Bambo Sibiya

(South African, born 1985)

Three Men Seated

Footnotes

Bambo Sibiya was born in Spring, South Africa in 1986 and now lives and works in Johannesburg. His work encompasses the spirit of 'Ubuntu Nhabantu', a term drawn from Zulu philosophy which translates roughly as 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. Sibiya explores this notion of an interconnected humanity through his figurative works.

The origins of many of Sibiya's paintings lie in documentary visual references from the 1970s which the artist restages using models. Photographs taken of the staged tableaux serve as the source material for his paintings. He is particularly motived to depict the experiences of the young men and women who moved from rural areas of South Africa to Johannesburg during Apartheid in search of work. The mining industry was a major source of employment and Sibiya examines the subculture, Swenka, that emerged in the black labouring communities. He explains, '[t]he Swenkas are South African workers who have found a unique way to channel their self-respect, their creativity, and their hope in the future' through a culture of dressing up and parading the streets in their spare time. 'Healthy, humorous competition for the best-attired man gave them joy, while snappy clothing and male model performances are exercises in dignity and self-determination... Their lives were dominated by the spirit of Ubuntu'.

Executed in acrylic and charcoal, his large-scale canvases typically depict groups of figures. As in Three Men Seated, his figures are individuated through their appearance and Swenka dress yet are connected to one another through their complementary stances. The artist highlights elements of the figures in the foreground using flashes of red, blue, and yellow which pick up colours in the pattern of the nonrepresentational background. Created using hand-cut stencils, the pattern evokes the design of African wax print textiles. Sibiya's artistic practice consequently fuses the historical documentation of Black communities in South Africa with the present social, economic, and political issues prevalent in the country, references which are filtered through his own unique creative vision.