebe