Athi-Patra Ruga (South African, Born 1984) Ilulwane As Untsikana
Estimate (low-high) :
Provenance : [Timeline chronologique]
2010-01-01 | Acquired from WhatiftheWorld Gallery, Cape Town, 'Teeth are the only bones that show', 2010',
[Propriété non datée]
- A private collection
- Illustrated
- Art Africa Magazine,
- 'Over the Rainbow: In conversation with Athi-Patra Ruga.', 2016
- The above work forms part of a series of homoerotic portraits of male figures, some fictional, later translated into physical performances. 'Ilulwane' is Xhosa for bat, but also functions as a taunt in relation to young men who have opted for a hospital circumcision over traditional ritual
- Here Ilulwane is seeing himself as the visionary Xhosa prophet Ntsikana, a man that shaped Xhosa mythology
- 'God damn you if you are not from the bush!
- Then you are not a man, you are ilulwane'
- In 2011 Ruga participated in the fourth edition of Performa, a New York-based performance biennial, where he staged a synchronised-swimming performance exploring the complications of tradition and modernity embodied by the ambiguous insider-outside character of Ilulwane
