TIMOTHY YANICK HUTNER, ANNE ZANELE MUTEMA, BUHLEBEZWE SIWANI
Ngozi: We Might Listen for the Shimmerings
Toronto Biennial of Art | Curatorial Fellowship
Curated by Chiedza Pasipanodya
March 26 - June 5, 2022
Ngozi: We Might Listen for the Shimmerings is an ongoing curatorial project grounded in ideas of belief, death, and embodied listening. Following a series of familial roadside deaths surrounded by myth and uncertainty, this exhibition embarks along tributaries of thought exploring the unfinished nature of death with three artists – Timothy Yanick Hunter, Anne Zanele Mutema, and Buhlebezwe Siwani. These artists record through sound, images, and objects interrogations and reinterpretations that are shimmering – moving in and out of focus according to the angle of ones’ gaze – while colliding with the parallel systems of colonialism and violence responsible for this break in the continuity of the life cycle. The word Ngozi itself is a shimmering word across the African continent with myriad meanings or truths such as danger in Xhosa, blessed in Igbo, an accident in Swahili, and an avenging spirit in chiShona.
ARTISTS
Anne Zanele Mutema | 72 Perth Ave
Anne Zanele Mutema’s practice invites us to consider alternative belief systems through the idea of an Event defined for her as a phenomenon located at a single point in time in the context of self, culture and history.
Systemic Necropolis is an installation engaged in a philosophical inquiry on the nature of the thing – whether we are given our identities by the objects that surround us, the use-value they provide or whether they in fact afford identities to us.
Buhlebezwe Siwani | Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto
Buhlebezwe Siwani’s artistic practice focuses on black women, their place and role in the cultural tradition of African spirituality and religious rituals through which beliefs are performed. The presence of the black female body in her performances brings into play a subjectivity committed to repossessing and refocusing attention on historically violated and silenced, if not repressed and marginalized, black women – seers, prophets and healers belonging to a long tradition.
Timothy Yanick Hunter | Small Arms Inspection Building
Timothy Yanick Hunter’s practice considers the impact of colonial, capitalist histories, and their lasting effects in Africa and throughout the Diaspora. Hunter’s strategies of bricolage examine non-neutral relationships, centring Black and Afro-diasporic experiences as well as concurrent strategies of decolonization. His approach alternates between exploratory and didactic; with a focus on the political, cultural, and social richness of the Black Diaspora often delving into speculative narratives and the intersections of physical space, digital space, and the intangible.
PROGRAMMING
True & Functional: DARE (The Shimmering Mixtape)
Engineered by Timothy Yanick Hunter in collaboration with Chiedza Pasipanodya, this Mixtape takes form as a vinyl record at 72 Perth Avenue and Small Arms Inspection Building. DARE joins Hunter’s ongoing project “True & Functional”, which explores “shimmerings” and how we may look and listen for them. Hunter uses archival sound from Black diasporic and African artists, novelists, and collectives to tell a story of Black culture, resilience, and art.
Vinyl and design of online version by Timothy Yanick Hunter.
Editorial Sheet
Listen to the Mixtape Online
2022 Series – "Tape/Talk: Acts of Engagement" - Episode Two: Anne Zanele Mutema and Chiedza Pasipanodya
In this episode, artist Anne Zanele Mutema invites us to consider alternative belief systems through the idea of an Event defined for her as a phenomenon located at a single point in time in the context of self, culture, and history. Mutema’s work “Systemic Necropolis” reflects on ideas of space, memory, and phenomenology.
Produced by Roxanne Fernandes in collaboration with
Katie Jensen and Ren Bangert of Vocal Fry Studios. Music is by LAL.
Listen | Download the Transcript
IN CONVERSATION: DR. GEORGE MAHASHE AND BUHLEBEZWE SIWANI
2022 Biennial artist Buhlebezwe Siwani is joined by Dr. George Mahashe for an intimate conversation that brings together Mahashe’s ongoing research at the intersection of artistic practice, archives, and anthropology with Siwani’s work, which interrogates the patriarchal framing of the Black female body and experience within the South African context. Moderated by curator Emilie Croning, this discussion will move through tributaries of thought such as Siwani’s artistic practice on rituality, their collaborations on works such as Siwani’s Sinje Ngamajuba, and the relationship between Christianity and African spirituality with a focus on khelobedu. The program will open with a Chivanhhu-centred opening ceremony led by musician, storyteller, and lecturer Dr. Moyo Rainos Mutamba.
Made possible by the generous support of TD Bank Group, through the TD Ready Commitment, and presented in partnership with Wedge Curatorial Projects, and the Toronto Arts Council.
June 3, 2022, Virtual