Buhlebezwe Siwani Biography

Buhlebezwe Siwani was born and raised in Johannesburg and Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.

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Early Life

Buhlebezwe Siwani was born and raised in Johannesburg and Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.
Siwani works predominantly in the medium of performance and installations, she includes photographic stills and videos of some performances. She uses the videos and the stills as a representative for her body which is physically absent from the space.

Educational Background

Siwani completed her BAFA(Hons) at the Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg in 2011 and her MFA at the Michealis School of Fine Arts in 2015. She has exhibited at the Michaelis Galleries in Cape Town, a site-specific exhibition in collaboration with APEX Art, New York City, in 13th Avenue, Alexandra township, Commune 1, and Stevenson in Cape Town.

She is represented in the Spier Private Collection in the Western Cape and a number of other private collections. She lives and works in Cape Town.

For performance artist Buhlebezwe Siwani,
the body is both a medium and site of protest and power. The black
female body has historically borne the brunt of all manner of
colonisation, which today continues in gender and systemic-based
violence. By using her body in her art, Buhlebezwe is claiming her
agency and creating her own narrative. As a practicing iSangoma,
her body is also a medium connecting her to the world of the spirits.
The parallels between artist and iSangoma are closely aligned, often
overlapping and informing one another. Through the two
practices, Buhlebezwe performs the creative and sacred rituals that
inform her history, identity, and politics.