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Performance piece pushes the boundaries

As the artist explains, ‘The video works Mmitlwa and Selogilwe as well as the residual sculptural installation Se sa Feleng, explore themes around self-reflection, spirituality, and unseen life processes. The performances look at life as an act of creation, consider that every moment leaves behind a memory, a trace, something tangible or ethereal that refers to it, or marks its passage.’

In Mmitlwa (meaning thorn referencing a Sestwana idiom) Shadi appears naked on a white plinth – making reference to the Gilbert and George concept of the ‘living sculpture’. She proceeds to wrap her entire body in white masking tape. This is followed by the painstaking process of unwrapping, or freeing herself. The action, which takes about 30 minutes in total, alludes to the idea that we are each responsible for our own experiences, both creators and destroyers of our various self-imposed constraints.

Selogilwe, a Setswana word meaning ‘woven’, is the title of a video performance featuring Shadi on a white plinth, this time seated in the Lotus position. Here she knits a red woollen string, and seems to pull the thread from inside her belly. At the end, a pile of woven string lies on the gallery floor – the only evidence of the seven-hour-long process.

The third work – Se sa Feleng, meaning ‘that which does not end’ is short for a Setswana idiom which states: ‘that which does not end is an abomination of nature’. The entire ritual, performed on the opening night, takes about three hours to perform. Here Shadi crawls repetitively around and through twelve metal cubes with a red crocheted string which appears to be pulled from her back, forming an infinity sign on the central bars of her self-constructed cage, whose dimensions were made specifically to fit her own body.

The element of time and physical endurance is of particular significance to Shadi – all works take place over long periods of time, and seem to condense lifelong processes into unspoken parables, with ritual activities that push her beyond her own levels of physical comfort.

For news on what’s happening at Arts on Main, visit their website www.artsonmain.co.za