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Video 3
Sam Nhlengethwa
Townships Re-visited, 2006

Nhlengethwa focuses here on the theme of townships around South Africa. Historically, townships were under-developed urban residential areas created for ‘non-whites’ by the Apartheid government. They were places of riots, unrest and violence. Townships were also places of great music, fashion and style. They were ‘monumentalized’ in the paintings of Gerard Sekoto and George Pemba. Sekoto and Pemba’s depictions of the townships have inspired Nhlengethwa’s work.

Nhlengethwa was interested to see how life in the various townships of South Africa had changed over the years. Whilst working on this series of artworks, Nhlengethwa revisited, photographed and filmed various South African areas and townships. He visited townships in the Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal, Free State, North West and Gauteng. Nhlengethwa describes how “as autumn set in 2005, I embarked on the townships project. As part of my research, I visited different townships in six provinces. I discovered during my research, that each of the townships I covered, has its own character, depending on where it is”.
Nhlengethwa describes townships situated near metropolitan cities as different from townships that are near less densely-populated towns and rural areas. They have a more ‘hybrid’ character that is fast-paced, and one cannot clearly distinguish an origin or cultural essence. Townships, generally speaking, have similar infrastructure and architecture. Lifestyle is casual and vibrant, as portrayed by the different characters in the video.
Sam Nhlengethwa was born in 1955 in Springs, not far from Johannesburg. In 1978 Nhlengethwa received a fine art diploma from Rorke’s Drift Art Centre in Natal. After graduating he taught part-time at the Federative Union of Black Artists (FUBA) in Johannesburg. At first, FUBA was an agency for black artists who wanted to make their work known in South Africa and internationally. Currently FUBA provides instruction in music, singing, fine arts and theatre for more than 3,000 children every month. Once seen as one of South Africa’s leading resistance artists, Nhlengethwa has grown from this and adjusted the style and content of his works to explore other themes such as music, specifically jazz and the mechanics of everyday living. He works with found printed images from posters and magazines, including his recollections of township life in his imagery.

Nhlengethwa was urban born and raised and therefore relates intimately to township existence, not only in his collages but also in his prints. Nhlengethwa has received various prestigious awards throughout his career and has attended workshops in New York, Senegal and Cuba. He has participated in group exhibitions since the early 1980s in Germany, France, the United States and Botswana. He has held many solo exhibitions at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, as well as several two-person shows. His work is represented in major public and corporate art collections in South Africa and abroad. In October 2000, he was invited to be artist-in-residence at the College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn Illinois.

Other articles relating to this artist:

Art available by Sam Nhlengethwa

Sam Nhlengethwa (book)

Art South Africa, Vol5, Issue3, Autumn 2007

David Krut Print Workshop: New Work 2006

Keywords: Art, Artist, David-Krut, Film, South-African