Lying on blue satin sheets on a “bed” suspended from the gallery’s ceiling by mountaineering gear, Nicholas Hlobo closed his eyes and appeared to sleep through his opening at the Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town in March 2008. The exhibition was titled Kwatsityw’iziko, which means “crossing the hearth,” or initiating sex. Physically present but curiously disengaged from his surroundings and the gallery crowd, Hlobo appeared to be a symbol of a sensual and free-floating existence.
Entitled Ungamqhawuli (2008) (a colloquial Xhosa term for procreational sex), the piece simultaneously recalled a baby’s bassinet, a hospital bed, and an apparatus for sexual play. And, like all of the artist’s work, it celebrated Hlobo’s cultural identity as a Xhosa, a people mainly from the Eastern Cape, and Hlobo’s sexual identity as homosexual. Born in 1975, Hlobo has a gently discursive attitude toward both of those aspects of his identity, wishing to share his pride as a member of both groups.
His first exhibition was entitled Izele, or birth. A key work in Hlobo’s first show was the sculpture Ndiyafuna (2006), a homoerotic figure of a young man bending over, his lowered jeans revealing black rubber underwear. The upper half of his body is enveloped in an amorphous cloudlike shape constructed from stitched pieces of black rubber. Explains Hlobo, “The meaning of the word ndiyafuna could mean ‘I am looking’ or ‘I desire.’ It’s looking at the idea of searching for or concealing one’s identity. And it makes reference to certain fashion trends. The teenagers who are into hip-hop wear their pants halfway down their buttocks with their boxers revealed—something that is very challenging to older people! And the kids, when they dress like that, they feel very good about it.”
In works such as Ndiyafuna the use of scarred, sleek rubber inner tubing evokes both the notion of skin (bearing with it an association with sadomasochism) as well as the idea of condoms (alluding to issues surrounding AIDS and safe sex). Hlobo also utilizes these materials in conjunction with modified found objects—a saddle in his sculptural installation Izinqanda Mathe (2008), for example, requires anyone seated on it to hold on to the attached rubber phallus for stability.
Significantly, Hlobo’s use of Xhosa titles (without translation) overturns prevailing linguistic power structures that aid in shaping the concept of an art gallery, a cultural space largely dominated by white artists and audiences. Hlobo’s titles present, instead, points of denial or entry into his work, depending on one’s ethnic affiliation. In the liminal space of the gallery, Hlobo simultaneously evokes the private and the public, the traditional and the modern, the normative and the taboo.
Ungamqhawuli 2008
Vinyl, ribbon, fabric, wood, synthetic ropes, pulley, hooks
155 x 125 x 64 cm (excluding ropes)
Performance, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, March 6, 2006
Image courtesy of the artist and the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town
Photographer: Mario Todeschini
© Nicholas Hlobo
Umthubi 2006
Exotic and indigenous wood, steel, wire, ribbon, rubber inner tube
200 x 400 x 730 cm (variable)
Image courtesy of the artist and the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town
Photographer: Kathy Skead
© Nicholas Hlobo
Izinqanda mathe 2008
Saddle, ribbon, rubber, chains
130 x 138 x 105 cm
Installation view with Visual Diary on right
Image courtesy of the artist and the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town
Photographer: Mario Todeschini
© Nicholas Hlobo
Ndiyafuna 2006
Glass fiber, rubber inner tube, ribbon, jeans, sneakers, lace, wood
110 x 170 x 100 cm (approximate)
Image courtesy of the artist and the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town
Photographer: Kathy Skead
© Nicholas Hlobo
Umphokoqo 2008
Ribbon, rubber on Fabriano paper
71 x 99 cm (unframed)
Image courtesy of the artist and the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town
Photographer: Kathy Skead
© Nicholas Hlobo
Okweengxangxasi 2008
Ribbon, rubber on Fabriano watercolor paper
150 x 250 cm
Image courtesy of the artist and the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town
Photographer: Mario Todeschini
© Nicholas Hlobo
Phulaphulani 2008
Ribbon, rubber, thread, fabric, iPod earphones on Fabriano watercolor paper
150 x 250 cm
Image courtesy of the artist and the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town
Photographer: Mario Todeschini
© Nicholas Hlobo