Traveling Exhibition of Bead Art from South Africa Heads to Lake Charles
LAKE CHARLES, La (press release) – Historic City Hall Arts & Cultural Center announced Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence, a spectacular overview of a new form of bead art, the ndwango (“cloth”), developed by women with a shared vision working together in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Using skills handed down through generations and working in their unique style “directly from the soul” (in the words of artist Ntombephi Ntobela), the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos. Ubuhle Women is on view at Historic City Hall Arts & Cultural Center from through Dec. 27.
Ubuhle means “beauty” in the Xhosa and Zulu languages and describes the shimmering quality of light on glass that for the Xhosa people has a special spiritual significance. From a distance, each panel of the ndwango seems to present a continuous surface; but as the viewer moves closer and each tiny individual bead catches the light, the viewer becomes aware of the meticulous skill that goes into each artwork and the scale of the artist’s creative ambition. A single panel can take more than a year to complete, depending on the size, complexity of the design, and the size of the beads used.
Since 2006, five artists have passed away. Many of the artworks thus function as memorials to family members and friends who have lost their lives. Remembering the dead is a key motivation for the creation of many of these artworks, and it imbues them with a spiritual significance.
Due to the slow, meticulous process of creating a ndwango, the act of beading itself becomes a form of therapy: a way of setting down the issues that are closest to the artists’ hearts; a way of grieving; and a place to encode feelings and memories. In a sense—through their presence in the artist’s thoughts during the act of creation – the deceased enter the very fabric of the work, and so the ndwango becomes a site of memory.
Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence was developed by the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, DC, in cooperation with Curators Bev Gibson, Ubuhle Beads, and James Green, and is organized for tour by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.
International Arts & Artists in Washington, DC, is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to increasing cross-cultural understanding and exposure to the arts internationally, through exhibitions, programs, and services to artists, arts institutions, and the public. Visitwww.artsandartists.org.
Historic City Hall is located at 1001 Ryan St. with hours Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Historic City Hall is also home to Black Heritage Gallery and Gallery by the Lake on the second floor. The Charlestown Farmers Market is open on Bilbo Street behind the center every Saturday from 8 a.m. till noon. Meet Me @ The Market is open the first Saturday of every month on the front plaza of Historic City Hall. For more information, please call 337-491-9147, email artsandculture@cityoflc.us or visit www.cityoflakecharles.com Follow Historic City Hall on social media at https://www.facebook.com/historiccityhallartsandculture and https://www.instagram.com/historiccityhall/.
