Artist Biography
Lwandiso Njara (1987) was born in
Libode, Eastern Cape Lwandiso. Njara
holds a BTech (FA) from the Tshwane
University of Technology. Njara’s work
is in various private and corporate
collections including Pretoria Portland
Cement (PPC), Unisa and the Eduardo
Villa Museum collections.
Artist Statement
Njara's work is centered around the contradicts of his Catholic education in
contrast with Xhosa ancestral rituals. Through his pieces, he explores an
experience of identity construction, spiritual awakening and development
during his boyhood years in rural Transkei. Njara's work problematizes his
negotiation between his Catholic education and his traditional
upbringing. The artist treats these two polarities as binary opposites which
he does not necessarily seek resolve, but use them to construct a new
emergent identity. Not in any way suggesting that identities are singular
and fixed, but they could possibly be perceived to be multifaceted and
fragmented. He brings this investigations of his own identity in
conversation with the human existence within technocratic social orders.
These post-colonial constructs of identity are explored through the use of
large bronze/concrete sculptural works. Njara’s work is often unpolished
and raw, exposing the internal workings of machines through tools, cogs
and mechanisms. These relate to his need to deconstruct these binaries
and consider each mechanisms contribution to his identity and reflect the
hybrid contemporary African identity. Viewing the internal workings of
these pieces also alludes to something more sinister, as he attempts to
consider the use of religion in constructing a national identity.
Although Njara work conveys a personal investigation of his identity, this
exploration can be applied to a collective conscious, where the diversity
within South Africa is creating a hybrid third culture, and essential,
separatist, understandings of identity are disappearing as our nation
becomes trans-conscious.
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