Nicholas Hlobo employs materials such as leather, rubber, ribbon, copper, wood and brass, reconfiguring their meanings. Rubber and ribbon, for example, are often associated with BDSM and fetish culture. For Hlobo, however, rubber also speaks to forms of labour in predominantly Xhosa townships, such as the repair of vehicle tyres, that are coded as masculine. Ribbon becomes a way for Hlobo to feminise this rigid masculinity and surreptitiously orient the work towards his identity as a gay Xhosa man.
Umrhubuluzi (2010) depicts a humanoid figure sewn out of rubber, ribbon and leather, perched on arm-like appendages, mid-slither. Ribbons hang from its body like seaweed off a mermaid or a siren. The figure shifts between human, animal and mythic, recalling tales of alluring sea creatures that become dangerous and grotesque upon encounter.
Hlobo’s Silent Wind Orchestras are complex sculptural installations that include one or more brass instruments that create sound without the artist’s or audience’s intervention. Wires capped with phallic appendages wind around, above and between these instruments. In Unduluko (2016), a brass horn sits atop the torso of a figure made of leather, rubber and ribbon. In Mphephethe uthe cwaka (2017), a group of copper and brass instruments, connected by rope, thread through the space.
—Bulelwa Kunene
