"All pandemics seem to have one purpose, to strip people of their flesh leaving only bones! So we use our bones to heal. Our divinatory bones, and an angry abused earth are the catalyst underpinning this exhibition. I believe it is vitally important to focus people’s minds on healing in all its aspects at a time like this, and to emphasise that our common survival depends on us working collectively to both heal ourselves and the earth." - Pitika Ntuli
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Azibuyele Emasisweni, (Return to the Source) is the first solo exhibition of the renowned artist and Sangoma (spiritual healer) Pitika Ntuli to comprise solely of works sculpted from bone. Pitika uses bones to ‘divine the state of the nation in a season of anomie’. The exhibition was nominated for a Global Fine Art Award for best online exhibition in the world 2020. For more information regarding the nomination click here
It took Pitika 3 years to create these sculptures, long before the Covid-19 pandemic or the global protests and discourse around ‘Black Lives Matter’. Yet this exhibition seems an apt response or antidote to the social and political upheaval of our times. As the exhibition title Azibuyele Emasisweni (Return to the Source) suggests, a return to the ‘source’ of African spiritualism and knowledge may lead the way to reconnecting with human ethics, the essence of existence, and, of course, nature.
This exhibition was initially conceptualised as a museum show featuring 45 sculptures created by Pitika that was to be launched at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. When it was decided to present this year’s festival virtually due to Covid-19, Azibuyele Emasisweni was reconceptualised in order for its release online prior to the museum tour in 2021.
Instead of simply presenting photographs of the sculptures online so as to replicate an exhibition in a physical space, The Melrose Gallery, Ruzy Rusike – the curator and Pitika considered how they could maximise on the benefits that the platform offered in terms of impact, engagement and reach.
Pitika wrote and recorded 45 praise songs, one for each sculpture to present these as audio notes to accompany the images. He also gathered a circle of 33 thought and creative leaders to engage with him around the exhibition, the artworks, African spirituality, indigenous knowledge systems and healing. These engagements have resulted in a moving and valuable collection of poetry, songs, thought notes, essays, films and a talks programme which has been made available on this viewing room.
“An African ethos doesn’t encourage individualism. In Africa we say, “ A group of trees break the angry wind but the tree that towers above the rest is broken by the wind”. I have no desire to be broken by the wind of my people, rather I desire that we should breathe together with one nose for a communion of spirits. I needed collective voices to generate the most powerful possible ethos of healing and awareness and to generate commitment towards better treatment of the earth, of each other, and of animals. Thus it is to strengthen and magnify the message that I am collaborating with so many creative and talented people - speaking, poetising, singing!” Pitika Ntuli.
The artist may be reaching into the depths of time to reflect on the spiritual wasteland that might define this era but he does so using the latest technologies to take his much needed message of catharsis and healing to the world. Thereby collapsing those hard lines that were thought to divide ancient and contemporary concerns and art.
We invite you to spend some time truly engaging with this moving content.
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UKUPHAHLA
OPENING AIRWAYS FOR THE ANCESTORS BY SESIYAKHULA NJALO -
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Curatorial Statement
Ruzy RusikeThrough our tears, we can begin to plumb the depths of our inner being, helping us to understand the deepest questions of our lives, the journeys we are on, and our sense of belonging.
There is a sense of tranquillity and catharsis that we derive from crying. It resonates within and without, as the warmth of a tear falls onto our faces, touching our cheeks and then our lips. It is in these tears that we can understand the depth of our being and a realization of the answers to our lives’ deepest questions, along with a sense of belonging. Animals are embodiments of tranquillity as they live in harmony within it by constantly observing, assimilating, and being in stillness within themselves and without disturbance. As much as animals take from their environment, they give back to it constantly through their life cycle. Our cycle of giving back is at the end when our whole life form is placed into the earth and only our bones remain. Therefore, it is not by chance that Azibuyele Emasisweni (Return to the Source) comprises of works solely sculpted from animal bones. These bones are imbued with pure and natural energy in line with their attunement to the natural flow of the world. This contrasts humans, who remain within the energetic rhythms made by the intentions, will, and reactions of the communities we belong to. The bones that are on display in this exhibition represent both mortality and immortality: the transitory spirit of the animal. Azibuyele Emasisweni (Return to the Source) aligns the spirit to the bondless form of time.
SOURCE
Bones are the structure of what was once a life form. In semantics, the ‘bone’ is classified first as a noun and defined as ‘any of the pieces of hard whitish tissue making up the skeleton in humans and other vertebrates.’ In biology, it is defined as ‘the rigid organ comprised of bone tissues, and forms the skeleton of most vertebrates.’ While these English understandings are relevant, I will instead align this essay to its Nguni words, amathambo okubhula (divination bones). These are a set of bones used as a medium of communication between a traditional healer and ancestral spirits. That knowledge, whether it is indigenous or modern, is the outcome of model-making above the functioning of the natural world. All societies strive to make sense of how the natural world behaves. We strive to apply this knowledge that will guide practices which align with one’s social, religious, and cultural beliefs. Furthermore, the practice of exhibitions gives one a sense of range, reach, possibility, and what can be imagined when we platform an idea. As the word ‘platform’ comes from ‘plot’ and ‘form’, from stage and theatre, it suggests that there is a structure that can host other behaviours. Its exterior allows possible behaviours, while its interior stays relatively fixed – like different plays being performed in a single venue. Although the exhibition echoes existing ideas, there is a larger unfolding of messages that sets forth a new agenda when it comes to understanding the established knowledge systems of content, sculpture, spirituality, exhibition, and audience.
The Spirit
Pitika Ntuli identifies as an artist, academic polymath, political activist, struggle stalwart, poet, and spiritual healer – someone who embraces both the physical and spiritual aspects of humanity. In this body of 45 works, he has engaged in numerous collaborations with other thought-leaders in the arts, music, theatre, literature, politics, media, and performance. One gains a new-found understanding of oneself in a community of things, ideas, people, rituals, and languages. We can see this today, especially in this paradigm of COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, the internet, communication, and knowledge. We see his sculptural acts of divination to bind the spirit animal to the animal bone. We can see an act that aligns itself to the particular moment of a community that gathers around the interpretations of being. We consider what it is that they see or do not see: a community that grows around a concept. Thus, his works reverberate moments that have existed, currently exist, and shall come to exist. In other words, he collapses time through the act of activating the spirit of the bones by decorating them with symbols, beads, shells, objects, and hair which are relevant to the spirit of the bone that he wishes to call upon. Ntuli reconciles the chasm between the two - bone and spirit - by creating a space for the spirit of the animal to come into being. When communicated or brought to us, this spirit ceases to adhere to time but ties itself to the earthly plane that facilitates communication and allows us to draw from their qualities.
Historically, beads were traded for slaves as well as ivory, gold, and other goods distributed in Europe and around the world. Therefore, spiritual healers/izangoma treat and read beads as one of many connections to the ancestors. This symbiotic relationship can be read as the shackles that bound the ancestors to that of trade, conflict, slavery, life, death, and birth. The colours of the beads reflect the earth, air, wind, and fire – basic elements which align to meaningful symbolism.
Recently, Reverend Al Sharpton delivered a eulogy at the funeral of George Floyd that reflected the living part of a human in the afterlife of slavery of partus sequitur ventrem (that which is brought forth follows the womb):
Genesis II said that God formed man. And Jamie, they say he breathed breath, the breath of life to make him a live human being, which means that breath comes from God. Breath is how God gives you life. Breath is not some coincidental kind of thing that happens. Breath is a divine decision that God made. Some babies are born stillborn. God decides to blow breath in them. Breath is sanctified, breath is sacred. You don’t have the right to take God’s breath out of anybody; you can’t put breath in their body. But you don’t look at it that way because of your wickedness, principalities, darkness.
The word 'spirit' is derived from the Latin word 'spiritus', meaning breath, and healing implies a process of making something whole. Spiritual healing is concerned, literally and originally, with holistic breathing transformations. It connects itself to the beginning and the end: breath is that which bonds the earth-bound physicality to the fluid movement of the spirit. If breathing stops, one is declared dead. Because Sharpton connects “breath to God” and “God to sacred”, he reiterates the impure energies of humans who are not sacred but connected to it. Breath is the umbilical cord to many forms of experiences, intentions, and cultivations we witness through different flows of breaths. Ntuli, through the divination act of sculpting into the animal bones, is in alignment with the frequency of the soul of the breath of the earth. This breath occupies time, space, and construction. When, like George Floyd, breath inhabits that Fanonian “zone of non-Being”: wickedness, principalities, and darkness deform the sacredness of breath. That is why space and platforms are important: they give us insight into other narratives. More importantly, spiritual healing and spiritual healers have become even more important as they guide the process of making things whole again: rupturing the continued marked effects of apartheid, slavery, imperialism, colonialism, and more.
The Complexity
The direction of time has changed: we no longer see ourselves as living in a linear sense of time, in the sense of the past being followed by the present and then the future. Rather, the future happens before the present and time arrives from the future. This must be addressed because terms such as ‘primitive’ and ‘contemporary’ art were defined according to a linear understanding of time. Linear time is a concept which many Africans reject, hence the phrase “You have African timing”. The interpretation of these works, therefore, is that of an unfinished project. More precisely, it is in the conditioning of what temporality or contingency does with these works within our traditional interpretations of ‘primitive’ and ‘contemporary’ art. The future is trading algorithmically, seven-year plans, development proposals, military simulations, securitised promotions, economic forecasts. All these predictions seek to extract, mine, and trade on the future. What emerges from this is that the 54 countries that assemble the continent of Africa have never been the object of what we call the ‘futures industry’. This is an industry whose network apparatus, and whose devices aim, to develop or stage its laboratory of prefatory futures in Africa. Therefore, this exhibition ignites a new consciousness through human, nature, and animal coming together as one.
It is important to note that the term Afrofuturism in the last decade, has been criticised by many artists and critics. The fact the prefix of Afrofuturism remains focused on the cultural practices of the African diaspora has come under particular fire. Being in the UK, USA, and Europe, the term effectively ends up excluding the history and the future theories and practices produced by artists and theorists working in East, West, North and South African, the Caribbean, and South America. This means the ‘Afro’ in Afrofuturism is still American and Anglo-centric. It is the non-African attempt to monopolise theories around blackness.
There is, therefore, a lot of difficulty in defining or terming a moment in African art or how art is produced in Africa. As most of the works being sculptures, paintings, ceramics, and land art, they evolve and react to time. Furthermore, terms such as ‘Primitive’, ‘Contemporary’, or ‘Afrofuturism’ find problems to narrate this ongoing transformation. This art communicates consumption, industry, technology, taxation, labour, warfare, finance, insurance, government, bureaucracy, science, religion, and philosophy – all of this together was made possible by the ubiquity of slavery. Thus, we bond these works to concepts that are not our own. Because of this complexity, one will never be able to say with certainty when blackness started: before or during the sugar revolution? Or whether slavery followed from racism or whether racism follows from slavery? These works help us realise that we need to examine what they evoke in us as humans and the level of consciousness they activate.
Return
Through our tears, we can begin to plumb the depths of our inner being, helping us to understand the deepest questions of our lives, the journeys we are on, and our sense of belonging. The combination of air, fire, earth, and water is what gives us this breath of life. The act of Breathing is sacred and pure. It is our gift to ourselves. Bones carry the very essence to our life form after transcendence into spiritual beings. Bones are what remains of us on this physical plane. Through this transitory life form, bones transform to become the source. Tribute must be given to Pitika Ntuli as he has allowed us to go into his innermost source through Azibuyele Emasisweni (Return to the Source).
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Artist Profile
Following in the tradition of the ‘Renaissance Man’, Pitika Ntuli is a true artistic, political and academic polymath. Activist, struggle stalwart, sculptor, political prisoner, poet, academic, spiritual healer and exile – all of these mantles can be laid on the shoulders of Pitika through his storied life. Interested in exploring the contradictory relationship between tradition and modernity, Ntuli’s witty and dark reflections on our society are captivating and visionary.
While a teacher, artist and critical thinker living under the threat of apartheid in the sixties and seventies, Ntuli was arrested and made a political prisoner until 1978, when international pressure forced his release. Thus began his prodigious career in exile, capped by MAs in both New York and London.
Primarily a sculptor, Pitika’s work expresses a sense of haunting loneliness – a distress at the pillaging of a continent and culture through the lens of post-colonialism. His stark skeletal structures are created in any physical medium he can find: metal, wood, stone, and bone and can range from small to monumental works in granite that weigh in excess of 19 tonnes.
While there is an element of darkness on display in his work, he is anything but a one-tone artist – there is a strong sense of wit and tongue-in-check irony present in each of his sculptures. Pitika is also a poet, often combining classical Eurocentric form and clichés when discussing the destruction and pillaging of the African culture and landscape.
He has held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in a myriad of group exhibitions, mostly in London. He has curated several exhibitions, and was an artist in residence in the 1980s and ‘90s at schools and colleges in London. He was born in 1942 in Springs and grew up in Witbank in Mpumalanga. His works grace numerous important public, private and corporate collections.
