Unyawo Alunampumulo

Co-created by Mwenya Kabwe, Chuma Sopotela, and Kemang WaLehulere, Unyawo alunamoumulo is a site-responsive collaborative live collage created for the Spier Contemporary 2007 Exhibition, part of the series of Spier Arts Festivals.

Unyawo alunamoumulo (the foot has no nose) combines three people’s individual interpretations of transit, transmission, transference and transcendence.  It is a conversation that considers experiences of change, metamorphosis, revolution and conversion, not as abstract conditions, but as real states of being.  It is a conversation about African urban centres, their inhabitants, their histories and a charged present.  

Half Swathi, Half Xhosa:  Inspired by the recent deaths of five family members, Chuma Sopotela’s image of her naked body painted black suggests dark, emotional secretive spaces. 

Half Irish, half Twana: Inspired by a self-composed poem titled Never Endign Dead End, Kemang Wa Lehulere finds himself constantly walking away to escape himself only to see the image of hiw own walking feet projected back at him. 

Part Bemba, Part Chewa: Simultaneously at home and in transit, Mwenya Kabwe obsesses about situations in which African foreigners find foreignness dislocating, restless and liberating. 

Exhibited as a site-responsive, collaborative performance collage at the 2007 Spier Contemporary Exhibition, the work proposes to explore themes of personal and collective journeying.  The piece is composed of a hybrid of theatrical forms including live-feed video projection, living installation and live performance. 

Unyawo alunampumulo was one of the 7 Spier Contemporary 2007 award winners.