Izwe noMhlaba

A solo offering by Nkabinde Mpendulo

Curated by Karabelo Temeki

10 - 31 May 2025

Bag Factory is pleased to present Izwe noMhlaba (World and the Earth), a solo exhibition by
Mpendulo Nkabinde, curated by Karabelo Temeki, as part of the 2025 Young/Unframed
programme.

Comprised of sonic, kinetic sculptures and mixed-media installation, Nkabinde’s inaugural solo presentation continues an autoethnographic exploration of his life. He invites you on an intimate, side-by-side walk with him as he makes tangible and lays bare the intricacies of the homeplace culture of his childhood, contrasted against the Eurocentric knowledges and worldviews he encountered upon enrolling in the ‘formal’ education system, from primary school through to university.

The exhibition’s central metaphor describes Umhlaba (the Earth) as his formative years: living in the coastal, earthy Kwamhlabuyalingana, where he shared a deep connection with his language, the land, and people. There, his grandmother was a key figure in his sensemaking through alternative knowledge systems such as storytelling and hymn-singing. Izwe (the World) represents man’s inventions and organising of the Earth based on hegemonic economic and political ideologies which, in the case of South Africa and most
postcolonial states, are the aftermath of Western imperial imaginaries. Through this metaphor, Nkabinde laments how Izwe usually undermines Umhlaba. He reflects on the latent but violent disturbances caused by individualistic, Western worldviews and knowledge systems (epistemes) on the fluid and adaptable foundational knowledges imparted to him by his grandmother, through his mother tongue.

Using language as a point of departure, the artist explores epistemic violence and its
aftermath through this new body of work. The mixed-media installation interrogates personal and collective experiences of systemically imposed assimilation to Western worldviews. An unsettling motor sound produced by decaying metal sculptures, holding convulsing rocks,
alongside soil, water, obscured text, and industrial worldmaking, materially convey notions of disturbance, inaccessibility, and intellectual subjugation – revealing the trouble and woe continuously unfolding, as the philosophical and archival endeavours of our home languages
die.

Each artwork in Izwe noMhlaba acts independently while simultaneously building a rhizome that manifests in the illusory industrial experience created within the gallery. With this work, Nkabinde prompts us (as many decolonial thinkers and artists have before) to re-arm ourselves against epistemic violence and re-imagine the power our languages bear, beyond
their interpersonal communicative function.