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Following in the tradition of the ‘Renaissance Man’, Pitika Ntuli is a true artistic, political and academic polymath. Interested in exploring the contradictory relationship between tradition and modernity, Ntuli’s witty and dark reflections on our society are captivating and visionary.
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The Aesthetic Charge of Pitika Ntuli's Bone Sculptures
PANEL DISCUSSION 20 Aug 2020Following the very successful talks program, we hosted on the 12th of August 2020 an online panel discussion titled The Aesthetic Charge of Pitika Ntuli's Bone Sculptures. The Panelists' included the following: Pitika Ntuli (Exhibition Artist), Ruzy Rusike (Exhibition Curator), Prof. Hlonipha Mokoena (Art Historian), Athi Mongezeleli Joja (Art Critic), Thembeka Heidi Sincuba (Artist), moderated by Thembinkosi Goniwe (Curator)
Click here to listen to the conversation -
In Conversation
In this section we focus on a series of conversations that Pitika had with different leading thinkers around the exhibition.-
Exhibition opening address - Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor
Minister Grace Naledi Pandor is a South African academic, educationist, lecturer, and politician serving as the minister of International Relations and Cooperation since 2019. She has served as a member of parliament for the African National Congress (ANC) since 1994 and a member of the national Executive Committee of the African National Congress since 2002. She was Minister of Higher Education and Training from 27 February 2018 to 25 May 2019. Ms Grace Naledi Pandoor was the minister of science and technology of the republic of SA from 26 May 2014 until 26 February 2018.
Click here to listen to the conversation -
Contextualizing the show - Curator Ruzy Rusike and Pitika Ntuli
Rusike is an artist, curator and a social activist she has curated many local and international exhibitions such as, Ubuntuism Re-chanted, Palazzo Bembo, Venice, Italy. This landscape. This landscape! The Quintessential Metaphor For Life Tribute Exhibition to David Koloane, RMB Turbine Art Fair. Alongside Thembinkosi Goniwe, The Art Africa Fair 2017, A Flagrant Arcade in Contemporary Art. Rusike was the curatorial researcher for the touring exhibition Towards Intersections: Negotiating Subjects, Objects and Contexts hosted at UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria, Museum Africa, Newtown, Johannesburg and Gordon Institute of Business Science, Hyde Park, Johannesburg.
Click here to listen to the conversation -
In conversation - Judge Albie Sachs and Pitika Ntuli
Albie Sachs, born in 1935, is a South African activist and a former judge of the Constitutional Court (1994 – 2009). In 1952, Sachs began his anti-apartheid activism by participating in The Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign during the second year of his legal studies. In 1955, he attended the Congress of the People at Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was adopted, and, as an advocate, he worked to defend those charged under apartheid’s racist laws. As a result of his activism, Sachs was given banning orders that would restrict his movements and was also placed in solitary confinement for 168 days, without trial. His 22-year exile began in 1966, the first half of which was spent in England and the latter in Mozambique. In 1988, South African security agents pursued Sachs to Mozambique where they placed a bomb in his car, causing him to lose an arm and the sight in one eye.
Click here to listen to the conversation -
In conversation - South African singer Zolani Mahola and Pitika Ntuli
Zolani Mahola is a South African Icon, Singer, Storyteller, Songwriter, and Actress. Zolani, ‘The One Who Sings’ believes in the transformative power of storytelling and that our central story about ourselves and our world changes our reality. Using words, music and her extraordinary theatrical background, she is a powerful advocate for connection. Connection to self, the natural world and to each other.
Profile of Zolani Mahola Image Credit: Gary Van Wyk
Click here to listen to the conversation -
In conversation - Sociologist Ari Sitas and Pitika Ntuli | Part 1
Ari Sitas is a poet, dramatist, and sociologist. He was at the core of the transformation of Labour Studies, of popular, theater and musical work, and a range of cultural and educational initiatives in South Africa. He has recently been awarded the highest honor bequeathed to South Africans for his scientific and creative work, the Order of Mapungubwe. His latest work, Notes for An Oratorio for Small Things that Fall is published in 2020 by Tulika Press, Delhi and Columbia University Press.
Click here to listen to the conversation -
In conversation - Sociologist Ari Sitas and Pitika Ntuli | Part 2
Ari Sitas is a poet, dramatist, and sociologist. He was at the core of the transformation of Labour Studies, of popular, theater and musical work, and a range of cultural and educational initiatives in South Africa. He has recently been awarded the highest honor bequeathed to South Africans for his scientific and creative work, the Order of Mapungubwe. His latest work, Notes for An Oratorio for Small Things that Fall is published in 2020 by Tulika Press, Delhi and Columbia University Press.
Click here to listen to the conversation -
In conversation - Creative Monthati Masebe, Poet Felix Kobina Venter and Pitika Ntuli
Monthati Masebe
Masebe is a pianist, composer and curator. Currently working as an archivist, she has access to multiple indigenous musical material from sub-saharan Africa. This along with her rich cultural childhood has shaped her compositions into interesting combinations of polyrhythmic ‘African’ structures and harmonies heavily inspired by impressionist/modernist composers who inspire her
Felix Kobina Venter's ProfileFelix Kobina Venter is an aspiring poet, writer and lyricist. He is currently studying at the Wits School of Film and Television. He has showcased with W.O.W, slammed on the Word n Sound stage and taken part in streaming events for Pick Me Up Poetry. He is just getting started.
Portrait image of Monthati Masebe by Neo Paulus
Click here to listen to the conversation -
In conversation - Peace activist Ela Gandhi and Pitika Ntuli
Ela Gandhi, is a social worker and political activist in South Africa. She retired after serving two terms in the South African Parliament representing the ANC. Presently works in honorary capacity as Chairperson of Gandhi Development Trust and Phoenix Settlement Trust and is a co-President of Religions for Peace International, She has received 4 honorary doctorates from various Universities. In February 2020 she received the Papal Madallion from His Holiness Pope Francis.
Click here to listen to the conversation -
In conversation - Debbie Golt, Pitika Ntuli, Eugene Skeef and Juwon Ogungbe
Debbie hosts a unique encounter between long-standing friends and creatives Pitika Ntuli, Eugene Skeef and Juwon Ogungbe. They celebrate and unpack South African sculptor, poet, writer, and academic Pitika Ntuli's Azibuyele Emasisweni
Click here to listen to the conversation -
Discussing the impact of Pitika Ntuli's award-winning Asibuyele Emasisweni (Return to Source)
Debbie hosts distinguished sculptor, poet, Sangoma and academic Pitika Ntuli; composer, educator, singer and blogger Juwon Ogungbe; musician, poet and conflict resolution artist Eugene Skeef; actor, activist and writer Florence Matete; Head Curator Ruzy Rusike; and artist, curator, archivist Shaheen Merali.
