ST25 From the Vault Opening - Stellenbosch University Museum

The From the Vault exhibition of the Triennale sits in conversation with the In the Current and On the Cusp exhibitions on a timeline that situates artistic practices between past, present and future. In recognising what has come before, From the Vault engages with individual or institutional art collections from the past. These collections offer critical insight into the role and power of both the artist and the collector in shaping narratives and discourses ranging from aesthetic values, art history themes to anthropological, sociological and political viewpoints. From the Vault looks back to understand the current and map the future.

This assembly is an improvisation – the act of intervening, interceding and making passage for the something to emerge. To mend something torn so it can birth anew. We are called into the archive by the whispers of decontextualised objects from KwaZulu, AmaThembu, AmaXhosa, eSwatini, AmaPondo, Basotho, Ndebele, Okavango, Pedi, Khwe-Khwe peoples.

These are indigenous objects that crossed the line from the sacred to the anthropological. Transmitted from the shrine to the vault. So we listen and trace intuitively - receiving, interpreting, recalling, evaluating and responding to verbal and non-verbal messages. And we thread a lifeline ngodaka nangomthi, to hold in reverance intimate objects of our foremothers and forefathers awakening the work of their hands, acknowledging the ancestral blueprint and indigenous technology.

Called here, we place the work of our hands to be in commune with our elders, to acknowldge this inheritance, to bare witness and say – siyanibona, siyaniva, philani. We attend closely for the purpose of rememorating using the spears, the horns, the garments, the patterns as archaeological imaginaries; as a compass to map the past, the current and the future. We listen to the call of the Sankofa bird, it sings “Do not be afraid to look back and go fetch what was left behind.” Sizonilanda!

Featuring: Stellenbosch University Anthropology Collection, Lungiswa Joe, Andile Dyalvane and Sisonke Papu.

Image Credits: Johnny Fassler of the Stellenbosch Academy of Design & Photography. ©️ All images must be credited when shared online or by any publication.