5th Nov, 2020 19:00
Aspire X PLP | African Photography Auction 2020
42
Xoliswa Ngwenya (South Africa 1990-)
Sesh (from the In My Solitude series)
archival ink print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
Artwork date: 2015
Signature details: signed
Edition: number 1 from an edition of 10
archival ink print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
Artwork date: 2015
Signature details: signed
Edition: number 1 from an edition of 10
(1)
image size: 23.5 x 36 cm, sheet size: 29.5 x 42 cm, unframed
Notes:
Xoliswa Ngwenya is a visual artist, photographer and archivist from Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a Market Photo Workshop alumnus, and was a runner up for the Tierney Fellowship in 2015. Ngwenya was awarded 1st prize in the Social Justice Photography Competition through the Open Society Foundation in 2016. He was also the main exhibitor at Through the Lens in Cape Town in the same year. In 2018, he was shortlisted for DemocraSEE 3 photography award, was part of the RMB Talent Unlocked artist career development programme, and exhibited at the Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg. He was also nominated for the MAST Foundation for Photography grant in the same year. In 2019, Ngwenya was shortlisted for a Magnum Foundation Fellowship and for the Contemporary African Photography Prize. His work has been featured in various publications in South Africa. The passing of Ngwenya’s mother when he was nine years old strongly influences his work as he explores themes of absence, abandonment, belonging, nostalgia, home, and identity.Both works o"ered on auction are from the series, In My Solitude, a project which documents the coal yards in Zola 2, Soweto. Coal yards are one of the historic places in the township, and were built by the apartheid government between 1956–1963 after the forceful removals of black South Africans who lived in places such as Brickfields (now known as Newtown), Sophiatown, and Alexandra. In the early days of Soweto, electricity was not available, so coal was essential for domestic and commercial use. The government of that time saw a great opportunity to make profit from this need by building the yard to store coal and also employ the members of the community; later, the community members gained the right to sell and distribute coal within and around Soweto. "The people living in the coal yards are often vilified by surrounding communities;I see this body of work as an opportunity to stop this stereotyping. My project has a strong dimension of social awareness, and comments on the social and political realities which these people face." Work from In My Solitude was exhibited as part of Through the Lens, Cape Town (2016); the Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg (2018); and RMB Talent Unlocked.
You can place an absentee bid through our website - please sign in to your account on our website to proceed.
In the My Account tab you can also enter telephone bids, or email bids@aspireart.net to log telephone/absentee bids.
Join us on the day of the auction to follow and bid in real-time.
The auction will be live-streamed with an audio-visual feed.
Auction: Aspire X PLP | African Photography Auction 2020, 5th Nov, 2020
A collection of pan-African works, straddling the terrain between historical and contemporary photography, were auctioned to support the digitisation of African photographic legacies by the Photography Legacy Project (PLP). Bidders participated from across Europe, the USA and UK, Asia, Australia and Africa – a testament to Aspire’s increasing global reach and collectors’ enthusiasm for African photography.
The auction included photographic luminaries such as David Goldblatt, Alf Kumalo, G.R. Naidoo, Ranjith Kally and Ian Berry, as well as more contemporary internationally acclaimed photographers like Guy Tillim, Jo Ractliffe, Syowia Kyambi and Mikhael Subotzky. The lead lot, a portfolio of 12 silver gelatin prints from the legendary photographer Ernest Cole’s seminal 1967 book House of Bondage sold for an astounding R569,000 – a new world auction record.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Logistics
While we endeavour to assist our Clients as much as possible, we require artwork(s) to be delivered and/or collected from our premises by the Client. In instances where a Client is unable to deliver or collect artwork(s), Aspire staff is available to assist in this process by outsourcing the services to one of our preferred Service Providers. The cost for this will be for the Client’s account, with an additional Handling Fee of 15% charged on top of the Service Provider’s invoice.
Aspire Art provides inter-company transfer services for its Clients between Johannesburg and Cape Town branches. These are based on the size of the artwork(s), and charged as follows:
Small (≤60x90x10 cm): R480
Medium (≤90x120x15 cm): R960
Large (≤120x150x20 cm): R1,440
Over-size: Special quote
Should artwork(s) be collected or delivered to/from Clients by Aspire Art directly, the following charges will apply:
Collection/delivery ≤20km: R400
Collection/delivery 20km>R800≤50km
Collection/delivery >50km: Special quote
Packaging
A flat fee of R100 will be added to the invoice for packaging of unframed works on paper.
International Collectors Shipping Package
For collectors based outside South Africa who purchase regularly from Aspire Art’s auctions in South Africa, it does not make sense to ship artworks individually or per auction and pay shipping every time you buy another work. Consequently, we have developed a special collectors’ shipping package to assist in reducing shipping costs and the constant demands of logistics arrangements.
For buyers from outside South Africa, we will keep the artworks you have purchased in storage during the year and then ship all the works you have acquired during the year together, so the shipping costs are reduced. At the end of the annual period, we will source various quotes to get you the best price, and ship all your artworks to your desired address at once.
Aspire Art will arrange suitable storage during, and cost-effective shipping at the end, of the annual period.
Collections
Collections are by appointment, with 24-hours’ notice
Clients are requested to contact the relevant office and inform Aspire Art of which artwork(s) they would like to collect, and allow a 24-hour window for Aspire Art’s logistics department to retrieve the artwork(s) and prepare them for collection.
Handling Fee
Aspire Art charges a 15% Handling Fee on all Logistics, Framing, Restoration and Conservation arranged by Aspire.