The National Arts Festival is a place where dreams are realised. A place where raw talent is discovered and developed. It’s a place where creatives gather and celebrate their artistic prowess.
When thev winners of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards in 2021 were announced, the artists were commissioned to showcase a new work on the main programme of the 2022 National Arts Festival.
Theartre lovers were exposed to everything from the graceful movements of the seasoned dancer and choreographer Kristi-Leigh Gresse to the trained rhythms of Vuma Levin’s entrancing jazz and the visual feast provided by the works of Buhlebezwe Siwani along with the harmonious melodies provided by Cara Stacey.
There was Gavin Krastin’s interdisciplinary performance piece “12 Labours”, consisting of twelve individual acts and public community interventions.
And Thando Doni’s production, “Ngqawuse”, made use of aesthetic inspiration from African rituals, music, songs, and dance, seeking to question the decisions we have been led to believe we made in the past, while exploring how those decisions affect us presently.
The 2021 SBYAs truly understood the assignment, leaving festival-goers in awe.
We chatted with Buhlebezwe Siwani and Gavin Krastin about their respective journeys and the next chapter following their debut at the festival, this past weekend.
Siwani’s new body of work titled “Iyeza” premiered at the OldPower Station Gallery in Makhanda. It explores the intersection between the arts and spiritual healing.
“When I thought about making work for the award, I immediately jumped onto what I've been thinking for the past five years. The over aching theme about work is my journey to become isangoma and that's where it started,” shared Siwani.
“And it will be remiss of me to not speak of or make work about the medicine. And so this was a point of contention for me, to be like, I'm always speaking about the emotion of people and now I'm coming home to my ancestral place, I need to speak to the ancestors and what they have given life to, and it was medicine for me.
“I started looking at aloe flora which you find a lot of, here in Makhanda. And you also find impepho just chilling.
“I started thinking about ways I could make work about these plants and how these indigenous methods of healing have a negative connotation and I wanted to flip that around.”
Reflecting on the year of hard work and now that her work has finally been received, Siwani just wants to take a break before she takes her work on tour for the first time.
“At this point in time, I just want to sit in this. I just want for a moment, to pull myself away, and look at what I’ve done and what my fellow SBYAs have done. First of all, this was really great group and to find yourself in this group was just mind-blowing for me.
“I haven’t had a holiday in three years… I don’t know what’s next but want I do know is that I want to sit and understand what it is that I’ve made because I’m yet to fully process it.
“The show is travelling…so it’s going from one place to another. Another thing I have to mention is there’s something nice about being at home, on the continent.”
The star also touched on how artists are not getting recognition here at home, whereas their work is appreciated by others, in different parts of the world.
“We are always invited outside of the continent…I’ve never had an award at home. I have four awards from the EU. So for me to be able to get one here and have it travel…it makes me super emotional because I don’t understand why our country doesn’t give us, what we deserve when we deserve it,” said Siwani.
Echoing Siwani’s sentiments, Krastin, who presented his new body of work “12 Labours”, says he is ready to take his shoes off and unwind.
“There’s a saying that reflection is a different thing to doing, you can’t reflect and do at the same time, so I would also like to take a moment to step back. So immediate plans are I’m working on a project with my postgrad students.
“Switzerland has invited me over. I’ve trained through theatre and dance, not through visual arts, and feel very knowledgeable on one hand and ignorant on the other, I would like to delve deeper into the visual arts. I’m taking next week off, I’ll be sitting under a tree, barefoot,” he added.
Commenting on his new project, Krastin says: “The project reimagines the toxicity of conventional understandings of ‘heroism’ and ‘masculinity’ through the adapting of the classic Greek tale of The Twelve Labours of Hercules.”
Connect with Siwani and Krastin on social media to follow their respective journeys.