Manyaku Mashilo Quotes
born 1991
Manyaku Mashilo (1991) is a South African multidimensional artist based in Cape Town.
Random Manyaku Mashilo quote
19 quotes
For me, listening between worlds means accepting that memory, spirit, and presence do not always appear in fixed or defined forms
I am creating a space for these wisdoms, knowledge systems and rituals to persist, to be told and retold, to be shared.
I begin to understand painting as a way of responding to ancestral presence rather than illustrating a fixed narrative.
The elements are always working with me, guiding my intuition and leading me to new understandings of the world and self.
I’m most liberated when I’m able to change myself, whatever I need to
My practice explores ways of preserving and materialising ancestral knowledge systems, rituals, symbologies that I believe are in danger of being lost
Painting becomes a way of honouring what came before me, and of keeping those memories, histories, and spiritual inheritances alive in the present.
Growing up, I was always fascinated with how intentions, wishes, beliefs can be represented and energetically held by objects
It is within this space of surrender that listening happens, where the physical act of painting becomes a way of accessing something beyond what is immediately visible.
Through painting, I am not trying to reconstruct a specific moment, but to honour the presence that remains, the emotional and spiritual resonance that continues to live on.
Balancing the material and the immaterial begins with trust in the physical process of painting
I think there is something primal, dynamic and alive in the colour red
Colour and materiality in my culture are potent signifiers
Listening, for me, is a state of remembering
Life in the village is navigated and understood through storytelling, spirituality and mythology
When thinking about feminine knowledge, the hands are a recurring and significant motif. Hands speak to touch, nourishment, intention, labour and connection.
The earth and the world is made up of textures. I think textures hold a lot of memory. You could brush your hand against something and that could trigger a memory
While making my work I am surrounded by music, scents, images and colours that ground and remind me of where I am from
Living far from home has made me more aware of how easily spiritual and cultural knowledge can be interrupted or erased, especially within an increasingly Eurocentric world