Mfezeko Gumada
Mfezeko is a mixed media and multi-dispensary artist, whose work integrates a dynamic of traditional craftsmanship, surrealism, mythology and narrative reminiscent of Dadaism. Hinting on his anti-establishment views on the cultural diversities and gaps in wealth and poverty in South Africa. He explores his unconscious with an assembly of artworks that take random objects that narrate an extraordinary embodiment of apparitions, inspired by the ancient Kemet figures influenced by Heru with his falcon head, Throth and Khepri all with a human body, and a multifaceted layering of mixed media motivated by the dung beetle, of all creatures “My work interprets what a dung beetle does by rolling the dung and collecting all sorts of elements, hence the collage form of weaving, that mimics that particular form of collecting information and weaving it into an abstract form’. He works with stitching as a form of combining cardboard material, ribbon, strings, and other media. Abstract materials combined in a form of stitching materials that are somehow not connected. “My work is more textile-based; I am a textile person. I like textile designs, textures, and recycling.” The process is further influenced and combined with traditions of old African craftsmanship, traditions of weaving and creating abstract forms, and elements of modern fashion, that have been part of the heritage for centuries. He makes reference to African traditions of artistic crafts that run tens of thousands of years in Southern Africa and this still has a powerful and prevalent movement of traditional and contemporary art that has powered its way through the southern tip of Africa. The combination of modern, traditional, colonial and historical artefacts is a result of the most contemporary artists today.
Mfezeko was introduced to me by the Art Eye gallery in Johannesburg, he was born in 1993 and raised, in Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, a small town, near Kokstad, A town named after the colonial Adam Kok III. Surrounded by natural landscapes of waterfalls, hills and woodland, he describes his childhood neighbourhood, as nature and the influences of his father who was a mechanical engineer, working with spares, and using different tools, he describes how he watched his father dismantle and rebuild cars using spare parts. The influence of his aunts who worked as fashion designers, and how he watched how his mother stitched and sewed his torn and ripped clothes. He emphasises the wildness of his boyhood, and his adventurous spirit climbing trees and seeking adventures amongst the natural landscapes of his surroundings, and how it got him into all sorts of scrapes. He observed and learned the techniques of stitching and recycling from his family. I asked him if he was influenced by the local art, he doesn’t recall the experience of being surrounded by art, because the town he grew up in was so small, describing a little village with small houses, big trees and waterfalls, that he sees at the art that inspired him. He does recall as children making their own toys out of scrap materials, building themselves cars and carts, with old tin cans anything they could find. It was the poverty they were facing, that he believed instated the creativity to make their own toys, these are the techniques, he still uses today and is embodied in much of his work.
Mfezeko tells me that he didn’t know about art and only discovered it in high school. “It was between Grade 12-16, which is the equivalent to year 13’s A levels here in the UK. He recalls being introduced to Fine Art, and learning about South African artists such as George Pemba, and introduced to a plethora of European and Asian artists. This is what interested Mfezeko, and he focused on visual art school and began creating his own artwork, “With the words I wanted to speak” he tells me. “We were poor, very poor,” he emphasises and “The school was poor, very poor” he tells me. “It made me very hungry to work on my style” he explains. After three years at High school, he moved to the city Durban. He found himself a job, working in a bar. Mfezeko recounts the fortunate turnaround when the owner an Italian art enthusiast, noticed the sketches that he had been drawing. Mfezeko describes his ability to make things with his hands, and how she helped educate him in art and in turn, he would fix chairs and tables, gifting him materials, that inspired and bought him sketch pads and pencils. Mfezeko details how much he practised and practised, and she introduced him to Italian classic artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, he spent about four months under her tutelage before moving back to Kokstad.
Mfezeko then found himself another job, this time chopping trees in the local area, to make room for the animals he tells me. We were not supposed to make a noise, “I was the youngest, 18 years old, working the labour of chopping tees with an ax, so to keep the noise low not to frighten the animals,” he tells me. He took the money he had earned and moved back to Durban, living with his sister. This is when he developed and created his first oeuvre of artworks, with sketch pads, and applied for a foundation course at The Durban University, he started making up his own cartoon sketches, exploring his own ideas, the figures appearing in his dreams and characterised into his artworks. He realised this was his calling, he started getting flashbacks from his aunt’s stitching technique, and started to create art from that, he would find objects and sew and stitch them together. “Many of my friends were inspired by what I did,” he tells me. He applied to the Durban University of Technology for the faculty of Fine Art, he didn’t complete his degree however, and stopped after two years, as he ran out of money. “My mother couldn’t pay either, as she had retired as a school teacher” he explains. Additionally applying for scholarships but he would never get a reply. So he never received his certificate. The impact this had on him and his narrative, in his work are the embodiment of dimensions of himself and another dimension, he explains.
The entrepreneurial spirit of Mfezeko didn’t stop his ambition, he created his own business, making leather bags, jewellery, hats and buying old vintage clothes from the flea market, pulling the clothes apart and remodelling and creating his own designs. His catwalk, himself, wearing his own designs, and carrying his designs in his backpack. His flamboyance had people ask about his clothes.”I would open my bag with pieces of my designs and sell them.” He would recreate anything, jackets, shoes, and people wanted his things, he explains. Returning to Kwa Zulu Natal, he started a residency at an art gallery, he has worked as a curatorial assistant at the DUT Art Gallery and has taken part in numerous group shows in Pretoria and Durban. He was awarded first prize with the Joan Emanuel Floating trophy in a member’s competition at the KZN Society of Arts. He won first place at the KZNSA Gallery’s Annual Members competition and was chosen as one of the top 100 artists for the Sasol New Signatures competition in 2021. He made his breakthrough at KZNSA Gallery in a group show that he had with Derrick Nxumalo, “That is when Art Eye Gallery discovered my work” Mfezeko explains. “Ty from Art Eye contacted me, and after that he visited my studio apartment, and also asked me what is my ambition?” he recalls. “I want to travel the world and learn about other Cultures” is what Mfezeko told him. “We continued talking about my work. After that conversation I had with Ty I joined the team at Art Eye.”
As we come to the end of our conversation, and I start with my random questions, I ask about his favourite artists, Japanese artist Yahoo Kusama and the Ghanian artist El Anatsui, he tells me, his ambition is to own his own art gallery and open it in his hometown Flagstaff. When I ask how long it takes for him to complete an artwork, “One month to make three artworks” he replies in a matter of fact way. I ask about his inspirations and Mfezeko references ‘Igqirha lendlela nguqongqothwane,’ known as the Click Song in English, famously sung by Miriam Makeba, often sung at weddings to bring good fortune, in Xhosa it means “knock knock beetle” the beetle that make a clicking sound, and sought to bring good luck and also used in children’s games to point to home, or pointing the way to a better future in times of trouble. Mfezeko applies the wisdom to this allegory, this is what he taps into with Uqongqothwane, describing it as a metaphor for his thoughts and concepts in his work, “In search of myself”. He describes the stitches the crosses in his needlework “I search for myself in every direction”.
Interview: Antoinette Haselhorst
