Curated by Musha Neluheni, Philippa van Straaten and Khwezi Gule

Art, in the broadest sense of the word, has had some kind of connection to the spiritual realm for much of human history. Even in the present, many people do not subscribe to a separation between the physical and the spiritual realms, and art offers a physical as well as a philosophical means to understand personal and larger questions related to one’s own cosmological story. Where do I come from? Why am I here? What does it all mean?

The works in Ngoma: Art and Cosmology bring to the fore the entanglements of historical, physical, metaphysical and existential spheres of existence. Ngoma seeks to explore these spheres of existence through artworks that cover different beliefs, cultural practices, mythologies and cosmologies. It aims to encourage individual and collective engagement with questions, traumas and concerns, as well as latterly encouraging the listeners or viewer to delve into their own articulation of spiritual meaning-making or ritual healing.

Common across various realms and practices explored in the works of Ngoma is the presence of ‘the four elements’ throughout history - and the land and the sea simultaneously represent sites of trauma and sites of healing. They are multiplicitous places of loss and dislocation as well as places of memory, in much the same way that ancestral veneration collapses historical time such that we gain an appreciation of the multiple ways that the past lives in the present and in the future.

Artists such as Buhlebezwe Siwani, Sethembile Msezane, Sikhumbuzo Makhandula and others, encourage subjects to confront historical trauma. They point to the historical record that shows that faith provides moral sustenance and fortitude under oppression whether we are talking about slavery, colonialism or apartheid. Faith and the belief in a divine order also have the power to give the downtrodden the courage and resilience to resist oppression. Collectively they underscore the fact that social and political institutions can never ignore the ways in which spirituality brings meaning and purpose to people’s lives.

The spiritual traditions in Southern African societies exhibit a pluralism that militates against absolutism. The indigenising of Christianity is a feature of this plurality. Artists such as Dan Rakgoathe and Cyprian Shilakoe embody a fluidity between traditional African beliefs and Christian doctrine. These works explore a practice not unique to our region but rather ubiquitous in many countries on our continent and the rest of the Black Atlantic.

The works assembled in this exhibition in one way or another give expression to the truth that art is not merely a commodity nor is its significance limited to the power of aesthetics or the social and political consciousness it embodies. Through artworks from across the JAG collections, as well as invited artists, Ngoma hopes to build a narrative that can grow, change, exchange and develop over the course of the exhibition and beyond it.

This is just the beginning of a dialogue, and an enquiry into the divine made manifest.

We would like to thank the following artists and galleries for their assistance:

Admission: Free

Date: 8 December 2019

Time: 4pm

Place: Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Corner Klein and King George Streets, Joubert Park, Johannesburg

Image: Sibande, Mary, I put a spell on me, 2009.09.13, photographic print