VukuvukuPhila! (South Africa)
The artist duo VukuvukuPhila! (ivukuvuku and Philiswa Lila) have been creating installation art and performances since 2022. ivukuvuku, born Chumani Bavulele Mantanga, is from Mgwenyane village at Tsomo in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. As a multidimensional artist, ivukuvuku completed her bachelor’s degree in Fine and Applied Arts at the Tshwane University of Technology. Philiswa Lila is a visual artist and researcher. She holds a master’s in Art History from Rhodes University, an Honours in Curatorship from the University of Cape Town, a Project Management Certificate from the University of South Africa (Unisa) and a bachelor’s degree in Fine and Applied Arts from Tshwane University of Technology.
VukuvukuPhila!’s work engages a research-based practice that involves themes of memory, healing, gender, violence, love, pain, ancestry and resilience. By combining writing, language biography, sound, installation art and performance, they aim to engage audiences in an emotive experience laced with an outpouring of mind, body and spirit escapes from everyday life. Materiality plays a vital role in their process, it extends beyond the simple fact of physical matter to broadly encompass all relevant information related to spiritual existence. They explore the active processes of reconnecting and recreating relationships within the sacred space where the presence of nature and ancestors reside. As a result, their process takes into consideration the importance of site-specific elements like water, stone, sun, wind and fire. Their focus is on engaging these elements as a multi-layered connecting system. They embody the values and meanings of space, position, orientation and the soulfulness of life to forge the interrelations between human beings, animals, spirituality and communities.
VukuvukuPhila!’s previous art installations and performances include A Bed Called Home: Shared Pain and Healing, Reflections of Reflected Self, ENKUNDLENI/Pouring Healing and EKHAYA: Kept Silence.
For more information visit: https://vukuvukuphila.wixsite.com/my-site