Ndiziphiwe – They were given to me

Nosiviwe MATIKINCA (Gqeberha)

Ndiziphiwe – They were given to me

Ceramics

(10) 8,5 cm x 10 cm x 13 cm

Biography

Nosiviwe Beauty Matikinca was born in the City of Cape Town and grew up in Hermanus. During her educational stint in Cape Town, she attended Cedar High School of the Arts and took extra art classes at the Peter Clarke Art Centre. After moving back to Hermanus, she continued her art training through after-school art classes at the Enlighten Education Trust with Zimbabwean artist Ashleigh Temple-Camp. Presently, Matikinca is a third-year student completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha.

Synopsis

Ndiziphiwe – They were given to me, is a ceramic installation about underprivileged learners who wear school shoes that are handed down to them by their older siblings or family members. These hand-me-downs are special as they embody the journeys walked by their respective owners. In poorer communities throughout the country, an old pair of shoes is not thrown away when it is still wearable, it is seen as precious. By immortalising these shoes through the ceramic slip-casting method, they have been given a new purpose. This process also enables the artist to capture the essence of the used shoes, including every mark, scratch and hole. As ceramic sculptures, the shoes have been symbolically restored, but are also very fragile and breakable. This fragility is a metaphor for the precarity of the public schooling system of our country, where black South African learners are subjected to sub-standard education.