Hayani: An exhibition by Mashudu Nevhutalu 

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Hayani, Mashudu Nevhutalu’s latest exhibition unpacks the theme of ‘nurture’, documenting Nevhutalu’s study of children-centered parts of his family archive. His work reflects a playful nostalgia for what ‘home’ means, a coup de maître of Nevhutalu’s style, sensitive and responsive, providing the observer with a collection of memories that can be engaged with. 

 “When I started working with the archives that my family kept all of these years: one of the things I noticed was there were a lot of photos with children in them,” Nevhutalu says. Whether the photographs were shot in his mother’s, grandmother or aunts’ houses, looking through the images made him realize that he considers all of those places ‘home’ because of the consistent presence of parental intervention. 

Resembling water-damaged photographs or observing a scene with blurred sight, Hayani reflects Nevhutalu’s signature of softening facial features beyond recognition has a two-fold function. Materialising the unreliable and diminishing nature of memories, Nevhutalu acknowledges the prevalence of dismissal when we remember. But obscure enough to be anybody, the style serves as an invitation for audiences to project representations that match their needs. 

Hayani is focused on the social construct of home and Nevhutalu offers the audience spatial resonance through the recurrence of brick walls and concrete stoeps, freshly polished with Cobra wax, leading to door frames in a shade of red that matches the house’s landing. Creating an effect often associated with installation, this inundation through repetition becomes a trigger.

It is to bring people into the paintings. Instead of being a snapshot that you can put down and not spend time with, I hope it allows you to step into that space where you engage with more than just your eyes.”