[In] this interception I sit with Sive Ntombana, SASOL New Signatures Visual Arts Competition 2026 Runner-up. As it will emerge in the reading of the artist 's statement below and the podcast itself, Ntombana employs ochres on prepared ingcawe, traditional Xhosa blanket, to reference the rural. In a similar vein to the work of Sphumelele Zondi, Ntombana asserts that the overall aim of his work is to articulate the social ills that has befallen his village using IsiXhosa Folklores and indigenous knowledge system1. I leave the discovery of the rest of Ntombana's practice to the listener to discover.
- mmutleak
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
[Umlandeli] is part of a body of work that is a practice-based research project that explores the concept of trauma in the Xhosa rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. The body of work looks at how trauma is interpreted, engaged with and the different states it comes in through a reflexive perspective.2 In the body of work, I work with ingcawe and collected ochres to reference the rural. Through collecting and working with ochres, I invoke ukusula, a mural painting practice in the Mpondo rural area, to think about healing in practice/as a practice.
Umlandeli speaks to supernatural-induced trauma and hints at ukuthwetyulwa or ukuthwebula through hybrid figuration as a metaphor. Through the artwork, I look at inkolo nenkolelo − belief and superstition and blur the line between the two.
13 October
© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong, 2026
To reference this audio documentation please cite:
Kgokong, M.A. 2026.Sive Ntombana. Mosalamorago/Umlandeli, (2026). SNS26EditOtwo-Mix. Mmutleak.com-Intraparadox.
Reference credits
List of figures
- Sive Ntombana. Umlandeli, (2025). Collected ochres and primer on blanket. 95 x 86 cm
Afterwords
* Original Image of Sphumelele Zondi and artwork have been used with courtesy of SASOL New Signatures Visual Arts Competition.
+Artist’s statement extract supplied by SASOL New Signatures Visual Arts Competition.
<> I remain grateful to Sphumelele Zondi for agreeing to sit with me for this interview. Le ka moso.
[] As always, I am appreciative of SASOL Art Collection curator Cate Terblanche and Marina Carlow of Marina Smithers PR for coordinating the interviews with the artists for this year’s edition of SASOL New Signatures Visual Arts Competition.
Notes
- A comparative analysis of the works, The Laundry of a Nation (2026) and Umlandeli (2025), bearing in mind the artists statements, could prove an interesting reflection. ↩︎
- The other work of Sive Ntombana that made it into finalist exhibition is Oomathotholo bayeza (2025), executed with the similar materials ↩︎
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