Click here to listen to the conversation
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In Art, the creative act is a titanic battle between flesh and spirit. Each artwork is a diversion of the flesh, the body. Each time the artist dies, a new work is born, or rather the opposite: each time a work of art is born the artist dies a little. A little death invokes a greater desire to live and thus creates another artwork. When the artist dies finally, she continues to live through her offspring – her children and her artworks! - Pitika Ntuli
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Reflections and Essays
This section introduces various written texts produced by leading writers, musicians, curators and lectures in their respective fields of thought.-
Forward for the catalogue by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
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Preface text by Homi K. Bhabha
Snake and Lyre -
Essay by Prof. Pitika Ntuli
The Revenge of the Minkisi -
Catalogue entry by Lalitha Jawahirilal
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Mr Buti Manamela Deputy Minister for Higher Education and Training
I carry my weapon -
Poet Antoinette Ntuli reflects Pitika Ntuli and his work
Your bones are under my skin -
Prof. Sophe Maithufi
Anthropomorphism at Large -
Journalist Ahmed Rajab
The Cosmology of Bones -
Artist, healer and improvisor Nduduzo Makhathini
Nduduzo Makhathini the Sonic Shaman: The Throwing of the Bones -
Artist and Curator Shaheen Merali
When an event becomes a lesson -
Poet-Musician Eugene Skeef
prophecy of the chosen one (for pitika ntuli – south african sculptor/poet)
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The Sculptures
I am a healer: I throw bones to divine the State of the Nation in the season of anomie! - Pitika Ntuli -
Pitika NtuliThohoyandou's Dream, 2018-2020Bone, beads and found objects84 x 87 x 101 cm
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Thoyohandou’s Dream
I hear your thunderous footsteps
Echo on the land of our ancestors
Thohoyandou, grandson of Dimbanyika
Father of Velembewu
Spirit that eternally caresses the Njelele valley
To keep ancestral forces at peace
Elephantine memories flow with ease and purpose
Retracing steps we took since time immemorial
To heal our bodies and souls
When demons invade our spaces
We carry memories of honeycomb
Of heroic histories in steady and secure
Geographies
Before interlopers walked our land
Spraying diseases to give purpose to their cures
We look back to retrace our odyssey
Along rugged roads of sickness and healing
To witness the birth of memory
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Pitika NtuliI Carry my War Feather, 2018-2020Bone and found objects135 x 101 x 37 cm
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Pitika NtuliMedium on Fire , 2018-2020Bone, beads and found objects175 x 95 cm
Medium on Fire
Prometheus stole the fire of the gods
Gave them to us to cook our food and light our caves!
I am a medium born from flames
Of memory and history
I dance you into health
Watched by the full moon
I am the warrior of the spirit
At war with pandemics
To appease the angry earth
Abused, polluted, pillaged and raped
Dance with me the ancestral dances
To heal our souls and those
Of those who drown in rivers
Of greed and corruption -
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Pitika NtuliInside the Elephantine Womb of Memory, 2018-2020Bone, beads and found objects140 x 124 x 111 cm
Inside the Elephantine Womb of Memory
There we sat looking back at our beginnings
Nestled cozily inside a pelvic throne
Surveying the landscape of our dreams
Battlefields with nightmares of pandemics
Stretching endlessly before us across clear blue skies
And fresh flowing springs
Sweating on cold winter nights
Fingers tingling as we eat
Thirsty throats and vain attempts
To cough the virus out
We lift our arms
To drum health back into our bodies
Circling in prayer to invoke Ancestral voices
To intercede -
Pitika NtuliSao Jose Paquette Africa, 2018 - 2020Bone, beads28 x 91 x 28cm(C002864)
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Pitika NtuliTrajectory of Po-To-Lo (Sirius B) on a Dragon Night , 2018-2020Bone and beads116 x 60 x 35 cm
Trajectory of Po-To-Lo[1] on a Dogon Night
We come from the
Planet of the red dog
I heard Credo Mutwa say
Even as the Dogon echoes hit my ears
We take our beaded paths
Dancing our way
To trace Po-To-Lo
Floating in infinite space
Riding on invisible boomerangs
We plot our return to the stars
The glittering stars
Of our birth!
[1] Sirius B
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Pitika NtuliWarrior Queen of Africa, 2018-2020Bone and beads131 x 30 x 17 cm
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Pitika NtuliThe Spirit of the Maroons, 2018-2020Bone and found objects150 x 52 x 90 cm
The Spirit of the Maroons
We lift our arms to catch
Winds of change
Even as coronavirus pollutes the atmosphere
We invoke ancestral spirits
To speak in their healing language
From tongues of love!
They put us in biting chains
As they recited the pasternoster
Cotton fields stretching to the gates
Of eternity
We guard our freedom
With our lives!
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Collaborators
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Pitika Ntuli invited 33 thought and creative leaders to collaborate with him by creating content inspired by the sculptures and exhibition for inclusion on the online platform. Their engagements took the form of essays, poetry, film, song and an exciting talks programme. The exhibition speaks to indigenous knowledge systems and the importance of ‘Returning To The Source’. Whilst the exhibition was presented online the museum show would be the first time that audiences would have the opportunity to see this body of powerful works in person.
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Collaborators
Video renditions of the collaborators contribution to the show-
Sibongile Khumalo
South African singerKhumalo was a South African singer. She sang classical, jazz, opera, and traditional South African music. She was noted for singing at the inauguration of Nelson Mandela in 1994, as well as the final of the Rugby World Cup the following year. She was appointed to the Order of Ikhamanga in 2008.
Click here to hear her contribution -
Zolani Mahola
South African Icon, Singer, Storyteller, Songwriter, and ActressZolani Mahola is on a new journey as The One Who Sings. Zolani Mahola believes in the transformative power of storytelling. She believes that our central story about ourselves and our world changes our reality. Using words, music and her extraordinary theatrical background, Zolani Mahola is a powerful advocate for connection. Connection to self, the natural world and to each other.Click here to hear her contribution -
Shaheen Merali
London based curator, critic and writer,Shaheen Merali is a curator, critic and writer, currently based in London. He explores the intersection of art, cultural identity and global histories in his work. Previously he was a key lecturer at Central Saint Martins School of Art (1995-2003), a visiting lecturer and researcher at the University of Westminster (1997-2003) and the Head of the Department of Exhibition, Film and New Media at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2003-2008).
