At first glance, the work of Blessing Ngobeni might seem like a fever pitch of excitement but on closer inspection, it becomes clear why this award-winning artist is lauded for his ability to bring heavy and political matters to the forefront in an array of colours.

Ngobeni’s artworks will be on display at The Demonstration: Art Tackles Race exhibition. A collective featuring a number of creatives from different disciplines looks back at the racial history of SA.

Curated by visual artist and lecturer Siwa Mgoboza, the art pieces, including Ngobeni’s, also take into consideration the spaces they occupy at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.

Ngobeni’s art finds a home in the courtyard where prisoners got to stretch their legs during their time spent behind the bars of Constitution Hill.

While the concept of skeletonising his work was birthed prior to the exhibition, Ngobeni sought to capture the hardships that come from the past with these works.

Titled Dance Like It’s Nobody’s Land, the sculptures depict figures in motion that are dancing for their freedom.

“It’s the idea that this is your land but you are still dancing to a colonial tune. It is a tune that is not being played by our own conductor but by colonial people,” says Ngobeni, speaking on the dichotomies between black and white folk in a capitalist society.

“The question is if we are going to dance like it’s nobody’s land while we know very well that the land is linked to our ancestral ownership. Who are we and how do we find ourselves through being in this position where we don’t own anything?”

This is also a step in a different direction for Ngobeni, who often sticks to paintings on canvas.

With other artists being challenged out of their bailiwicks for this exhibition, Ngobeni brought the imaginative nature of his festive abstract art to life with towering sculptures made from a mixture of metal and found objects.

“I wanted to put my work into three dimensional form where it has two materials going into it, which is steel and paint with nothing else. The process of bringing it here was that I wanted to see it moving, hence I have a video installation where I did an animation of some of the work that excludes these works.”

The space also carries relevant history for Ngobeni, who had been arrested in his youth for five years and sees his art work speaking to the space he knows all too well.

“I understand the system of the prison and you are not able to do things simply because you are in the space. When I bring my work here it’s almost like I am taking myself back to prison,” says Ngobeni.

“So when I see my work here, I feel like it’s speaking to my past.”

Ngobeni hopes that the artworks inspire freedom of thinking for those who see the exhibition, with a particular focus on black youth who need to question the systems around them.

Ngobeni also runs an eponymous art prize which he looks forward to raising funds for as it hits its seventh year in 2023.

He also has four shows next year that he is currently working on, of which one will be local and the rest international.​

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