Unfolding Servitude

Found objects emblematic of domestic labour – such as clothes pegs, ironing soleplates, brooms and serving trays – are repurposed and reframed to explore themes of oppression and agency in relation to gender, race and class.

In the repetitive acts of assembling, Seejarim evokes the relentless, cyclical nature of domestic labour – traditionally gendered as women’s work. She deliberately reconfigures these items to highlight the interplay between the materials’ original function and the denial of their utilitarianism through art-making, transforming symbols of domesticity and containment into objects of liberation and ambiguity. Instruments of cleaning, folding, holding, washing, pressing and smoothing become statements of resistance and individuality.

The artist states: “At the heart of my exploration is the complex relationship between servitude and sexuality. Domestic labour carries with it an inherent tension between obligation and identity. The transformation of household objects into sculptural forms invites viewers to reflect on societal expectations that confine and define roles tied to care-giving and service.”

Seejarim asserts the centrality of the feminine experience through the articulation of vulvic forms, confronting societal taboos around the female body while reclaiming its power. Receptacles, nest-like objects and ovoid shapes predominate, poised between containment and constriction. A wall-based work reaching two and a half metres high and titled Contours of Isolation, layers densely packed rows of reclaimed iron sole plates into a sharply tapered ellipse – an armoured portal inviting both passage and defence. Seejarim’s sculptures pivot on their references to the body: tongue-like forms extend downwards invoking the Goddess Kali, a forest of phalluses rise from a decorative serving tray, sheaths of conjoined wooden clothes pegs part and close in fleshy contours. In reforming domestic objects in this way, the artist points to the intimate connections between physicality and the structures of power that shape lived experiences. The works speak to the intersections of vulnerability and strength, subordination and defiance, intimacy and universality.

Seejarim’s abstraction of these objects – negating their intended purpose to become vessels of collective memory – is an act of liberation, not only for the physical things themselves, but also for the location of women in relation to capitalist consumption. Unfolding Servitude gives voice to invisible labour while simultaneously critiquing the systems that advocate these roles.

Artist Profile

Born in 1974, Usha Seejarim is a South African artist based in Johannesburg. She graduated from the University of Witwatersrand with a master’s degree in fine art in 2008. She has received multiple awards, including the Dignitas Award from University of Johannesburg (2022), SEED Award from the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (2019), Tomorrow’s/Today Prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2018), SCAC Marestaing & The Secular Solidarity Association Sculpture Award at the Dakar Biennale (2018), and Ampersand Fellowship Award (2003).

Her work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions, including Angel of the house (2021) at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town; Vessel of the Fish (2019) at Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam; Un balai, pourquoi pas une balai (2019) at SCAC Marestaing in France; Transgressing Power (2019) at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg; and Venus at Home (2012-2014), which travelled to Northwest University Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art Gallery and the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, SouthAfrica. She has also held solo presentations of her work at the 2023 Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg, 2022 FNB Art Joburg, and 2018 Investec Cape Town Art Fair.

Notable group exhibitions include Twenty: Art in the Time of Democracy, a travelling exhibition presented at the University of Johannesburg, Turchin Centre in Boone in the US and the Beijing Biennale (2015); The Red Hour, curated by Simon Njami for the Dak’Art: African Contemporary Art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal (2018); and Where do we migrate to? at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, US (2011). Seejarim’s work is included in the collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Stellenbosch University, Constitutional Court in Johannesburg, University of South Africa, and Fondazione Fiera Milan in Italy, among others.