Click here to hear his collaboration -
Napo Masheane
Creative Producer, Playwright, Poet, Performer| DirectorNapo Masheane (Soweto/Qwaqwa) is one of South Africa’s leading multi-award-winning theatre makers, playwrights, producers, poets and directors. She holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing and has staged a number of plays both nationally and internationally. Among many, she has published three of her own poetry anthologies: Caves Speak in Metaphors (2007), Fat Songs For My Girlfriends (2011) and Heartbeat Of The Rain (2019)
Click here to hear her collaboration -
Eugene Skeef FRSA
PercussionistLondon-based South African percussionist, composer, poet, educationalist and broadcaster. Works in conflict resolution, acts as consultant on cultural development and teaches creative leadership. His innovative global projects include community music, jazz, ‘world’ music, European classical music, contemporary dance theatre and children’s storytelling.
Click here to hear his collaboration -
Yvonne Chaka Chaka
South African singer, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur, humanitarian and teacherYvonne Chaka Chaka is an internationally recognised South African singer, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur, humanitarian and teacher. Dubbed the "Princess of Africa" (a name she received after a 1990 tour), Chaka Chaka has been at the forefront of South African popular music for 27 years and has been popular in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Gabon, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. Songs like "I'm Burning Up", "Thank You Mr. DJ", "I Cry For Freedom", "Motherland" and the ever-popular "Umqombothi" ("African Beer") ensured Chaka Chaka's stardom. The song "Umqombothi" was featured in the opening scene of the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda.
Click here to hear her colloboration -
Dr Kwesi Owusu
Poet, film maker and authorDr Kwesi Owusu is a poet, film maker and author, with decades of experience working in the creative arts industry. His first feature film, AMA co - directed with Kwate Nee Owoo is acclaimed as a classic of magical realist cinema. He is the author of four books on the Creative Arts and culture, published by Routledge International and currently heads Creative Storm, one of Ghana’s leading communicators for social development in Accra.
Poem featured below
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Gcina Mhlophe
South African anti-apartheid activist, actress, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author.Gcina Mhlophe, born in 1959 in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal, has been writing and performing on stage and screen for over 20 years. She has written many children's books as well as adult audience poetry, short stories and plays. She produced and performed on a CD for children with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. She has written music for the SABC TV series Gcina & Friends where she performed her own stories for television audiences.
Click here to hear her collaboration -
Juwon Ogungbe
London based musician, singer and composerJuwon Ogungbe is an inspiring and well respected musician, singer and composer from London. Juwon’s concert and music theatre commissions include music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Union Dance, the BBC, LIFT and the Southbank Centre amongst many others. In 2018, Juwon composed and performed new works in residencies at Opera North, Grimeborn Opera Festival, Dhow Countries Music Academy, Zanzibar and Longfield Hall, London amongst other settings. King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba – Juwon’s most recent music theatre piece, was premiered in 2019 and several new works of his have been publicly performed in 2020.
Click here to hear his collaboration -
Felix Kobina Venter
Poet, writer and lyricistFelix Kobina Venter is an aspiring poet, writer and lyricist. He is currently studying at the Wits School of Film and Television. He has showcased with W.O.W, slammed on the Word n Sound stage and taken part in streaming events for Pick Me Up Poetry. He is just getting started.
Click here to hear his collobration -
Shado Twala
South African journalistShado Twala is a South African journalist, DJ, radio and TV producer, as well as an entrepreneur. She is best known for her work in some of South Africa’s popular radio stations including Radio Metro, former P4radio that was rebranded to Heart 104.9FM, 567 Cape Talk, and 702 Talk Radio. She is also popular for the work she has done as one of the judges on SA’s Got Talent since 2009. Currently, she also has the Shado Twala SAfm show called The World Stage.
Click here to hear her collaboration -
Don Mattera
South African poetBorn Donato Francesco Mattera in 1935 in Johannesburg's Western Native Township (now Westbury), Don Mattera inherited multiple cultural traditions from his Italian grandfather, Khoisan/Xhosa grandmother and Tswana mother. Mattera was largely raised by his grandparents developing a strong affinity with Italy through his grandfather s reminiscences, Mattera has written of those reflections "I virtually lived in the farm cottage in his native Italy, and walked among the olive trees. Even my blood was shed in the long vendettas. I became one with them who I had never seen or touched or spoken to."
Poem featured below
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PHILLIPPA YAA DE VILLIERS
South African writerPhillippa Yaa de Villiers, born at Hillbrow in Johannesburg, is an award-winning South African writer and performance artist. The daughter of an Australian mother and a Ghanaian father, she was given up for adoption at nine months of age, although she was not told of it by her adoptive parents, a white family in apartheid South Africa, until she was 20 years old. She has commented that the negotiation of her situation has informed much of her writing. De Villiers studied journalism at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, and obtained a degree in Dramatic Art and Scriptwriting from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is also a graduate of the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris, France, where she studied mime and theatre. Returning to South Africa in 1998, she worked as an actor for two years, before Bell’s palsy forced her to consider an alternative career in writing.
Click here to hear her collaboration -
Bheki Gumede
Human rights activistIs a managing director at the AfriCore Group, a governance consulting firm based in Johannesburg. He is a human rights activist with experience in Qualitative Research. He joined MM&A in 2001 and has since participated in executing election related projects in South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique, Swaziland, DRC, Malawi, among others. He is a trustee of the Sankofa Arts Charitable Trust.
Click here to hear to his contribution -
Prof Nalini Moodley-Diar
Executive Dean and Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa.Nalini Moodley-Diar is currently the Executive Dean and Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. She has a B.A (Fine Arts), M.A. (Art History) cum laude, a UPGCE and completed her PhD in Art History at the University of KwaZulu-Natal which focused on the visual art produced by Indian South Africans from 1961 to 1999. Her present areas of research include the politics of minorities as well as the complexities of race and identity politics within a transforming South Africa. She has published papers in peer reviewed journals on Hindu art and artists in South Africa, Indian dance, and the multiplicity of positionalities of Indians in South Africa. She is currently also engaged in research projects focusing on women leaders in higher education
Click here to view her collaboration -
Ahmed Rajab
International journalist, political analyst, essayist and a columnistAhmed Rajab is a Zanzibari-born international journalist, political analyst, essayist and a columnist. A philosophy graduate (University of London), he also holds a post-graduate diploma in Urbanisation in Developing Countries (University College, London), and a Master’s degree in Modern African Literature (Sussex University). His dissertation was on the Négritude poet David Diop. Ahmed has worked for the BBC World Service, Index-on-Censorship, Africa Events, Africa Analysis, as well as Unesco and the UN OCHA. From 2006-2009 he was based in Dubai as Head of Newsroom (Middle East/Asia Bureau) for IRIN, the then UN humanitarian news agency, and he later spent another three years in Nairobi as Managing Director of Universal TV. He is currently the Strategic Director for the station. Ahmed’s poems are included in the anthology “African New Voices” (Longman, 1997). He has translated into Swahili two children books. Ahmed sat on the panel of judges for the 2019 Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature, the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing and the 1999 CNN African Journalist of the Year Awards.
