GALLERY & PROJECTS
MBALI MDLULI HABITAT
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
MBALI MDLULI HABITAT 03.09 - 01.10.2016
HABITAT is Mbali Mdluli’s second solo showing with the Johannesburg-based project space and gallery. The works presented reflect on the artists’ sustained concern with the dimensions of photography and the medium’s lassitude in the face of a lived experience. The personal narrative that informs this latest body of work relates to a moment of displacement that the artist experienced in recent months. From the strewn belongings the artist retrieved a large collection of home décor and design magazines, which she then used as a medium for the creation of this body of work. In this moment, the artist felt an urgency to cut, rip and tear into them as acts of meditation, to essentially transform them into undulating and contoured images presented as artworks in this exhibition. As such, these works are a result of a deep-seated, angry, dark state. As objects, they function as emotional residue. This shift from the two dimensionality of photography to the materiality of a paper medium is an attempt by the artist to introduce a sculptural sensibility to her evolving process. By constructing imagined landscapes the artist’s use of horizontal lines portrays the tensions that exist in expressing personal events. PROGRAMME OF EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EXHIBITION: Sunday, 4 August 2016: ARTWEEK JOBURG – NEW DOORNFONTEIN 9 – 11 September 2016: FNB JOBURG ART FAIR – BOOTH #36 - SANDTON CONVENTION CENTER
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Redacted Letters I - XII 2016
 Cut and Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board 109 x 111 x 4.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #1 2016, Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 21 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #2 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 14.5 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #3 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 16.5 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #4 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 11 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #5 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 18 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #6 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 21 x 30 cm NOT AVAILABLE
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #7 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 20.5 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #8 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 12 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
ERF #9 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 19.5 x 27.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Growing a hard skin… II 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 22 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Growing a hard skin… III 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 22 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Growing a hard skin… IV 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 21 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Growing a hard skin… V 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 21 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Contour I 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 21 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Contour II 2016
 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 19 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Horizon II 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 31 x 30.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Horizon III 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 31.5 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Horizon IV 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 43 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Horizon V 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 41 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
I made a hole…II 2016 Torn lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 36 x 43 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Location, Location, Location! 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 21 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Plateau 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 19.5 x 27.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Plateau II 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 19.5 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Tectonic 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 21 x 29.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Tectonic II 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 23 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Tectonic III 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 20 x 29.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
That can barely be scraped off… 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 20.5 x 27.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
That can barely be scraped off… II 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 22 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
I’m battered, bruised, really gutted… 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board 36 x 43 x 4.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
You are here… 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 23 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
You are here too… 2016 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board Artwork dimensions: 21 x 30 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Seismic 2016
 Cut lifestyle magazine on black mount board 40 x 50 x 4.5 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
Thabang 2014
 Digital Print on Cotton Rag Paper Edition of 5 + 2 AP Frame dimensions: 120 x 57 cm
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE
GALLERY & PROJECTS
ABOUT THE ARTIST Mbali Mdluli (b.1977, Soweto) is a cross-disciplinary artist. She completed her photographic studies at the Market Photo Workshop in 2010. Previous exhibitions and projects include: Unlearning, a group exhibition curated by Francis Burger at Goethe on Main, Johannesburg (2012); The Indexicality of a Ritual, a group exhibition curated by Sinethemba Twalo, Parking Gallery, and A City Reimagined, a solo exhibition presented at the Parking Gallery, Johannesburg (2013), REVAMP, a group exhibition presented by the Dead Bunny Society (2015) and most recently her first solo exhibition at ROOM, titled UNRESOLVED (2015).
ABOUT ROOM ROOM is an independent multi-disciplinary gallery and project-based space that offers monthly programming showcasing young and emergent artists. In September 2015, ROOM relocated to new premises on the ground floor of Ellis House building in New Doornfontein, Johannesburg. Please visit our website to read more about us: www.roomgallery.co.za
For more details please contact: Maria Fidel Regueros - maria@roomgallery.co.za / +27 (0) 82 373 6127 Thato Mogotsi - thato@roomgallery.co.za / +27 (0) 79 543 1573
MBALI MDLULI // CATALOGUE