Mahube Diseko through this exhibition makes herself vulnerable inviting the audience into her private intimate thoughts
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
There is something that will strike you as you get into Steveson Gallery In Parktown North, it is the different underwear pieces that are on display, creating an atmosphere of intimacy between the viewer and these pieces clothes people wear hidden, with only a privileged few allowed to view such items in an intimate space and in the privacy of their homes, such as partners.
However, these pieces of cloth that are on display in the gallery also makes the artists’ somehow vulnerable as she tries to engage with the audience through these often highly private pieces of clothes, allowing the viewer to enter into her thinking through this display.
This is a powerful statement of art. As you view this work, you will be reminded of the fact that the artist is allowing you to get into a privileged space, and therefore inevitably you will feel that your being allowed into this space is by invitation, which can at anytime be withdrawn. At least that is the feeling I had when I went to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, March 29, 2025.
“For the sixth iteration of STAGE, Stevenson is pleased to present Thank you for bearing witness by Mahube Diseko. Speaking on love and its risks, bell hooks states: ‘The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside of our control.’ hooks engaged in the topic of love from a philosophical standpoint – rigorously and emphatically considering its nature and influence over our lives.
Mahube Diseko, who describes herself as a ‘confessional artist’ uses her work to inhabit this place beyond safety, offering vulnerable admissions about the love in her life through sculpted underwear. In this series, each work is threaded with messages on the yearning, anxiety, vulnerability, joy and stillness wrapped around this practice of love.
Diseko’s first experiment in this mode was a 2023 work that held the phrase, ‘I miss myself the most’. This initial foray into text-based sculpture catalysed the artist into working between language and the modestly sized (yet suggestive) form of underwear which becomes her canvas. A self-proclaimed ‘lover-girl’, in this exhibition she makes love her muse.
Describing the process of making art as akin to taking a lover, Diseko’s cotton surfaces bear phrases like ‘Sincerity is scary’ or ‘Try softer not harder’, that teeter from instruction to confession. The artist tackles her reverence towards romance, projecting her individual feelings that may ring true for a broader collective.
At the opening, it was interesting that people came in big numbers and some were heard wondering aloud whether these pieces of underwear were once worn and washed for display. The answer is no, but are representational.