Click here to hear his collaboration -
Ela Gandhi
Social worker and political activist in South Africa.Ela Gandhi, is a social worker and political activist in South Africa. She retired after serving two terms in the South African Parliament representing the ANC. Presently works in honorary capacity as Chairperson of Gandhi Development Trust and Phoenix Settlement Trust and is a co President of Religions for Peace International, She has received 4 honorary doctorates from various Universities. In February 2020 she received the Papal Madallion from His Holiness Pope Francis.
Poem featured below
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Florence Masebe
South African actressBorn and raised in Limpopo, South Africa. An actress, who is professionally trained actress whose been in the game for more than 20 years. Florence Masebe has made a mark in broadcasting and entertainment for more than 20 years, having worked in radio, film, and television both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Some of her more prominent lead roles include work on popular dramas such as Generations, Muvhango, 7de Laan, Soul City, Inkaba, Scandal and Task Force. Across SA borders, she plays the lead role in Morwalela, a health drama on Botswana television. Miss Masebe made history at the Durban International Film Festival in 2020 as executive producer and star of the first ever professionally produced Tshivenda feature film Elelwani, which also go the honor of being the opening film of the festival. It is this role that won her the Best Actress in a led role accolade at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2013.
Click here to hear her collaboration -
Simphiwe Dana
Singer-songwriterSimphiwe Dana is regarded as one of the best live performers in the global Jazz space. She has over 2 decades in the music industry. She is one of the artists that is vocal on topical issues such as politics and societal issues that affect the daily lives of South Africans. Simphiwe Dana sings timeless music and throughout her career, she has warmed many hearts. Known for her Afro-feminism voice, she is celebrated throughout the country for her feminism views, music and being a supporter of women on social media who turn to her for advice. This is how the angelic voiced Simphiwe Dana rose to fame.Poem featured below
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Below you will find poems inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture by the various collaborators
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Dr. Kwesi Owusu
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture "Trajectory of Po-To-Lo on a Dogon Night"WE MAKE HISTORY
We make history in times of joy
We make history in times of Sadness
We make history in times of happiness
We make history in times of trouble and pain
But when destiny calls
And the cycles of fear and hate are broken.
The poets and bone carvers light up the skies
In extraordinary colours
Revealing the mysterious signs and secret codes that have driven the engine of history ever since time begun.
Yesterday, I saw the skies light up and the earth tremble.
The streets reverberated with ecstatic drumming and sirens
Voices rose in righteous indignation through pillaging smoke hanging over the cities.
These are turbulent times
But the story remains the same, as before
So is the prayer on every lip
Everywhere on this planet
Free the imprisoned dream
And let freedom reign
As we plead on the edge of faded hopes, waiting for the break of dawn
In my sleep, I wondered if the jack boot on Floyd’s neck broke his bones.
That was yesterday.
This morning, I learnt more about life, history, politics and human existence, this time from an extraordinary perspective. The Bone
I walking into a magical exhibition, in my mind.
In the exhibition I stopped in front of Po-To-Lo
Sirius B circling and romancing the heaven in bright beaded colours
As if to say “We must all live together”
If the essence of history is to free the imprisoned dream
Then the hand that breaks the jail’s lock is critical.
Yaa Asantewa flashed into my mind.
She was the Queen Mother who led the Asante rebellion against British colonialists in 1900.
I first saw her iconic photograph when I was ten. Today, something struck me but I could not put my finger on it. Eventually I did. It was the way she held her gun. The bones in her fingers, almost visible gave the impression she was about to squeeze the trigger.
‘Bones have a special potency and subtle spiritual energies; their endurance is legendary’
-says General Pitika Ntuli
Throughout the exhibition,
The cartographer’s skill is demonstrated with delicate finesse and in extraordinary detail with beads
Colourful beads
Web of beads
Threaded beads on bone
Blue for villages from the sky, perhaps
Yellow for battle of Adamawa, maybe
Blue for the king’ s birthday
Red for the decade his empire fell
Beads tracing ancestral journeys through time and space
Galaxies
Oceans
Oh yes the Atlantic Ocean. Trail of slave ships dropping bones of dead African slaves into its depths as they sailed to the Americas. The BONES must still be there. Bones just don’t disappear.
‘There is a bridge of bones linking Africa and its diaspora’ – reminds General Pitika Ntuli
I passed each bone sculpture, besieged by thoughts also pleading for deeper meaning. Meaning stripped off its surface, meaning stripped to the bone!
‘Bones are evidence that we were alive 3.5 million years ago and there are carriers of our memories’ – says General
An extraordinary thought
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SIBONGILE KHUMALO
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture "Pregnancies of the Mind"Pregnancies of the Mind
- an adaptation of Pitika Ntuli’s poem of the same name.
