ABOUT THE SHOW
Two solo presentations by Nazeerah Jacub and Ndaya Ilunga
Bag Factory is pleased to present A Studio of Their Own, Young Womxn Studio Bursary 2025
“thinking about these artists who would have spent hours alone with their thoughts and imagination… expanding the tradition of women who create and recreate in solitude and communally. I leave… wondering about the hands of these women.” – Ukuzilanda ngobugcisa: When Rain Clouds Gather: Black South African Women Artists, 1940 – 2000 by Athambile Masola
A shared studio on a quiet street in Fordsburg has been a site of reflection, imagination, excavating deep wells of interiority, and ultimately capturing visions and stories on canvas. In the spirit of what Athambile Masola calls ukuzilanda, that is to “fetch[ing] oneself in relation to the past,” Ndaya Ilunga and Nazeerah Jacub plumb the psyche and the environment to contemplate themes of memory, becoming, belonging, self-actualisation and femaleness. Holding their different approaches alongside each other allows us to resist flattening perceptions of womxn’s interior worlds and creative processes. We are able to recognise the “parallel worlds” they move through “and how these worlds [are] rarely encountered simultaneously.”
Alongside their contrasting styles of figuration and abstraction they hold a shared contemplation of nature as a symbol of lineage. In A Studio of Their Own, we see the manifestation of the privilege of having space to question, reflect, make and be in conversation. Ilunga and Jacub are part of a full and rich narrative of women artists across time and circumstance who have passed through the Bag Factory and other community art spaces before them. They are the 2024-2025 recipients of the Young Womxn Studio Bursary award founded and made possible by Sam Nhlengethwa.
“…she placed one soft hand over her land. It was a gesture of belonging.” – A Question of Power by Bessie Head, 1973
A Studio of Their Own
Exhibition Opening: Saturday, 4th October 2025, 11 am – 3 pm
Exhibition Programming: Saturday, 25th October 2025.
Guided Art Therapy and Vinyasa Yoga Session hosted by Nazeerah Jacub and an Afternoon Poetry Session hosted by Ndaya ‘Swan’ Ilunga.
Time: 10:00 – 15:00
Exhibition Closing: Friday, 31st October 2025.
All events to take place at Bag Factory Artists’ Studios.
10 Mahlathini Street, Newtown
About Nazeerah
About Ndaya
(Un)Natural Bloom by Nazeerah Jacub
Jacub, N is a painter-sculptor whose practice is a tactile exploration of colour and materiality. From utero to old age, from the learned to the lived, she weaves together dried flowers, plaster, resin, stains, and pigments to investigate the complexities of the female experience. Through the manipulation of these mediums, she seeks to capture the delicate balance between the ephemeral and the enduring aspects of femaleness as it evolves through time and circumstance.
Influenced by the cultural and natural semiotics of stories carried by matriarchal and other influential women, and grounded in the geographical confines of personal experience, Jacub’s art emerges as a reflective response to inheritance-heirlooms heavy with memory. Preserved and abstracted, her works act as vessels of unfiltered emotion, echoing the essence of femaleness within both body and landscape.
In preserving what is often fragmented, Jacub views the act of making as a gesture toward inherited knowledge and behaviours that shape constructs of femininity. Each piece becomes an intuitive search that evokes strength, vulnerability, and quiet resilience-an invitation to witness how women endure, adapt, and bloom, echoing the tensions of growth in disrupted landscapes.
The Process of Self-Actualisation by Ndaya Ilunga
Ndaya Ilunga’s work explores self-actualization through dream psychology, drawing on Carl Jung’s archetypes to shape new mythological and folklore-inspired representations. Central motifs include The Swan, her creative alter ego; the stairs, symbolizing shifts between consciousness and dreams versus reality; and the woman in the red cloth, a reference to Congo’s ongoing crisis and bloodshed linked to natural resources.
As an Afrofuturist surrealist, Ilunga reimagines the Black experience through self-portraiture, abstraction, and distortion. The female form often serves as her muse, challenging gender and racial constructs while situating Black bodies in diverse environments. By incorporating Old Master imagery, she provokes viewers to expand their perspectives and encounter art in new ways.
Her creative process intertwines research and physical painting, using acrylics and oils to layer meaning. Through this, new theories and visual languages emerge organically, addressing trauma, forgotten histories, and the need for more African folklore and mythology.
Set within Congolese landscapes—tropical, swamp-like, and sometimes underwater—her works invite viewers to uncover hidden artifacts and symbols. Ndaya Swan, depicted as a swan-bodied figure with a human head, embodies Ilunga’s reconciliation with dualities: spiritual versus physical, personal versus collective, and myth versus lived reality.
Influenced by thinkers such as Jung, Nietzsche, Dolores Cannon, and Teal Swan, Ilunga emphasizes authenticity and connection. Her art becomes both a mirror of inner worlds and a connective thread to humanity, positioning her as a visionary who expands how African identity and experience can be represented.
For more information on the programme and media-related enquiries, please contact:
Bag Factory Communications Department:
nqobile natasia (they/them):
Office: +27(0)11 834 9181
Email: communications@bagfactoryart.org.za
Insta: @bagfactoryart || FB: @bagfactoryartists