- Source: Senzeni Marasela
Senzeni Marasela (born 11 February 1977) is a South African visual artist born in Thokoza who works across different media, combining performance, photography, video, prints, textiles, and embroidery in mixed-media installations. She obtained a BA in Fine Arts at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1998.
Her work has been exhibited in South Africa, Europe, and the United States, and is part of local and international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Newark Museum.
Education
Senzeni Marasela attended Jonimfundo, a school, in Vosloorus, where she matriculated in 1994. After a one-day trip to the University of the Witwatersrand in 1992, she decided to enroll there. She developed her multimedia and performative practice at the Wits School of Arts, graduating in 1998.
Career
Marasela's work has been regularly shown since the Martienssen Prize Exhibition in 1997. She was accepted as an exhibiting artist by the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg after being part of the group exhibition, Not Quite a Christmas Exhibition. She had her first solo exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery's Fresh exhibition series in 2000, which was part of a residency program. In 2003, she started a long-term performance entitled Theodorah comes to Johannesburg, which is based on stories her mother told about her 11-hour travel from Mvenyane to Johannesburg.
In 2011, Marasela began work as a full-time artist and was part of the Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.
Work
Marasela's mother's collection of doilies and Victorian lace works, handed down in her family, influenced her artistic practice. Marasela's work explores the experiences of Black, South African women across a range of media. This includes photography, video, prints, and mixed-media installations that involve textiles and embroidery. In her work, she translates memories of struggle and urbanization through the use of material culture and narratives. For example, the use of the color red refers to cultural memories around the time of the "red dust," a period of drought in the early 1930s in South Africa. Her performances interweave these elements and multi-media works, making visible the dimension of the every day through objects and clothes.
She is known for her six-year performance work Ijermani Lam which "materializes the condition of waiting" by wearing the same red dress every day from 1 October 2013 to 1 October 2019. The original dresses were part of the group the exhibition, "Made Visible. Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (February–May 2019). Her work taps into cultural memories, such as using archival materials like newspapers and photographs printed onto colonial textiles. It tells stories of black women in South Africa, such as Sarah Baartman and Marasela's mother, Theodorah Mpofukazi Marasela, through series such as Covering Sarah Baartman (2011), Sarah, Senzeni and Theodorah come to Joburg (2011), Theodorah, (2005), Waiting for Gebane (2017), Izithombe Zendawo Esizithandayo (2017). Marasela's artwork builds an "intimate archive", giving voice to experiences of black women.
Exhibitions
2018: Senzeni Marasela, Waiting for Gebane. Dolly Parton. Toffee Gallery, Darling, South Africa
2011: Sarah, Theodora and Senzeni in Johannesburg. Art On Paper, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010: Senzeni Marasela. Beyond Booty: Covering Sarah Baartman and other Tales. Axis Gallery, New York and New Jersey, in association with submerged art, USA
2009: Witness. Art on Paper, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009: Oh my God you look like shit. Who let you out of the house looking like that?, solo performance, Sternersen Museum, Oslo, Norway
2009: JONGA – Look at Me! A Museum of Women, Dolls and Memories. Devon Arts residency, Devon, England
2005: Theodorah and Other Women. Art on Paper, Johannesburg, South Africa
2004: Three Women, Three Voices. Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2002: Upstream Public Art Project. Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2000: Fresh. South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
= Group exhibitions
=2019: I am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa. Smithsonian National African Museum, Washington, USA
2018–2019: Soft Power. Transpalette, Bourges, France
2018: Ravelled Threads. Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA
2017: Africa. Raccontare un Mondo. Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
2016: KIN, HANGAR. Centro de Investigação Artística, Lisbon, Portugal
2014: Ik Beem Afrikander. Johannesburg, South Africa
2014: Contemporary South African Art Exhibition. Yale University, New Haven, USA
2014: Nomad Bodies. Royal Academy of Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium – Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
2013: Weather Report. University of Potchefstroom, North-West Province, South Africa
2013: Africa curating Africa. ABSA Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa, (Travelling Exhibition)
2012: Ongoing. Present Tense: Arts of Contemporary Africa. The Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey, USA
2012: Red. 5 Pieces Gallery, Berne, Switzerland
2012: ME1. Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
2011: New traditions: Louise McCagg & Senzeni Marasela. Collaboration at A.I.R. Gallery, in Association with Axis Gallery and Alma-on-Dobbin, New York, USA
2011: Impressions from South Africa: Printed Art/1965 to Now. The Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2010–2013: Translations into Jewellery. Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa – Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009–2011: DARKROOM: South African Photography and New Media 1950 – Present. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA – Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA
2009: Dystopia. Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa – Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa – Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Mangaung, Bloemfontein, South Africa – Jan Colle Galerij, Ghent, Belgium.
2009: Beauty and Pleasure. Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway
2009: Unbounded: New Art for a New Century. Newark Museum, New Jersey, USA
2009: Developing Democracy: A New Focus on South African Photography. Kyle Kauffman Gallery, New York, USA
2008: Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008: Black Womanwood: Icons, Images and Ideologies of the African Body. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, The Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, and the San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego
2007: Jive Soweto. Hector Pietersen Museum, Soweto, South Africa
2006: Ranjith Kally, Senzeni Marasela and Ruth Seopedi Motau at Goodman Gallery
2006: Erase Me from Who I Am. Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain
2005: Click. Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2004: Ten Voices, Ten Years of Democracy. Public Art project of the City of Rome, Italy
2004: Public Private. Auckland Public Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2003: The Body and the Archive. Artists' Space, New York, USA
2002: Aids in Africa. Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
2001: Sample E.C. Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
2001: Open House Exhibition. Umea Art Academy, Umea, Sweden
2000: Margins in the Mainstream. Namibian National Gallery, Windhoek, Namibia
2000: Translation/Seduction/Displacement: Post-Conceptual and Photographic Work. South African Artists, White Box, New York, USA
2000: Portrait Afrika. Haus der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany
2000: Art Region End of Africa. Listafen Reykjavikur Kjarvalsstadir, Reyjavik, Iceland
1999: Market Photo Workshop Exhibition. Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1999: Postcards from South Africa. Axis Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1999: Truth Veils. Getrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1998: Family Ties. Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1998: Democracy's Images. Bildmusset, Umea, Sweden
1998: Women's Voices. Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
1997: Not Quite a Christmas Exhibition. Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1997: Martienseen Prize Exhibition. Gertrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
= Biennales
=2005: Beijing Biennale, South African Representative, Beijing, China