I am Afrika
Glorious and full
With endless possibilities
I AM Afrika
Giant flapping wings/ears
Propelling the wind
I am AFURIKA
We, the Minkisi of hope, of endurance,
Of flowing rivers of our lands
I am A - fu- riiiiiii-ka
Rising to receive baptismals of life,
From horns of animals
Roaming free as the wind
Aforika
Poached for centuries…
Our bodies walk free now
Our minds seek release from under the master’s knee
We shall give birth under a bridge…
Our sinuous muscles contorting
As torrential rains … fall
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Napo Masheane
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture "Trans-Atlantic Bone at the Bottom of the Ocean"Bones
Qhoku qubu ea Maqubu
Lehwatle… qubung ea mawatle
Botebo ba bodiba bo botala le bopong
Lona ba tlatsa didiba le madiboho
Letsukutsuku la moya o tota
Sefefo sa masapo a ho poka
Bahlomi ba ho hloma dihlomo hlohong
Kere… lona dikwena Tsa Madiboho
My people are bones
They have always been bones
Sculpting bones
Crafting bones
Carving bones
Digging bones
Choosing bones
Beading bones
Making bones
Creating bones
Growing bones
Throwing bones
Reading bones
Camagu…Thokoza… Asé
Talking with bones
Fetching bones
Being bones
So… this is for them, who are homes of bones
Who were swallowed, crushed and recoiled into silence for me to be born-bones
This is for them
… whose bones were split, heart broken bones, hip kissed bones and jawbone
This is for sun-baked people buried… bruised into punched bones
So that I can leave thrones… climb slopes… throw stones and walk across the Atlantic
I want to know how THEY cried… laughed… and fought for their homes
This is for a mother, who is my bones
Who clanged to fragile walls, dilapidated roofs
SHE who bit love and death all in one breath
SHE who had bones grew out of her headlights… searchlights… strobe-lights
I want to know if HER shells threaded together are my mother’s tongue
This is for a father, who is off my bones
With packed suitcases, chanted bones into nothingness
This is for HE, who cooked fear by raising his fist
Hummed a wry tune over timeless time… space-less space… place-less place
I want to know if HE danced with the earth feeling his bones
This is for my sister, who is my bones
SHE who crossed her legs, slapped stories of our bones on rocks
Then drowned in the land to which we all swam
Because no one taught her how to swim out of the sea… and see… over the seas
I want to know how SHE prayed then died like a buried memory beneath us
This is for my brother, who is off my bones
Whose blood dived from generations to generations across the middle passage…
of ribs and bricks
Tried to find homes and bones through wild forests roses
Between soul and salt, water and slaughter, fire and air, screams and fears
I want to know HE whose tale is tailored into my bloodline
This is for them… bones-unknown, bones-unborn, bones-unseen… bones-nameless
Nameless- bones
This is for them SHE… whose fire went off and left her part… art… heart
This is for them HE… whose whisper is 100 million bones that echoed over oceans… seas…rivers
Calling us to fetch their names and bone
With no words to stab them
With no grip to hang them
With no fist to drown them
With no kick to beat them
With no flames to burn them
With no stones to crush them
This is for me, for her… for him… for them… for us
Me/ her/ him/ them/ us
Us/ them/ him/ her/ me
My people are bones
They have always been bones
Sculpting bones
Crafting bones
Carving bones
Digging bones
Choosing bones
Beading bones
Making bones
Growing bones
Throwing bones
Reading bones
Camagu…Thokoza… Asé
Talking with bones
Fetching bones
Being bones
This is for me, for her… for him… for them… for us
Me/ her/ him/ them/ us
Us/ them/ him/ her/ me
Camagu…Thokoza… Asé
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Juwon Ogungbe
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture "Under the Shadow of a Flywhisk We Dream to Heal the Land"Our quest for healing – song text
Warriors in helmets with horns
Bulls ready to charge
A fly whisk is raised to issue commands
O ya! E niso, E niso!*
Jangling bones, stripped of flesh
Journey towards a battlefield
To face the viral foe!
To face the viral foe!
Pausing for breath on the long road
Worry beads rattle, soothing their nerves
Hundreds and thousands, hundreds and thousands
Call on the ancestors:
“Join in on our quest for healing!”
“Join in on our quest for healing!”
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Felix Kobina Venter
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture "African Rainbow Snake- Heal Us!"Rainbow SnakeBrace yourselfThis is what
You chose
To feed
breath.
It will be over soon
It will not hurt as much as you think
And it is coming for both of us
In time it will come for all of us
All us wondering through
The cracks between ideals
Looking for a way in
Always looking for a way in, desperate,
But now,
Well
The rainbow snake is gentle
And that revolution
That is bleeding now,
Bleeding Armani cadres
And crab-bucket communities
Intent on cannibalizing the new dream,
In pieces
That revolution
Which is Molotov cocktails
Poured into champagne glasses
And sipped slowly
By thieves dressed in
The discarded snakeskin
Of that which made them possible
That revolution
That is lonely now
It needs us
And the rainbow snake
That has for generations
Wept martyr’s blood from rainbow irises
That has not seen any evil
Greater than the closing of eyes
Against the glare of
The screams of
Innocence burning,
Is hungry now
Feed it.
Here it comes.
Slowly, deliberately
Inevitably
it will find us
Or we will lose
Ourselves
So why struggle?
Give yourself lovingly
As it has given lovingly of themselves
As it has breathed riots into campuses
As it has roared through teargas
As it has wept over vlakplaas
And carried our fallen
Into the dreams of the those who caught
The spears of retribution
As they slipped from the limp dead hands
Of heroes born as we were
To be remembered
And we will be
When the revolution and the rainbow snake
Are done with you
You will be but bones
Thrown by the hands
Of the twin witches
Fate, and hope
Each as cruel as the last
And where you land
We will read
The fortunes of this nation
That was built on raised fists
Those fists that beneath the concrete ambivalence
If you put your ear to the ground
You can hear pounding still
Raised in protest at a sky that dare not forget them
Them the voices of the people
That split the air
And hoped freedom would pour from the rifts
Be strong
And face them with courage
They walk with you
As the rainbow snake rears above
The rivers of blood and gold
That we have suckled on
We the ungrateful children
Of a world whose teeth we had thought blunted
And now find as close to calamity
As we have always been
We sandcastle architects
Cursing the tide
As if it were not of us too
All that is will crumble
To choose where the rubble will fall
You must step forward
And reach in
As we both must now,
Come.
They are ready for us
Do not be ashamed
It is normal to tremble
To fall to your knees
To scream if there is strength in your lungs
I certainly intend to
But remember
You were born
To feed them,
Rejoice.
Listen to me or don’t
Doesn’t really matter
I’m speaking to myself really
Don’t look shocked.
Did you think I was different to you?
Stronger?
Already resolved?
I am not.
