iTi: Ritual Studies

Lomfazi Yindoda

A Solo Offering by Yonela Makoba

Curated by Tristan Baia

5  - 26 April 2025

Bag Factory is pleased to present iTi: Ritual Studies - Lomfazi Yindoda, a solo exhibition by Yonela Makoba, curated by Tristan Baia, as part of the 2025 Young/Unframed programme.

The presentation consists of installation, performance, quilting, and mixed media artworks, Makoba’s first solo exhibition in Johannesburg is also the 6th iteration of their ongoing project iTi: Ritual Studies, a multi-sensory exploration which evokes memory, history, loss, the matriarchive, the erotic, and the reconstruction of ancestral knowledge.

As a site-specific response to the history of Constitution Hill and Makoba’s own experiences with legacy, matrilineal histories, and ritual; this exhibition gives form to the queer potentiality that emerges in the movement between traditionally stratified gendered spaces and positionalities. The exhibition’s title: Lomfazi Yindoda, literally translated as ‘this woman is a man’, refers to Makoba’s experience of  realising that their grandmother – as iGqirha – was able to enter the men’s kraal in life, and could therefore be returned to the kraal as a spirit despite the ritual of Ukubuyisa traditionally calling for the return of a male ancestor. In the same way, this offering explores the dynamics of constructing a highly feminised ritual space within the historically male-only prison at Constitution Hill’s Number Four; the permeability of the boundaries between the exhibition and the site itself; and the third space of queer(ed) potentiality that emerges in the spaces and interstices within and between these boundaries and borders.

A constant figure in their artistic practice and body of work, the materiality of tea can be found throughout the exhibition. From tea-dyed textiles to paper made from used teabags, and the physical serving of tea as ritual, tea becomes a locus for legacies of  feminised labour and communal care, while Makoba explores the politics of visibility and  access, the transition between states of being and moments in time, and the memories and affective traces that linger both spatially and spiritually.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Yonela Makoba, is a transdisciplinary artist between Nqamakwe and Cape Town, explores memory, indigenous knowledge systems, and the body through photography, performance, installation, and printmaking. Their project, iTi: ritual studies, reimagines the Xhosa ritual that honours matriarchal lineages, bridging past and present for collective healing. Their work is held in collections at the Iziko National Museum and UCT.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Tristan Baia, is a queer artist, curator, researcher, and zinester, whose practice investigates gender, craft, indie print media, and queerness, and the queer potentiality at the intersections of these concepts. With a Master’s in Contemporary Curatorial Practice from Wits, their work amplifies underrepresented narratives through a multidisciplinary approach.