found clothes, ties, thread and industrial gloves on wood; gold leaf, ties, thread and acrylics and thread on canvas

Artwork date: 2015
Signature details: signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse
Exhibited: Commune.1, Cape Town, 'But he doesn’t have anything on!', 26 November 2015 to 21 January 2016.
Location: Cape Town

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painting: 250 x 147 x 5.5 cm; sculpture: 116 x 111 x 70 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

Commune.1, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

The installation Looking up to the sky, searching beneath the ground (2015) by Simphiwe Ndzube is an extension of his previous body of work, Imithungo Yezivubeko. The title, in isiXhosa, translates to "stitches of remnants," suggesting the weaving together of internal and external struggles from the past and present. Ndzube employs stitching as a central motif, reflecting his research process. This approach allows the artist to navigate through various signifying objects, memories, and historical events to present a narrative of the black experience in post-apartheid South Africa, marked by lingering burdens of the past.

The physical act of cutting, stitching, and assembling objects and clothing on canvas or in a compact sculptural form, evokes powerful imagery of a body unravelling at the seams. The distorted shapes allude to the many historical atrocities endured by black bodies. Additionally, it symbolises Africa's broader socio-economic struggles, as the continent often becomes a literal dumping ground for cheap clothing from the West and emerging markets like China. This influx of imports further undermines African industries, particularly the textile sector, perpetuating economic disparities and exploitation.

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• Cementing his status as a top up-and-coming contemporary artist of international renown, Simphiwe Ndzube’s solo exhibition Chorus was recently shown at BLUM Los Angeles.
• In 2023, he was among the selected artists featured in Singular Views: 25 Artists at the Rubell Museum in Washington; in Africa Supernova at Kunsthal KAde in Amersfoort, the Netherlands as well as in the Frieze Los Angeles group exhibition Boil, Toil and Trouble, presented by Art in Common.
• In 2022, he formed part of the show Christen Sveaas Art Foundation: The Unseen, Selected by Hurvin Anderson at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. He also took part in Pacific Gold for the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art in California.
• The Denver Museum presented Ndzube’s Oracles of the Pink Universe, a large-scale solo exhibition which also marked his first museum solo exhibition in the USA. Other institutional solo exhibitions have taken place at Museo Kaluz, Mexico City in 2019 and at the CC Foundation, Shanghai in 2018.
• In 2019, Ndzube exhibited at the 15th Lyon Biennale and was included in the Open Borders exhibition for the 14^th Curitiba International Biennial in Brazil.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably the Longlati Foundation, Shanghai; Fondation Gandur pour l'Art, Geneva; Musee d’art Contemporain de Lyon; France Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; The CC Foundation, Shanghai; HOW Art Museum, Shanghai; Christen Sveeas Collection, Norway; The Denver Art Museum; Museo Kaluz, Mexico City; Rubell family collection, Miami; Rupert Museum, Cape Town; University of Cape Town; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town and the A4 Foundation, Cape Town.