I am as scared as you are,
And as lost
As lost perhaps as you need to be
To find yourself,
Certainly lost enough to find myself here
But not so lost I don’t regret
What I’ll lose I can’t forget
Please forgive me as I take this step
And join me,
I don’t want to do this alone
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Don Mattera
The following poems evoke the spirit of the bonesThe poet must dieFor James Matthews and Gladys Thomas after their poems were executed
The poet must die
her murmuring threatens their survival
her breath could start the revolution;
she must be destroyed
Ban her
Send her to the Island
Call the firing-squad
But remember to wipe her blood
From the wall,
Then destroy the wall
Crush the house
Kill the neighbours
If their lies are to survive
The poet must die
The Steve Biko Foundation
Sea and SandSea and sandMy loveMy landGod bless AfricaSea and SandMy loveMy landGod bless AfricaBut more the South of AfricaWhere we liveBless the angry mountainsAnd the smiling hillsWhere the cool water spillsTo heal the earth's browBless the children of South AfricaThe white childrenAnd the black childrenBut more the black childrenWho lost the sea and sandThat they may not lose loveFor white childrenWhose fathers raped the landSea and sandMy love, my landGod bless AfricaAzanian Love SongLike a tall oakI lift my arms to catch the windwith bruised fingersand somewhere in the ghettoa Child is born;a mother's anxiety and painhide in a forest of hope.Like a straight pineI point my finger at Godcounting a million scarson my dreamsand somewhere in the ghettoa Child is weeping;a women writers her legacyon leaves of despair.Like a weeping willowI drop my soulinto a pool of firesomewhere in a dark sanctuaryI hear the sound of a Freedom Song:The Child has risenand walks defiantlytowards the lion's lairundaunted,unafraid -
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture "The Eye of Horus"The song of Isis
My son, my healer
your eye sees all that is broken, seeking to be
made whole. Your compassionate eye, unafraid glares into
the bleeding wound. The sickness that is corruption
the pus of greed. Chaos blinds even the fearless,
tried to kill me once: tore my husband into six pieces
and scattered them over the firmament. Days
and nights I searched and found each beloved fragment,
each coloured bead destined to adorn the body
of God, and bound them with gold, breathed them
into a single seed, and gave birth.
As my husband left this earth to reign the world of the Dead
my seed, my structure, my purpose and my sanctuary,
grew tall and strong. My Horus, my government. Now
he has disappeared. I searched
the sky where he loves to coast the warm winds rising from the desert,
but he did not come,
I called in his own voice, waited three days with a fresh-killed rabbit as a sacrifice
but still he did not come.
I built a bonfire to rival the stars, and sprinkled every medicine
but still he did not come.
My pillow is my fertile womb:
none can quench its eternal power. He entered life
through my portal of bone and I cling to this dream
by letting it go. As I did before, I will find each piece
and bind them with the tears of my undying love.
When you return, my son, you will see differently.
You will be grounded by your sorrow. And you will be stronger.
My people, can you call your son, your Horus
enthroned in the kingdom of your hearts,
let him govern the industry of your hands and tongue
let his sceptre protect the honour of the fallen ones:
give your son wings.
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Prof. Nalini Moodley-Diar
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture "Under the Shadow of Corruption"BREATHE
The Jaws of life
Bejeweled in death
Glitter while gnawing at my body, my spirit… craving survival
History, culture, tradition
Colored in memory
Soaked in the core of my being
HUMANITY!
Human…kind?
Kindness of love
Of body
Of flesh
Of life
Of you and me
Of humanity.
I see
I dream
Those eyes locked into my soul, my colour, my being
Who am I?
Who are you?
Who is seeing?
My love
within the crevices of my life and soul
the remnants of society
the history of my being
laid bare against the tide of
HATE
PAIN
MEMORY
LOVE
I am seen!
I see me! I am you and you are me and we…..are one!
Fighting against the same enemy
The unseen, that grips your soul and strangles your breath
Look inside and recognise yourself
And Breathe…
Breathe..
Breathe..
For today, you are not alone
For today, I see you.
I am you and you are me and we are one
A human…kind,
with warmth to wash over you and strength to fight with you
The unseen
breathe
breathe
breathe….
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Ela Gandhi
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli;s sculpture "Medium on Fire"Medium on Fire
I see tremendous power and preservation this brilliant piece of art created by Professor Pitika Ntuli. It brings together humanity as one family within our common need for fire. It is captivating in its naturalness and its universality but it also brings to light the ancient yet eternal wisdom which endures through life and through the various storms and upheavals caused by human intolerance and cruelty over the centuries. The disruptive element in our history is vividly portrayed in the anguish, but alongside this we see the resilience and the goodness in the human spirit which gives life and which endures travails over the centuries. In the midst of the present pandemic he recalls the ancient wisdom of love, of respect and of harmony embraced by the philosophy of Ubuntu, and through it hopes to ween away the greed, the corruption and the destruction of our planet and our souls at the present time. Looking at healing humanity so that we can once more learn from and live according to our age old wisdom, which humanity shares across the length and breadth of our earth. Finally, a clear and loaded message to change our ways from the rampant materialism to a life of conservation, of love and friendship and of generosity of spirit building a peaceful, harmonious world restoring the earths inherent beauty and abundance. This is a creation which is of hope and which gives us the pathway to a better future.
Thank you
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Simphiwe Dana
Inspired by Pitika Ntuli's sculpture "In the Womb of Elephantine Dreams"I am made of hair, skin, water, and air
I do not have a backbone
Let alone any bone in my body
I flip and I flop and I wiggle and I wobble
I cannot move without help
I am exactly where my oppressors want me
But...
Every memory is etched in my DNA
My past and my future
I remember it all
My bones will find me
My healing is in my own skin
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Moving Images
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History written in Stone
Through Belfast Black Granite Pitika Ntuli tells a story. A story that attempts to capture the crucial steps in our revolutionary struggles. The six individual sculptures write our history in stone, and trace the painful steps we took towards finding justice in our beloved land!
Shot & Directed by Galerekwe Maimane & James Reynolds
Edited by Zee Ntuli
Music by Chris Letcher
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Pitika in conversation with himself
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Solitary - Pitika Ntuli from Darling TV on Vimeo.
Solitary
Art and solitary confinement carry the same birthmarks.” –Pitika Ntuli.This intimate short film provides the viewer with a personal insight into Pitika'smind and journey as an artist. He explains that art is like solitary confinement, where time seizes to exist, and that “Art exists in order to conquer time”.
Shot by Zee Ntuli & James Reynolds
Edited by Zee Ntuli
Sound design by Lorens Persson at Sterling Sound
Colourist Terry Simp
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Reflections by Nduduzo Makhathini (Artist, Healer and Improvisor)
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media
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Pitika Ntuli Speaks To ART AFRICA In An All-Encompassing Conversation
2 May 2019 The 77-year-old artist spoke to ART AFRICA in an all-encompassing conversation that touched on his origins as an artist, his favourite materials and the state of contemporary art in South... -
Pitika Ntuli’ hailed for his bone exhibition at National Arts Festival
Pitika Ntuli 3 Jul 2020 Click here to enter the online exhibition Pitika Ntuli’s 45 bone sculpture exhibition receives high praise at the Virtual National Arts Festival. South African sculptor, poet and writer Pitika Ntuli’s... -
Azania Mosaka Speaks With Pitika Ntuli | 702 Radio
Azania Mosaka from 702 interviews Pitika Ntuli about his exhibition Azibuyele Emasisweni (Return to the Source), his first exhibition to comprise only of works sculpted in bone. The exhibition comprises...
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