iVum Vum Exhibition Catalogue by Lebogang Mogul Mabusela

iVum Vum Lebogang Mogul

04 May — 14 June 2024

Bag Factory Artists Studios is pleased to present iVum Vum, a solo exhibition by Lebogang ‘Mogul’ Mabusela, also known as Monotypebabe. The exhibition, consisting of monotype prints and drawing, unravels South Africa’s history with automotive culture.

Mabusela’s work exposes the hegemonies and precepts present in Black masculine culture and investigates its implications within contemporary South Africa. The exhibition features works from her ongoing series, ‘Johannesburg Words’, the title of which references an etching by Robert Hodgins by the name, ‘Joburg Words’. The work depicts the city’s lively nature while satirising the elitism of its subjects –an approach Mabusela borrows to critique the pervasiveness of misogynoir amongst Black men.

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Yo baby gal, 2024

Yoh yoh yoh, 2024

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Makoti orite, 2024

Ngikukhape, 2024

Uhlala phi Beyontse, 2024

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Uhlala phi, 2024

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Orite Mamakhe, 2024

Eh Dali, 2024

Ukwatile, 2024

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm unframed; 31 x 38 cm framed

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Eh Luv, 2024

Orite Muhle, 2024

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Eh Beyontse, 2024

Eish, 2024

Sisi 2024

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Uhlala phi, 2024

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

17 x 21 cm

Ao Dali, 2024

Ukwatile Dali, 2024

Mabusela’s work employs levity to highlight the day-today encounters Black women have with men in the city, visualising the recurring linguistic exchanges during these experiences. She notes how the works’ sardonic nature: “contradicts the reality of navigating within misogynoir; a dangerous space filled with obstacles, sexist roadblocks and patriarchal potholes.” Mabusela turns the male gaze on its head and on itself, gesturing towards its persistence and sinisterly unassuming nature. Centring men through portraiture coupled with text, the works illustrate the brash engagements Black women regularly face and illuminate the mechanisms men employ to disarm women, including vernacular language to connect to their localised experience.

Displayed on shelves to emphasise their textuality and Mabusela’s role as storyteller: her scenes place the onlooker in her shoes while her portraits act as mirrors, hoping to offer a moment of reflection and reckoning.

2024

Oil pastel and cigarette foil on paper

30 x 30 cm unframed; 44 x 44 cm framed

Ushadile,

Watercolour monotype

27.5 x 30 cm unframed; 41 x 44 cm framed

Wamorata boi, 2024

Watercolour monotype

17.5 x 26 cm unframed; 31 x 40 cm framed

Sweetie, Lovie, Dali, 2024

Mabusela continues this inquisition into masculinity in new works featured in iVum Vum, which unpack the relationship between, specifically, men and their cars. The show’s title alludes to a song by kwaito star Brown Dash of the same name. The song tells of Brown Dash courting a woman by offering to take her on a ride to the movies in his car. He uses some of the terms of “endearment” referenced in Mabusela’s works to personify the cars that men love, as if they were a woman who has turned him smitten. Mabusela’s new series expounds upon this by showing how such personification of object as woman, in turn, bolsters a culture in which women are objectified. Her spotlighting of the peacock green 1992 BMW E30 325is, popularly known as the “Gusheshe” – a make and model notorious within South African car spinning, racing and automotive culture – asks viewers to interrogate the rift between popular culture and personal responsibility.

My Size, 2023

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Eish, 2023

Watercolour monotype with cigarette foil

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype with cigarette foil

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Eh BabyGal, 2023

Asambe Beyontse, 2023

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype with cigarette foil

14.8 x 21 cm

Sweetie, 2023

Asambe Beyontse, 2023

Watercolour monotype with cigarette foil

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Ushadil, 2023

Mushi, 2023

Ngekengikchonche, 2023

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm unframed; 28.5 x 35 cm framed

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Awufuni, 2023

Oya Santon, 2023

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Yo Baby sml, 2023

Ushadile, 2023

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Hello Sexy, 2023

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Nayindoda, 2023

Ao Dali, 2023

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Shambula, 2023

Mummy, 2023

iVum Vum is a critique of gender roles within contemporary South Africa, and beyond, and how its actors attach themselves to hegemonic expressions of masculinity. The exhibition questions who is allowed to purport pole-position and who resultantly takes the last spot within the domain of car culture, and culture at large.

Watercolour monotype

21 x 21.5 cm

Watercolour monotype

26 x 22 cm

Ngikukhape, 2024

Eh Molate Boi, 2024

Amagents, 2024

Watercolour monotype

12 x 22 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Yo Baby, 2024

Watercolour monotype, 30 x 21 cm unframed; 43.5 x 35 cm framed

Dali, 2024

Pakistani, 2024

Watercolour monotype with cigarette foil

21 x 14.8 cm

Ao Beyontse, 2024

Watercolour monotype with cigarette foil

21 x 14.8 cm

Hello Beyontse, 2024

Watercolour monotype with cigarette foil

21 x 14.8 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Hello Muhle, 2024

Uhlala Phi, 2024

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Watercolour monotype

14.8 x 21 cm

Wang Charmer, 2024

Vele Awufuni, 2024

Watercolour monotype

21 x 30 cm

Shambula, 2024

Lebogang Mogul Mabusela, born in Mabopane, is a self-proclaimed Zinequeen and Monotypebabe currently practicing in Pretoria. In 2019 she graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Wits School of Arts, where she was awarded the Standard Bank Fine Arts Prize. Mabusela has participated in a number of group exhibitions in South Africa including art fairs: Cape Town Art Fair, The Latitudes Art Fair, David Krut Projects. Internationally, she has shown in Lagos, Nigeria, at Frieze London and in Paris, at Gallery Esperance.

In 2019 Mabusela was a Top 50 Design Indaba Emerging Creative. Mabusela’s first solo exhibition in 2022, titled Ukwatile? presented a body of work about language, catcalling and voyeurism at Stevenson Gallery in Johannesburg as part of their STAGE program for unrepresented artists. Currently she runs a printmaking program called The MonotypebabeCuratorial. Mabusela’s residency participations include: The Young Womxn Studio Bursary at Bag Factory, the Blvck Block Online Residency and The Salzburger-Kunstverein in Austria. Recently she was shortlisted for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize and showed work at the Norval Foundation in CapeTown.

The Bag Factory is a non-profit contemporary visual art organisation in Newtown, Johannesburg. With a pioneering 33-year history of providing a supportive infrastructure for artists, the Bag Factory is unique in combining art making with cultural debate and art exhibitions, thereby creating a fertile international environment for experimentation, innovation, and cultural dialogue between creatives in South Africa and the rest of the world. We provide studio space to a cross-generational community of Johannesburg-based artists and host a prestigious international artist and curator residency programme.

We present regular exhibitions in our gallery that showcase new work by emerging artists to the wider public, and we also support the professional development of artists and curators through workshops, mentorship, and the prestigious David Koloane and Cassirer Welz awards. All our programmes are accompanied by a public programme that encourages greater understanding of contemporary visual art and stimulates interaction between artists and the local community. We are affiliated with the international Triangle Network.