oil on unstretched canvas

Artwork date: 2014
Signature details: signed and dated bottom right; signed dated and inscribed with the dimensions on the reverse
Literature: Ruiyun, W. & Xiaozhuang, D. (eds). (2017). ‘A collection of literary works on I/We?: Dong Xiaozhuang & AESFFC’. Beijing: Writers Publishing House, illustrated in colour on p.265.

(1)

99 x 99 cm; framed size: 134 x 134 x 5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Johannesburg.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

During the early stages of Ayanda Mabulu’s career, he travelled to China three times between 2011 and 2014. The first time would be via an invitation by the Chenshia Art Foundation for an exchange programme, leading to a solo exhibition hosted by the Chensia Museum in Wuhan, titled Beautiful Imperfection1. Mabulu would return to China in 2014 for his second iteration of the showcase at the museum, Beautiful Imperfection2. In that same year, Mabulu participated in the AESFFC (Art Encounters Strangers from Five Continents) residency in Chengdu, China hosted by artist Dong Xiaozhuang. During this residency Mabulu collaborated on Memorial City 2 alongside Xiaozhuang, who hosted 5 other artists from five different continents, Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and America, including artists, Aye Ko, Tony Scott and Emilio Carrazco Gutierrez.[1] Mabulu and Xiaozhuang would then go on to exhibit works at the showcase A Cosmo of one–ness at the Art-hotel Gallery, Chengdu (2014). Memorial City 2 forms part of the series of works that were created during that time.

The artist states that listening to music is a very important process within his artistic practice and is carefully chosen depending on the work he is producing. In a way it becomes a conversation between the artist, the music and the surface of the canvas. In the case of Memorial City 2 and other works that were made during this time, Mabulu had been listening to the beloved South African saxophonist Zim Ngqawana. The musician made his mark at the historic inauguration of President Nelson Mandela in 1994, where he directed the 100 person Drums for Peace Orchestra. Advocating for a mindful authenticity and improvisational artistry in African, global and cosmic terms, Ngqawana would later be called ‘Zimology’. Appearing in bold orange lettering along the right of the canvas the term was originally coined for the musician’s ideas and teachings on the interface between music, spirituality and cosmology. The painting is highlighted with thick red brush strokes in the lower centre. This is a nod to the album cover of the music that inspired the artist, alongside a structure inspired by the spiritual presence that Mabulu had felt when he visited the Yellow Crane Tower built during the Qing Dynasty in Wuhan. This artwork had been one of the first collaborations with Xiaozhuang and for Ayanda it felt meditative as he delved into a pressing sense of solitude in this new country that would bring novel energy and a unique approach to his paintings that tested his previous stylistic boundaries.[2] Memorial City 2 bears the signature of both artists, and attests to the ability for art to overcome language and cultural barriers between two very different geo-cultures.

Zim Ngqawana album cover

Youtube link

^{[1] Ruiyun, W. & Xiaozhuang, D. (eds). (2017). A collection of literary works on I/We?: Dong Xiaozhuang & AESFFC. Beijing: Writers Publishing House, p.18.}

^{[2] Correspondence with Ayanda Mabulu, 10 May 2024.}

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• In 2021 Aspire Art, in collaboration with the French auction house Artcurial, set an auction record for Ayanda Mabulu's, Nontsundu (2018), which sold for 23,035 EUR (R 598,155.73).
• The prominent DuSable Black History Museum and Education Centre (formerly the DuSable Museum of African American History) in Chicago staged the artist’s first museum exhibition in the United States of America in 2018, aptly titled Troublemaker: Art Is Our Only Hope.
• In 2010, Ayanda Mabulu was invited by the Chenshia Art Foundation to travel to China to for a three-month residency which culminated in a solo exhibition, titled Beautiful Imperfection1 (2011) hosted by the Chensia Museum in Wuhan. Mabulu would return in 2014 for the second iteration at the museum, Beautiful Imperfection2.
• Notable recent local and international exhibitions include A collection of works by Ayanda Mabulu (2023) and The Healers (2022) at Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, ST-ART (2019) and AFREECA (2019) at Galerie Galea, Les Beaumettes, France, Concerning Violence (2018) and FREEDOM OF __EECH (2017) at Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg.
• Important art fairs include Contemporary Istanbul (2023), Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2023; 2022; 2020; 2019; 2018; 2017), FNB Joburg Art Fair (2023; 2021; 2020; 2019; 2018; 2016; 2013), 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2023; 2022; 2019) and African Art Galleries Now Art Fair with A.A.G.A and Artsy Online (2022; 2021; 2020).