Oupa L. Sibeko

Oupa L. Sibeko is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar whose remarkable work has been shown around and outside South Africa. His interdisciplinary praxis moves between theatrical, gallery, scholarly and other public contexts, overtly dealing with matter and politics of the body as a site of contested knowledge. His work is durational, relational and trans-temporal. This is perhaps what makes Oupa’s work important in Southern Africa today. It overtly transgresses boundaries of conventions of public culture. Sibeko is one of the three winners of this year’s David Koloane Award, presented by the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, and presents Forking Knife, as part of the award. “I hate taking off my glasses because my eyes go from 1080p full HD to Buffering at 240p and I just cannot handle it,” says Oupa, “Forking knife is a performance art piece that is visually confrontational, inviting viewers to engage with a black body in a three-leg iron cast pot wheeled around in a donkey cart by a white body. It is an invitation to engage with everyday politics, politics of identity, race, wealth and the black and white body in relation to art making and consumption.”