Southern Guild, in collaboration with BMW South Africa, presents iiNtsika zeSizwe (Pillars of the Nation), a powerful short film featuring ceramic artist Zizipho Poswa celebrating Xhosa women and the everyday practice of ‘umthwalo’.

‘Umthwalo’ is the isiXhosa word for ‘load’, whereby women transport heavy items on foot by carrying them on their heads. In the rural Eastern Cape province (and other parts of South Africa), women traditionally perform the tasks of gathering wood, collecting water and taking bucket loads of clothing to wash in the river. For Poswa, who partook in these daily rituals as a young girl, the strength required to balance these burdens and walk long distances is testimony to the endurance of Xhosa women.

Inspired by her Xhosa heritage and the life-sustaining roles that African women play in traditional and contemporary life, Poswa expands on the thematic interests of her first series of major hand-coiled ceramic sculptures, aptly titled Umthwalo. This new series of sculptures, her first produced in all-bronze, sees her continue her exploration of the theme, creating totems consisting of abstract forms on top of voluminous bases, each symbolising female strength and resilience. With their exuberant shapes and translation into bronze, these sculptures elevate the practice of ‘umthwalo’ to heroic status.

A series of large photographs, commissioned especially for the exhibition and shot by photographer Hayden Phipps, show Poswa in various acts of ‘umthwalo’ in and around her rural village of Holela in the Eastern Cape province. The artist says it was important for her to document the practice in the place where she grew up and where a number of the influential women in her life still reside. This film is a documentation of this Eastern Cape journey and a celebration of all the women who inspired this latest body of work.

iiNtsika zeSizwe opens on 15 May (until 29 July) at Galerie56 in Tribeca, New York, and marks Poswa’s debut solo presentation in the United States. It is a tribute to her own mother, the community of women who raised her and others like them, whose contribution to society is rarely recognised.

FILM CREDITS:
In partnership with BMW South Africa
Director, Cinematographer & Editor: Bill Chen (New Perspective Pictures)
Producer: Erin Starr Katzeff, Southern Guild
Make Up Artist & Stylist: Alexis Dyalvane
Featuring Zizipho Poswa | Shot on location in the Eastern Cape