Buhlebezwe Siwani⎮Future Generation Art Prize Nominee

Buhlebezwe Siwani
Uthuthu ethuthwini, uthuli eluthulini [Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust], 2024
video, 9’47’’
Produced with the support of the PinchukArtCentre, Kiew, Ukraine

The exhibition is on view from October 4, 2024 to January 19, 2025 at the PinchukArtCentre.

Buhlebezwe Siwani’s new work Uthuthu ethuthwini, uthuli eluthulini, which means 'Ashes to ashes, Dust to Dust' in isiXhosa language, is connected with a deeply personal story of the artist. In 2020, her uncle and two other family members committed suicide one after another in a very short period of time. Due to the pandemic restrictions of that time, she was unable to travel and had to attend the funerals via Facebook live. After a while, she had a dream about her uncle, wandering and lost.

Thinking about loss, grief, and the passage between life and death, the artist explores the traditions and rituals deeply rooted in some Southern African cultures and churches. There is a belief that after committing suicide the soul finds itself in an ‘in-between’ state, where spirits remain unsettled until proper rites are carried. In the video, the viewers witness these rites together with burial traditions, performed to facilitate the soul’s transition. The video incorporates objects and symbols tied to both the dreamscapes of death and mortuary traditions – such as seeing a bride in a dream as a portent of death or shaving a head after the death of a family member. The purpose of the ritual of beating the body with prayer belts, which is only carried out in the case of suicide, is to release the deceased’s spirit of the deceased from the physical realm and facilitate its transition into the afterlife, helping prevent it from becoming restless or causing harm to the living. It underscores the community's commitment to honoring and protecting both the departed and the bereaved.

Buhlebezwe Siwani provides an opportunity for a journey to those who attempt to understand the nature of traditions and their spiritual meaning. Blurring the boundaries between past and present, life and death, mourning and hope, she reveals the ritual's enduring power to heal, accept the grief and allow it to reside within the body.