Iniva announces a new window presentation entitled Makhuba by South African artist Lerato Shadi. Over the years Iniva has invited artists in December to ‘speak to the street’, and Shadi will undertake a performance in Rivington Place’s large window (on Rivington Street). She will write and erase on alternate days over six days from 9 until 16 December, and thereafter her actions will remain as a trace until 4 January 2015.

Lerato Shadi uses her own body to investigate ‘the politics of transformation, or transition, from absence to presence, subject to object, inclusion, exclusion and vice versa’. Makhuba is a companion piece to Seipone, a work performed in Berlin and Johannesburg in 2012, where the artist wrote about her past. With her new work she will conjure a future for herself connected to society, placing herself in the world.

“It will be a narrative about the future and that places my process in a space between thinking and writing. It’s something I often dwell on; the different lives you give your thoughts when you speak, write or perform.” Lerato Shadi interview by Laura Simpson, October 2014

Performance for this artist is a journey for herself as much as for those watching. Lerato Shadi explores assumptions about the (black) female body and how performance creates a stage to make the body both visible and invisible. Using time, repetitive actions as well as stillness, she questions ‘How does one create oneself?’. Seipone, meaning mirror in Tswana, reflected on whether you can lose your past and who is in charge of one’s own history. Makhuba, translated as ‘to wave/paddle’, will question whether one can project a different future for oneself, and how in our imaginations we all live very different lives.

Lerato Shadi in conversation with Hansi Momodu-Gordon: Friday, 12 December, 6.30-8.30pm

An In Conversation with Hansi Momodu-Gordon, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern, followed by reception will take place on 12 December from 6.30 pm in Rivington Place’s main exhibition space on the ground floor to discuss Shadi’s practice and new performance.

This event is free but places are limited, advance booking is required: Event Booking
Lerato Shadi Makhuba, 9-16 December
Live performance: Monday – Friday, 10am – 4pm
Installation: until 4 January 2015 visible from Rivington Street
Iniva’s Rivington Place’s street facing wondow, Shoreditch, EC2A 3BA

www.iniva.org

LERATO SHADI lives and works in Berlin (GER) and Johannesburg (SA). She completed a BFA in Fine Art from the University of Johannesburg. In 2008 she was a featured artist in Art South Africa magazine, and in 2009 she was included in the The Generational: ‘Younger Than Jesus artists-directory’ published by the New Museum, New York. In 2010 she was awarded a Pro Helvetia residency in Bern, Switzerland. In the same year she had her solo exhibition Mosako Wa Seipone at GoetheonMain in Johannesburg. From 2010 to 2012 she was a member of the Bag Factory artist studios in Fordsburg, Johannesburg. In 2012 her work was featured at the Dak’art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal and in the III Moscow International Biennale. She is a fellow of Sommerakademie 2013 (Zentrum Paul Klee) and completed in the same year a residency program by invitation of INIVA at Hospitalfield (supported by ROSL). In 2014 she was awarded with the mart stam studio grant. Currently she is doing her MFA at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee (GER).