May the Rooted Ones Bare Good Fruit
More Artwork by Yonela Makoba
ABOUT YONELA MAKOBA
Yonela Makoba is a multi-disciplinary artist who was born and raised in the Eastern Cape.
Makoba creates work that speaks to her lived experiences, and works with sculpture, photography and performance art, while bringing attention to the intersectional nature of her existence.
Makoba’s exploration of the body as a site of experience, investigates the ‘situation’ of her existence, focusing particularly on the black femme and queer body in South Africa. In her work, she uses the body to physically slow down time by exploring through a healing trance, the unknotting of memory and trauma held in the body.
Makoba’s ‘girl’ body was a site of scrutiny, picked apart to be compared to her sisters. This comparison leading to seeds of self-loathing and dissatisfaction with her particular configuration of body parts and features. The ongoing theme of the violence inflicted on the body, is something Makoba was faced with since early childhood.
She draws from the often unspoken sexual experiences of a developing body and mind. From Makoba’s first sexual encounter, the unuttered blurred lines of non-consensual sex, and the exploration of self pleasure, thereby expanding her experience of the body. The works are an offering, an honest revealing of self, for forgiveness of self above all.
In 2016, Makoba graduated with Bsc in Environmental Science from the University of Cape Town, and since graduating pursued her artistic career. In 2017, Makoba participated in two Michealis Galleries’ curatorial graduate shows as a contributing artist and collaborator. In 2019 Makoba showed, along other visual artists in an independent group show at the Cosmopolitian Gallery titled Poropompompom. Makoba’s first solo exhibition was in February 2020, titled Kwantlandlolo at Orms in the completion of her residency program. Makoba participated in Latitudes Visual Art Fair, 2020 virtual representation.
Solo Exhibitions
2020 ‘Kwantlandlolo’ curated by Anelisa Mangcu, Form by Orms, Cape Town, South Africa
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020 African Galleries Now Online Exhibition, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
2020 ‘FEMINIST UTOPIA’ curated by Anelisa Mangcu, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
2020 PAST PRESENT CURRENTS, Latitudes Visual Art Fair, Virtual presentation
2019 Porompompom, Independent presentation, Cosmopolitan Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017 Conversations, Michealis Galleries, Cape Town, South Africa
2017 Unravelled, Michealis Galleries, Cape Town, South Africa
2017 The Studio One, Independent, Cape Town, South Africa
Grants & Awards
2018 Anybody Zine Movement Residency
2019 ORMS Circle Residency
2020 Visiting Artists in Residency at the National Gallery in Bulawayo (NGB)
Education
2016 Bsc in Environmental and geographic science, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Press
Maesela. N. (2020, February). Johannesburg: Yonela Makoba proclaims the body as holy. From City Press: https://www.news24.com/citypress/trending/yonela-makobas-proclaims-the-body-as-holy-20200216