Spectrum
SPECTRUM examines the cooption of black identity in visual culture and the artist’s continued experimentation with abstraction and the black body. The artist presents a new series of photographs that resist any singular perspective on black identity.
In this body of work, Nxedlana continues developing a visual language using ubiquitous objects such as the monobloc chair, used-clothing and garment labels. All these elements have gained significance in his practice over time, layering the work with concerns such as the complexities of post colonial relations through the global used-clothing industries’s impact in urban South Africa.
Nxedlana works with multiplication, constructing sculptural forms that combine entangled bodies with the chairs, clothing and labels. The reference to sculptural practice through the use of objects functions as a visual strategy by drawing from the medium’s formalist qualities which prioritise process rather than subject.
Seeking abstraction in form and materiality, SPECTRUM questions the tangible encapsulation of the black experience in visual culture.