Waya – Waya: Imoto Yocingo
Nyaniso Lindi
Waya goes beyond the collection of rubbish. Subliminally it touches on issues of identity, migration (the paradox of the Self and the Other), consumerism, power and greed. The materials used in the work become signifiers for different things. In this case the idea of thinking out of the box is evident in the artist’s use of the cardboard boxes as a matrix for his images and yes, thinking outside of the said box. The cars also reflect the dispossession or the displacement of the Masses. The work of unlearning the existing methods of the Canon of arts, using new methods and materials to express ourselves – reimagining where and how these materials end up. Therefore, what started as a rummaging through rubbish bins of Joza in Makhanda has evolved into an exhibition made up entirely of rubbish and found items; Waya Waya… Imoto Yocingo.
The title is isiXhosa slang that directly translates into a hustle & bustle, or a state of chaos.
CREDITS
A visual art exhibition by award winning artist, Nyaniso Lindi.
ARTIST BIO
Nyaniso Lindi is a visual artist and independent curator currently living in Makhanda. He is a Gerard Sekoto award winning artist (2009) and studied toward a Fine Art degree at Rhodes University.
Lindi is a master printmaker who patronises his technique across print mediums but confesses to relief printing – specifically Colour Reduction being close to his heart.
His work has been exhibited in many spaces including the National Arts Festival, Cite Internationale des Arts – Paris, the MoMa Art Gallery in New York, various art spaces in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. As well having participated in numerous group exhibitions and cultural exchanges across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Nigeria and in Northern America. As well as Beijing. Some of those include Cross – Cultural Identities, and Art For Humanity: Break The Silence Billboard Campaign. He’s also the co-founder artist of eGazini Community Outreach Project established in the early 2000’s in Makhanda – home to the National Arts Festival.
Currently, Lindi teaches art in community spaces and is the co- founder of The Open Space, a concept pop-up art gallery and empty stage for creative across all art disciplines and hosts Creative Kids Master Art Classes in what he calls “children I hang out with and let them beat me at chess with really much more talent than I have”.
He is also the curator of the Thandeka Stamper Art Galari- the only recorded art gallery in a village in South Africa where he is the driver behind the public art and urban renewal project in rural & township spaces. This ongoing PADP (Public Art Development Project called Makana Freedom Route) includes public art stretching between Matyana River in Makhanda to Peddie on the R345 to Hamburg Beach.
Lindi is currently working towards two new bodies of work, “Battered and Broozed” and a solo multi-media exhibition called “Waya -Waya”… Imoto Yocingo.