Yolanda Mazwana -

Read the Room

Exhibition Statment

Read the Room

Dripping Gloss

Emerging from the void

Transparent women figures

The Red Hand

Read the Room transpires from the perspective of a black female body. Returning to

and elaborating on the expressive brush strokes of her previous bodies of work, Mazwana

looks into the relationship between the private and public as she observes the physical

being (what is obvious and what is not so obvious).

The (in)visible is trauma

Uncomfortable truths

The compromises and sacrifices

Bodily pains, colds and shivers

To Read the Room is to look into all these aspects and the invasion of the female body.

The growing ages and experiences of sex and child bearing years. Conversations on

intimacy and vulnerability and the stories of coercion in-between.

Following on the visceral painterly figuration, gestures and symbolism of her previous

exhibitions (After Midnight and Symptoms of Nothing), the artist delves deeper into

the possibilities of the medium to carry and express meaning. This body of work speaks

to the artist’s persistent and delicate ruminations on what it means to exist within the

realm of the mind and the body.