Lungiswa Gqunta

Lungiswa Gqunta’s practice uncovers and interrogates forms of colonial violence often located in the interstices; subtle and hidden, or structural and systematic. Gqunta deals with a broad and complex range of issues that have plagued post-Apartheid South Africa, such as gender-based violence and substance abuse. In her sculptures and installations, the artist generally works with found materials such as broken empty beer bottles, razor wire, petrol, torn bedsheets, concrete and wooden bed frames; the scattered detritus of a Port Elizabeth township, materials loaded with violent connotations. Another arm of Gqunta’s practice involves building intergenerational connections with other black women, as well as discussing methods of collective healing and resistance, the points at which these processes meet, and whether one can be found within the other.