iNgqweji

Southern Guild is pleased to present iNgqweji by Andile Dyalvane, a solo exhibition of earthenware, glass and copper sculptures opening in Cape Town on 22 November (until 29 January 2026).

Conceived as a series of immersive environments inspired by the desert, forests and caves, iNgqweji teems with biomorphic forms, vivid colour and tactile materials such as free-blown glass and hand-forged copper. Many of the works incorporate light and sound elements, the result of
collaborations with master practitioners, including composer Dr Nkosenathi Koela, glassblower David Reade and blacksmith Conrad Hicks. Encompassing floor-based and suspended ceramic works, the sculptural presentation embodies Dyalvane’s ethos of spiritual ecology, which calls for the renewal of reverence, reciprocity and ethical responsibility toward all forms of life – both seen and unseen. He situates his art-making in this web of interconnection, weaving together the teachings of Xhosa cultural guardians, his observations of plant and animal intelligence, and an extra-sensory awareness of life beyond the terrestrial plane.

iNgqweji began with a pilgrimage to honour the memory of the Zulu Sanusi Credo Mutwa, whose teachings are a conduit through which precolonial cosmologies are rearticulated for contemporary consciousness, following centuries of erasure by the West. Together with other followers of Mutwa’s legacy, the artist journeyed up-country, through the arid landscape
of the Karoo, crossing the reeded banks of the Orange River to the sangoma’s home in Kuruman in the Northern Cape. For Dyalvane, to travel is to trace the passage of millennia in the folds of sun-baked rock, observe the flight patterns of birds at dusk, dig for clay on the riverbank and walk barefoot across the earth. This process of deep attunement to his surroundings – holding movement and stillness in dynamic counterpoise – is an essential part of his practice.

The most striking feature the artist observed on his journey was the colossal nests woven by colonies of social weaver birds attached to tree branches and telephone poles, housing as many as 500 birds in individual chambers. In their complex architectural structures, Dyalvane noted the
birds’ innate design skills and the amplification of intent that comes from shared vision. The flock’s communal action and adaptability mirrored that of the pilgrims themselves – long-time creative collaborators, amagqirha (traditional Xhosa healers) and practitioners of sound, song, dance,
image and words. The members of Dyalvane’s community form part of each others’ journey towards purpose, understanding and healing, fulfilling different roles within the group to hold and guide one another.

So too, Dyalvane’s sculptures speak of structure and support, giving rise to a profusion of growth. Branch-like forms twist up from rounded bases, nodal outgrowths merge and split, accommodating bulbous nests and mushroom-like heads that explode in a burst of glass orbs or copper bristles. On the smaller works, gestural marks of coloured glaze emphasize the sway and dance of Dyalvane’s ink-brush paintings. Many of the works contain visible strands of nichrome wire, mirroring the energetic linework of his drawings.

With his ongoing interest in traditional African instruments such as the umrhubhe (mouth bow) and igubu (drum) and the healing resonance of sound frequencies, Dyalvane paid close attention to nature’s soundtrack as he moved across the landscape. “We were carried by the echoing buzz, song and hum of the natural world,” he observed. Several works contain sound recordings composed by Koela, based on bird calls and other sounds collected in outdoor settings, which reveal how African music has long mirrored and reinterpreted the voices of birds and animals, weaving them into cultural memory.

iNgqweji is the outcome of what Mutwa would call “the mother mind”: non-linear, expansive and connective, prioritising empathy and the well-being of the whole. In this body of work, Dyalvane surveys the dazzling display of our living world and through the process of making, emerges himself, anew.