Bag Factory Artists' Studios | Embodied & Embedded

Bag Factory Artists' Studios is pleased to present Embodied and Embedded  by Kay-Leigh Fisher and Nadia Myburgh. 

The manifestation of uncovering what is beneath the surface is one way of expressing the intimate conversations shared with Kay-Leigh Fischer and Nadia Myburgh through their residency at the Bag Factory and their shared studio space. The exhibition title grew onto me as I closely encountered more about their individual artist practices. Through analysing I have come upon their desire to share their stories of the past, present, and future. Storytelling has increased their sense of identity and understanding through objects, memories, heritage, languages and environments.

Embodied and Embedded explores the state of being in which you feel connected and attuned to your body and senses we inhabit in spaces. We become acquainted with the mining community histories of the artists, and essentially embark this journey with them creating an archive of record through their practices by safely storing all they have researched and collected about themselves, experiences and their stories.

The Embodied strongly alludes to Fisher’s practice of looking into historical anthropological photography which often reframes and reshapes reality as we understand and experience it. It therefore becomes a practice of world-making, which simply entails unconsciously building a world from our own lived experiences and what we inhabit in our social environments and spaces we find ourselves. Fisher uses photography to explore how we can continue to dissect those relationships through the process of deconstruction. “Infinite possibilities of engaging with the subjects and also where I want to go” says Fisher, which has led to her prioritizing the landscape as the background, where she grew up and the environment that has shaped her. The embodiment of identity in figuration helps us navigate who we are, what our patterns are, and brings awareness of sensations experienced (emotional and physical). These figures in Fisher’s body of work expresses the individuals and their own strong personalities.
Home and our upbringing are not easily forgotten as the memories are embedded in us. Both Fisher and Myburgh embrace the time, spaces and shared histories of growing up in mining communities. Whilst the mining industry boomed and brought riches, the nearby neighbourhoods started deteriorating due to tailings which contain toxic chemicals such as heavy metals, sulphides and radioactive content.

Embedded forms part of Myburgh’s practice as she deeply embarks how the objects and materiality connects her family history, memories and experiences. The moments live within the fabric of what she creates as she scratches the surface from subjects through research and experimentation such as food histories and collections of different archives from home and her upbringing. This body of work becomes a micro world of how growing up close to the mine dumps unaware of the effects that this can cause. Every aspect of materials used can be seen as a veil which is a fine fabric used for gowns and curtains to cover or conceal. The veil material used in the works is fabric Myburgh’s aunt gave to her towards the end of matric or the beginning of tertiary which has been preserved intentionally to embedded into the transformation of the artist and her practice.

Myburgh actively creates anthotype turmeric prints of which the process involves using some popular plant ingredients such as spinach, beet root, turmeric, berries, and flower petals, due to their high pigment concentrations. These ingredients are nostalgic references that reminds Myburgh of the tree that grew at the front yard childhood home which had poisonous berries and a sweet fragrance. The sentimental memories are not as clear perhaps just as the materiality she uses with the prints as they naturally fade over time if not preserve well. Moreover, the additional processes she uses is embroidery and jam making as a practice of appreciation to her grandfather. Jam is a preserve and has its own history and therefore it preserves the history as this is heritage passed on from one generation to another. This practice becomes affectionate as it a traditional recipe kept in the family.
Embodied and Embedded becomes a notion to archive our stories and build a archival respiratory that helps us navigate who we are, what our social patterns are, and brings awareness of sensations experiences which allows us to understand our beingness.

Text by Boitumelo Makousu. 

The show runs from 2 September to 30 September 2023.