Ubugqi beThongo draws inspiration from sustained, intimate engagement with ancient and contemporary local artistic practices

Rez Inyanzi’s solo exhibition Ubugqi beThongo, which is beyond fulfilling academic requirements, runs till June 30, 2026 at Wits Origins Centre.

By Tonderai Chyindiko

Photos by Edward Tsumele.

Ceramic artist, musician and a soon to be Wits MA in Fine Arts graduate ‘Rez Inyanzi Tshishonga recently launched his solo exhibition, entitled Ubugqi beThongo at the Wits Origins Centre, Johannesburg.

By focusing on uncovering and unpacking “the ancestral dreamscape as a modality of aesthetic inclinations in the works of Andile Dyalvane, Noria Mabasa and Zwelidumile Feni”, who are some of the most celebrated visual artists in South Africa, Rez Inyanzi not only pays homage to those who came before him, but ensures that the public is aware that he is drawing from the rich artistic oeuvre of these masters.

For Rez Inyanzi UbuGqi is posited as a foundational philosophical framework, understood as a cosmic life force that permeates across realms and spheres, particularly in the onto-triadic conception of being. Existence is understood to encompass the interconnected spheres of the living, the living-dead (ancestors), and the not-yet-born”.

With this framing, what Rez Inyanzi manages to create both with ceramics and with photographs, is work which cannot be clearly identified in terms of form as it works between abstractness and what one can make out based on their own viewing, which is based on whatever knowledge one has prior to viewing the work. This decision frees Rez Inyanzi from the ceramic conventions which often constrain many-an-artist, which thereby, allows him to connect with whatever inspiration he finds or receives to make these artworks.

What was interesting is that at the exhibition opening, some of the ceramic works were used for sitting as well as doubling up as musical instruments demonstrating their versatility, but also that within African traditions, functionality is as much a part of any art as the aesthetics.

The body of work which makes up Ubugqi beThongo, is drawn “from a sustained, intimate engagement with ancient and contemporary local artistic practices, refracted through the lens of ubuGqi according to Rez Inyanzi. In viewing the work, one can see how the modern and ancient draw from each other though in ways that at times complicate, but at other times complement each other.

Ubugqi beThongo: A Solo Exhibition by Mzwanele ‘Rez Inyanzi’ Tshishonga will be showing at the Wits Origins Centre, Johannesburg until 30 June 2026.