𝘖𝘬𝘸𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘶 𝘖𝘬𝘸𝘦𝘻𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘢
📍 @vovotelormb
The Johannesburg showcase of our our research exhibition with @ifa_crafted is on for display at Vovo Telo RMB, Sandton.
Heritage Documentation | Niamh Walsh-Vorster/ @niamh.ashling
In collaboration with @kznsagallery Project and funded by First Rand Foundation.
𝘖𝘬𝘸𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘶 𝘖𝘬𝘸𝘦𝘻𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘢
Installation views
5/12/2025 –18/01/2026
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ArtsResearchLabs' research and documentation findings presented at The KZNSA's Park Gallery late last year. ARL's focus on stretching out process and asking questions with a creative framework, resulted in this showcase. Presenting artefacts from @phansi_museum , creations from the @ifa_crafted project and team videography and photography, we sought to present how and where we ended...
"This project deliberately breaks the binary mould of ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’, it refuses the reductive simplification of heritage as something that sits in the shadow of the modern. Rather, these works operate liberally across the categories of art, craft and product design, dissolving the superficial margins of past-present, and instead embracing the cyclical nature of time as understood by amaZulu."
𝙋𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙙𝙤𝙘𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
Heritage | Niamh Walsh-Vorster/ @niamh.ashling
Product & Installation | Paulo Menezes/ @paulomenezespictures
In collaboration with @kznsagallery Project and funded by First Rand Foundation.
Polaroids for Process 📸
As part of the fieldwork methodology for the @ifa_crafted project, the team deliberately included Polaroid photography. The Polaroid format offers a materially grounded mode of image-making in which the photograph exists as a single, unrepeatable object. Its chemical development process which unfolds slowly in real time foregrounds the temporal and relational dimensions of fieldwork. Unlike digital photographs, which circulate easily and often accumulate in excess, Polaroids introduce conditions of attentiveness and restraint, prompting more intentional looking in contexts where image saturation is common. The use of Polaroids thus served to anchor the archive in the aesthetics of presence, intimacy, and situated engagement. These polaroids were made in a loose, playful and unstaged manner, recording informal moments through an unfiltered and unedited lens.
A few highlights of key conversation points between our lead researchers and exhibition curators, Russel Hlongwane/ @russel.hlongwane and Dr Rachel Baasch/ @drbadbaaschi . The exhibition can be viewed in the KZNSA's Park gallery until Sunday 18 January 2026.
Watch the full video on our YouTube channel (link in bio) as they reflect on the research, writing, and collaborative processes behind the ifa crafted project. They discuss their approach to engaging with makers, materials, and knowledge systems, and share insights into how these conversations shaped both the written research and the curatorial vision for the exhibition.
The discussion also unpacks how the exhibition component was conceptualised and curated, tracing the journey from research to display, and highlighting the values and questions that guided their decisions.
A few outtakes and stories from the documentation team. Watch the full conversation on our YouTube channel. Link in bio.
Lead documenters Niamh Walsh-Vorster/ @niamh.ashling (photography) and Nzuz’Enhle Mkhabela/ @nzu_s (documentary film) reflect on their experiences documenting the ifa crafted project. From lost drones to unexpected moments in the field and thinking on ethical production practices, the pair explore how closely observing crafters at work reshaped their own creative practices.
The @kznsagallery is proud to be exhibiting Okwethu Okwezandla — a project of the KZNSA and the FirstRand Foundation. The exhibition can be viewed until Sunday 18 January 2026.
View our exhibition -Okwethu Okwezandla - displaying work from ArtsResearchLab for ifa crafted, curated by Dr Rachel Baasch and Russel Hlongwane.
Ifa is an isiZulu word for inheritance. In isiZulu, indlalifa is the one entrusted with the family legacy.
Indlalifa, taken in conjunction with ‘nefa’, allows us to understand this project as one concerned with heritage (ifa) and the protagonists (indlalifa) who hold custodianship over age-old methods of handiwork, yet have innovated upon the legacy entrusted to them. This is a revisitation of craft work in South Africa, and more specifically, in KwaZulu-Natal.
KwaZulu has a long history of what is colloquially called umsebenzi wezandla (approximately translated as skilled handiwork). We have extended this notion to interpret it as ’thinking with one’s hands’ or ‘speaking with one’s hands’ (ukukhuluma noma ukuloba ngezandla).
Similarly, the KZNSA Gallery has a long-standing relationship with a wide category of crafters from across the province, serving as a critical dual outlet: both as a revenue stream and an exhibition platform. Lifting from this mandate, the KZNSA Gallery, with the support of the First Rand Foundation, has commissioned a community of practitioners to produce a multi-modal body of work extending from products to a concerted documentation effort comprising a two-part short documentary, photographic essay and a critical essay reflecting on the heritage research component of this work.
This project deliberately breaks the binary mould of ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’, it refuses the reductive simplification of heritage as something that sits in the shadow of the modern. Rather, these works operate liberally across the categories of art, craft and product design, dissolving the superficial margins of past-present, and instead embracing the cyclical nature of time as understood by amaZulu.
𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳 & 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳
The ARL resident questioner and prober. Russel Hlongwane led the team on site visits with critical perspectives and cultural shifting to help elevate the project's research to be located in time and place, while tied to history and revealing blindspots in the presentations of crafters and their contributions to the creative sector.
Hlongwane is a Durban-based cultural producer and creative industries consultant whose work navigates the intersections of heritage, modernity, culture and tradition in Black life. His multidisciplinary practice includes cultural research, creative producing, writing, design theory and curatorship. He has contributed to major built-environment projects such as the UIA 2014 Congress and the eKhaya Nomkhaya research project, and is currently pursuing an MPhil in Southern Urbanism at UCT’s African Centre for Cities.
Hlongwane’s curatorial portfolio includes co-curating the Pan-African Beyond Binaries exhibition; Uriel Orlow’s Theatrum Botanicum: Imbizo kaMafavuke; and shows such as Umongo weDolobha, The Hands That Feed You and The Behaviour of Public Art. He has curated film programmes including for the CNTRL SHFT Network festival, co-curated the Boda Boda Video Lounge with thirdspace, and co-convenes the research project uMqombothi, uBhokweni neJuba, exhibited internationally. He also produced the speculative video Ifu Elimnyama for NESTA.
𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳 & 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳
ArtsResearchLab's lead researcher, Dr. Rachel Baasch, collaboratively conceptualised the framework with the team. Engaged in writing, researching and critical conversations to present a dynamic take on the @ifa_crafted project. She co-curated the exhibition currently on show in the @kznsagallery Park Gallery.
Baasch is an artist and an art historian with experience in Fine Art practice, transdisciplinary collaboration, visual and performing arts and research within the context of Africa and the global south. She holds a BFA, MFA (Fine Art) and PhD (Art History) from Rhodes University (RU). She is a Research Associate in the NRF SARChI Geopolitics and the Arts of Africa research team at RU. She has supervised Masters and PhD students and lectured in the Fine Art school at RU from 2017-20.
Between 2021 and 2023 she worked as a painting and theory lecturer and the Acting Head of Department in Fine Art and Jewellery Design at DUT. She has facilitated workshops and consulted on arts-based research, practice-based research, and creative research methodologies at RU, Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and DUT. Her research has been published in the journals African Arts, Image and Text and De Arté. She is also a co-editor and contributor with Prof Stephen Foloranmi and Prof Ruth Simbao for the forthcoming book: Audacious Art Histories: Grounding the Arts of Africa.
𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳
The @ifa_crafted heritage documentary photographer, Niamh, brings her photojournalist style and ethical photo-making methodologies and visual presentations to ARL.
A photographer, writer and cultural producer with extensive project management and digital archiving experience. She is co-founder and programme director of the NPC Contemporary Archive Project (CAP), where she oversees curatorial programmes, exhibition production, digital archiving, proposal development and funding strategies. Her curatorial and production roles include curating Power Talks Durban (Goethe-Institut & African Centre for Cities). She served as Media Lead for the ArtsResearchLab (KZNSA), and supporting curatorial production for groundWork’s 25th Anniversary exhibition under Vaughn Sadie. She has acted as project manager for Unframed Podcast (Season 4) for Anthea Pokroy. She curated the KZN Arts & Craft G20 booth Spaza Boutique at Zimbali.
Niamh’s earlier work includes mentoring for the ARTLAB Photography Programme and contributing to the Durban Centre for Photography. She has exhibited her photographic work, graduated from the BASA Cultural Producers Programme, and completed her MA dissertation in Visual Art at the University of Johannesburg.
𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳
Our good time guy and drone flying film wizard, Nzu, spent the past several months filming, treating and narrative sequencing our final @ifa_crafted documentary.📽
With a background in corporate and television production, Nzu is known for creating impactful and engaging visual narratives. View his work in our exhibition, 'Okwethu Okwezandla', in the Park Gallery at @kznsagallery .
𝙁𝙞𝙡𝙢 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙬
Director of Photography | Nzuz'Enhle Mkhabela/ @nzu_s
Sound Mixer & Boom swinger | Fanele S Zuma
Camera Assistant | Siyabonga Gqwaru/ @untitled994
EXHIBITION OPENING | Okwethu Okwezandla | Friday, 5th Dec 2025
On Friday 5th of December the KZNSA Gallery opened 'Okwethu Okwezandla' in the Park Gallery - an exhibition of the heritage documentation of ifa crafted, undertaken by @artsresearchlab over a number of months and in various locations across KwaZulu-Natal. Curated by @drbadbaaschi and @russel.hlongwane , the exhibition details the legacy of craft in KZN that has informed ifa crafted design and our approach and, most importantly, the crafters and makers whose skills and work have produced the pieces we are so proud of!
The exhibition runs until the 18th of January 2026. The ifa crafted shop is held on the Mezzanine Gallery, where ifa crafted pieces are available to purchase. Thank you to those that came to the opening, and we look forward to welcoming you all over the next 6 weeks!
Photos: Paulo Menezes
