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Turiya Magadlela

I first encountered Turiya Magadlela’s work at the FNB Joburg Art The nylon pantyhose stretched over canvas produce remarkably
Fair in 2015, where – as the FNB prizewinner, judged by the highly powerful abstracts, sometimes joyful and exuberant, sometimes
respected curators Bisi Silva and Koyo Kouoh – her installation of sombre. The material visually transcends its beginnings as women’s
awkwardly stacked prison beds and institutional sheeting received underwear, yet the viewer’s knowledge of its history, and the way
pride of place. To be frank, I was not overwhelmed. Although the in which the fabric has been cut and stitched and stretched, adds
work had considerable presence, beds have been the subject of so layers of meaning to the work which could not have been conveyed
many installations over the years. At the time, I also saw some of by paint.
Magadlela’s early pantyhose works, which I thought were more orig- And in a completely different vein, in Sithanda Ubuhlungu intoko
inal in their materiality. igazi nenzondo & Inzonzo zabantsundu ziphumelela ngoba sijabuliswa
It was in September 2017, in a show at Blank Projects in Cape Town, yimyazwe, intokozo, nokwesaba (2017), blocks of fabric in brilliant scarlet,
that I really reacted strongly to her new work however. The somewhat pinks and oranges suggest an exuberant celebration of womanhood,
tentative quality of the earlier pantyhose works had given way to a a refusal to allow oneself to be downtrodden.
sophisticated and assured use of her fragile yet strong material, with Magadlela herself has been quoted as saying, ‘I make my work
its intimate feminine associations. The looping arcs of translucent from my personal life experiences. I don’t make social or political
fabric in sombre black stretched over canvas in the series My womb commentary. Should my work seem or look political, that makes me
is at fault (2015) suggested not only the anguished bodily reference of happy. I always want to leave it open to the viewer’s personal interpre-
the title, but a maze of dark underground passages from which one tation, and I find that talking about a work you made or writing about
might not emerge, or an unsolvable intellectual conundrum. it narrows down the meaning that it is supposed to have.’

Ndi no Vuyo (for Nirvana), 2017, nylon and cotton pantyhose, thread and sealant on canvas, 120 × 120 cm

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