Malebona Maphutse

Malebona Maphutse (b.1994) is a Johannesburg based artist who has completed her BA (Fine

Art) Degree at the University of Witwatersrand in 2017. She works in and outside of the

academic institution. She enjoys reading, listening to jazz, hip hop, tranquil, reggae, soul, neo-

soul, folk and kwaito music. She is also a poet and enjoys writing. Her work has existed in/at a

number of exhibitions, spaces and happenings. She is currently interested in a number of forms

of making which include printmaking and video art. She also enjoys drawing as an extension of

her practice.

Through print, video, poetry and installation, Malebona’s many interests have manifested into a

complex matrix involving the existence of bodies’ historical, physical and spiritual existences in

and around her. She has been investigating how bodies have passed, impacted merely

existence and will encounter spaces - to understand the politics of space. Malebona’s

inspiration lies at the zenith of infinite, but probable, options that can be drawn from these

spaces. Through this form of investigation, she has gone on to explore a number of questions

and situations that surround bodies.

“The ritual in spirituality engagements that form in spaces inform a number of politics and I sort

to divulge into these in order to create time-landscapes. I have begun to intertwine the

mentioned politics in order to emphasize and rethink ways in which these bodies exist within but

not limited to a South African context. This, to me, is a form of knowledge making and a

recognition of different ritualistic practices in which the black female body exists and continues

to morph. Mamoloyi is one of the ways in which I explore the above. In creating Mamoloyi I have

sort to understand rituals as a means to rebuild, recreate and rethink our future, present and

past in setting in flux, timelines that are convoluted and cyclic. The function of my work is to

understand and create time-landscapes that provide options for the moment before and

afterwards”.