Lungiswa Gqunta

Lungiswa Gqunta (born 1990) is a South African sculptor and visual artist. Her work has been shown in several galleries and exhibitions. Quotes all I have been wanting and searching for is my own space and that’s where the burnt works came from — out of pure frustration, trying to determine a certain space that is mine, that I don’t have to negotiate. I can’t separate this [art] from my life. This is my life. One is dependent on the other. They are one big thing…everything is tied together. I am constantly surrounded by so many people. I am always having to negotiate the private as it is always on the verge of the public at all times. My private and my public space is just one and the same, with little moments of privacy here and there. Certain sheets I can associate with certain people. I’m weary about who I get my materials from because in a way they are agreeing with what I do. They are protesting with me. I am definitely nervous if people will engage with the work enough to take in all the layers and narratives or how they feel about these things or how I have chosen to present them. I worry about all of it. However, she reminded me that she is always cognisant of the fact that “you can’t control everything.” Conversations with Lungiswa Gqunta,arthrob,(17 October 2016) My grandfather on my dad’s side was an artist. A visual artist and a music composer so my family grew up appreciating art and appreciating music. I grew up in that atmosphere. They had drawing classes as part of the curriculum and I found out, “Hey! I’m not that bad, I can do this thing.” So, I was encouraged by an art teacher to do after school art classes. This is what I want to do. High school was a very conservative teaching of art and that carried through to when I went to NMMU. That’s where I started studying art. They have a great course where you do everything from design to sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and painting in your first year to help you figure out which direction you want to go into. This is probably why I keep coming back to printmaking in my work somehow. Michaelis’ emphasis is a lot on the conceptual work. I got to be challenged in thinking how to push work in that direction. My work when I look at it has a little bit of both. It’s got making – you can feel and see the human intervention within the work and the materials having changed and also the thought process of how it is. It’s constantly changing. There’s definitely a huge change from what I was doing when I started compared to the work I’m doing now. I’m very fluid with the way it changes. I don’t hold back. I am just allowing myself and my work to develop as time goes. There are not enough project spaces in Cape Town for emerging artists, for young artists to be able to make work. It would be great if there was enough funding for us to be able to realise projects. We are lacking in those two things – being able to grow and actually make work. There is no space outside of the university to help you integrate into building a career in the arts. I found that very difficult. I’ve found ways to make art with what is there and what is available and what is around. Being a black artist is incredibly hard because there’s this thing of there being only one little superstar – people only focus on this one person for this amount of time whereas it should be more of us. If you look around, there is not enough of us. Where are the black female artists? Where are they? There are not enough. You go to these galleries and it’s a lot of white artists all the time and there is not enough of us. You’ve met them but you don’t see them in these spaces. Those are the difficulties. There is only a tiny slot for one of you to go through at a time. That’s one of the many challenges faced so we’ve had to come together and force our way and make platforms in and outside these spaces and find different ways and alternative places to showcase work. One has to think now, besides these galleries where else can we show work. How else? It seems very competitive – you’re either in a gallery or you’re not and so I’ve tried to not be attached to anything because I love showing in different spaces. That’s my thing, and I want my freedom in being able to show this but these galleries don’t want to take that risk. That just want to see, “Oh, OK, you’re fine, we can sell you, great, come. That shouldn’t be the case always because it definitely deters your work into a direction that it wouldn’t have gone. Because, now you are thinking of your work as a commodity and I refuse to do that. It’s very difficult to work and get far without having to think about selling a product. If we could focus on that I think we’d have much stronger work, much more accessible work. Lungiswa Gqunta: changing the face of art.(May 14, 2018) by Vuk’uzenzele The time came where i began to see that there is no separation:your life is political. Its like another language, so if you can't understand this language, then i'll try another one,amd i'll keep going until hopefully something changes, and there is communucation. I could make words that sell but the i'll wouldn't be true to the ideas that im trying to articulate. Whatever i do , i want to create some kind of shift in people. Our house, as in our whole country,is on fire, and who is gonna keep it out. Lungiswa Gqunta: an artist in protest,Sowetan(26 July 2018) I want people not to be settled on anything. Lines turned into barbed wire I started thinking about spaces of conflict’ I think about the garden as this very volatile space I also wanted my ancestors to be in the space. Dreams are an important part of this journey. artist lungiswa gqunta on colonialism, resistance, and the importance of dreams,desigroom, (14 November 2021) Category:Living people Category:1990 births Category:Sculptors Category:Artists