South Africa

The time will come when with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror. And each will smile at the other’s welcome and say sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was yourself. Give wine. Give Bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs and the desperate notes, Peel your image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott

This first solo art exhibition by Gabi Ngcobo is exactly that: an invitation to join her at the feast of her life and a celebration of her return from a 4 year journey to a place of comfort in the new dimensions of her self.

Our attendance here is not only to bear witness to the creative expression of Gabi’s lived experiences, but also to reflect upon and pay tribute to our own.

For a moment, define Home as the epicenter of your comfort zone, the space in which you are the most relaxed and assured of your purpose, where you are most at ease and familiar with your surroundings. Then consider for another moment that any degree of departure from this state of peace is a journey in itself from which you will return with new information about yourself. The closer you travel to the outer limits of this protective zone, the closer you come to the stretch zone where you exist wholly in a new experience that challenges your very sense of self. This place of discomfort, uncertainty, loneliness, fear and displacement is where the really valuable learning happens, and where Gabi chose to revel in. This journey back to the core, introspective by nature, is the Homecoming.

Gabi’s past 4 years of travels to and residencies in Johannesburg, Cape Town Switzerland and Zambia have been unapologetically true to their nature-her horizons extended, being expanded and perceived limitations shattered. She presents here, in the city of her birth, the process of her need and desire to re-orient her ever changed self, and somehow come home to herself in peace and be welcomed.

In this exhibition, Gabi invites us to trust this inevitable process of self discovery as we consciously, purposefully live our experiences. She reminds us to keep track of what has been acquired, lost, given away, discovered, exchanged, learned, moved, discarded and adopted along the way. Through her rich multi-layered paintings, she beckons us to not only share in her journey, but to respect our own experiences of moving through the world and hopefully find resonance between her Homecoming and our own.

- MbK

The revolution is not on your head,

it is in it.

Zimitri Erasmus

As dynamic and ever changing as the latest political, fashion and social movements, we as Black people have come to use hairstyles to be defining features of our personalities and even our value systems. While one’s hairstyle is undoubtedly a means for personal expression, hairstyles have been, over time, assigned a symbolic weight which has blurred perceptions of our selves and others. Hairstyles are now a convenient way to categorize people, and we have become stuck on this notion that our hair makes us who we are. For instance, before a word has been exchanged, the man walking towards you on Smith Street with thick dreads hanging loosely down his back is immediately approachable for your next spliff, and tagged as a peace loving vegetarian who leads a righteous, teetotal life.

Therein is the assumption we make, subconsciously or otherwise, about ourselves or others: our hair is a direct manifestation of conformity or resistance to a certain set of ideals and values. This cycle of judgment keeps erect a divisive wall built on assumptions. Why is the "Happy to be Nappy" decision to "go natural" esteemed as the badge entitling you to more Blackness than the next Black person? Why does it artificially signal that your ideals are either Afro-centric or you have made a conscious choice to appear unkempt? And why, if a woman has permed hair, is it a comment on her time management, level of commitment to everything or even social status? We are trapped in a self-imposed hair net of meanings, associations, labels and judgments.

Our complex hair net extends beyond the context of the Black community. What used to be a private girlhood practice of braiding each others hair at home in the back yard on a Saturday afternoon has been adopted by outdoor vendors who have literally taken this ritual to the streets. Likewise, there is influence from the outside in, as seen in the contention over whether hair-straightening is a marker of one’s Whiteness or is a Black cultural practice. Our hairstyles and larger notions of beauty are complicating an already challenging existence, especially as both insiders and outsiders to the community play a role in Black hair politics.

Gabi’s "hair pieces" remind us of both the sordid histories of these twisted politics and the freedom of being comfortable with who we are no matter what form our curls take. Her work guides us to our own Homecoming where we are liberated from self-imposed stereotypes that dictate identity and beliefs. Ultimately, it is releasing our attachment to our hair and approaching each other without assumptions that will open us to whatever the next human encounter will bring.

- MbK & AsK