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UKUGRUMBA
An exhibition by the 11th Tierney Fellow Tshepiso Mabula ka Ndongeni
2018
Ukugrumba, which means to “dig up” in isiXhosa, is a body of work motivated by my family’s trauma as a result of activism in South Africa's struggle against apartheid, liberation and reconciliation effects within present day South Africa. It seeks to exhume experiences of the foot soldiers that sacrificed their youth by fleeing away into exile to join in the trenches for armed struggle for national liberation; including those who stayed in the country to continue the fight against the brutal apartheid regime. More often than not, those who are hailed as heroes of the struggle are well known political figures. Ukugrumba is a visual representation and narrative of the forgotten people who were affected both mentally and physically by the effects of the armed struggle against apartheid.
Ukugrumba, also, examines haunted places that bear memories of a violent past. The work interrogates conversations of the struggle and details testimonies of untold stories of former liberation soldiers and their families. The work revisits the past to shed light on the reality of the trauma that apartheid caused. This trauma continues to plague both the old and new generations of South Africans. The individual stories in Ukugrumba are part of greater narrative of South Africa’s past in relation to the new South Africa of reconciliation.
About Tshepiso Mabula ka Ndongeni
Tshepiso Mabula ka Ndongeni is a photographer and writer born in the Lephalale district of Limpopo, South Africa. Mabula’s interest in photography sparked when during a visit to a family member she was introduced to award-winning South African photographer Santu Mofokeng’s body of work Rumours/The Bloemhof Portfolio. She completed her studies in photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg in 2015. Mabula explores the small things through photography: exposing the humanity in oppositional, chaotic or even boring environments.
About The Tierney Fellowship
The Tierney Fellowship was created in 2003 by The Tierney Family Foundation to support emerging artists in the field of photography. The primary goal of the Fellowship is to find tomorrow’s distinguished artists and leaders in the world of photography and assist them in overcoming the challenges that a photographer faces at the beginning of his or her career.
The Tierney Fellowship programme ran for the first time in South Africa in 2008 and partner institutions include the Market Photo Workshop, WITS School of Arts and The Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town.
The aim of the fellowship is twofold: encouraging fellows to produce a new body of work and creating a global community of artists that functions as a crucial support network in an increasingly competitive field. The Fellowship supports the recipients both financially, by way of a grant, and technically and conceptually, with mentorship and guidance from experts in the field.
Fellows remain an important part of the programme after the conclusion of their structured mentorship. Seminars and critiques are held throughout the year to facilitate interaction between all current and past recipients, encouraging discussion about their photography, work experience and lives as artists.
See http://www.tierneyfellowship.org/ for more information
The Tierney Fellowship programme ran for the first time in South Africa in 2008 and partner institutions include the Market Photo Workshop, WITS School of Arts and The Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town.
The aim of the fellowship is twofold: encouraging fellows to produce a new body of work and creating a global community of artists that functions as a crucial support network in an increasingly competitive field. The Fellowship supports the recipients both financially, by way of a grant, and technically and conceptually, with mentorship and guidance from experts in the field.
Fellows remain an important part of the programme after the conclusion of their structured mentorship. Seminars and critiques are held throughout the year to facilitate interaction between all current and past recipients, encouraging discussion about their photography, work experience and lives as artists.
See http://www.tierneyfellowship.org/ for more information
‘Isibane’, a Pan Afrikanist Congress liberation song typically sung at the funerals of soldiers from the Azanian People’s Liberation Army. Composer unknown. Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MasRVC1_mPU. Ukugrumba (2019) by Tshepiso Mabula Ka Ndongeni.