THOKOZANI MTHIYANE – SOUL SONGS

“Soul Songs…the shape of my Head” opening on the 30th of August 2017, is Thokozani Mthiyane’s first solo exhibition at Art Eye Gallery. This exhibition is the artist’s expression and spiritual exploration of his life, through the visual art medium. Mthiyane’s work is a spontaneous culmination of happenings which are lead purely by the artists feeling toward his canvas.
His multicultural aesthetic is drawn from his desire for travel and connection to countries all over the world. This consumption and cultivation of other cultural influences and practices is somehow the place on which the works elaboration exists. The works hold narratives referencing his experiences through love, spirituality, music and painting. So much of his process involves combining these influences through physical objects and brush stoke. Mthiyane’s works are inherently physically apart of the contexts they come from, as much of his process includes the use of found objects in and around which ever context he finds himself in.
“Soul Songs…the shape of my head” is “an innate journey of self realisation and reconciling of both the singing voice and the groaning ones. Where the spirit meets the head as though in a conference, about space and time in a life. Here I bring the rituals of poetry and image making as an act excavating religious memory, while projecting on the new language of spiritual wellness.” – As stated by the artist.