2021 UCT College of Fellows' Young Researcher Award goes to APC Alum, George Mahashe

22 Dec 2021
Inside view of Camera Obscura # 0 Thabana Ya Dafida 2020 at GA-Sekgopo. Photo courtesy of George Mahashe.
22 Dec 2021

APC alum, Dr Tebogo George Mahashe, was awarded the prestigious 2021 UCT College of Fellows' Young Researcher Award for his growing research track record spanning written publications, exhibitions, and public service.

The College of Fellows award recognises outstanding scholarly work by young academics who have made significant independent contributions to research in their field. The 2021 award acknowledges Mahashe’s previous research work such as his PhD project MaBareBare which delved into Balobedu’s many archives, producing a PhD submission format that challenged the conventions of what constitute a PhD report in Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. His current projects include ––defunct context and Modjadji le Dikolobjana of which he is the lead researcher. ––defunct context investigates the creative potential of a pavilion (as an exhibitionary platform) for exploiting the gaps inherent in popular approaches to transforming institutions like ethnographic museums’ approaches to the inclusion of previously marginalised people. This process has led to a prototype timber pavilion for hosting exhibitions like the installation Camera Obscura #0, Thabana Ya Dafida in his grandmother’s Village Ga-Sekgopo. The Modjadji le Dikolobjana project began in the Artists in Labs residency at the Geneva Observatory in 2018, and Mahashe is currently convenor of the Connect South Africa residency programme initiated through a collaboration between CERN, SARAO, SAAO and Pro Helvetia. In this capacity he is curating the residency’s 2021/22 programme alongside Monica Bello (Curator and Head of Arts at CERN), facilitating the two selected artists’ interactions with scientists based at South Africa’s astronomical observatories (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)).

Mahashe’s latest Camera Obscura installation ‘Lebitla la Ngaka’ is on show at the Javett-UP (University of Pretoria) as part of the exhibition Interfacing New Heavens which is open until March 2022. For the project titled Mufhiri, he is busy exploring copper traditions from both southern Africa and the Copper Belt working in collaboration with Waza Art Centre in Lubumbashi and artist Joseph Kasau for the production of a bracelet series tiled Makhalaka. As an installation Makhalaka mediates the dreamscape section of the exhibition Handle with Care, addressing the SOUTH32 collection, which is currently on show at Javett-UP until 31 January 2022.

Mahashe’s latest publications include the peer-reviewed journal article ‘Walking Towards a Camera Obscura’ (2020) in the journal Critical African Studies; The Worm Shamir published by the 2020 Yokohama Triennale; as well as ‘Mashogojo, Mašokošoko, le Boshokhoshokho: notes for a story that is yet to be written,’ accompanying the installation Makhalaka. His conference paper, ‘Modjadji, Of Myth and Fantasies’ was awarded Best Paper at the National Institute for Humanities and Social Science’s Virtual 2020 Inaugural HSS Alumni Conference.

On 4 October 2021, Mahashe was featured on the SABC 2 series Imvelogy where he shared his research on Balobedu, the importance of formalising the Khelobedu Language within South Africa and his plans for devising a planetarium in Bolobedu. This work has led to Mahashe being included in the Bible Society of South Africa’s committee translating the Bible into the Khelobedu language.

Mahashe is one of UCT’s 2021/22 Black Academic Advancement Programme recipients, as well as a beneficiary of National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences’ Catalytic Research Programme for 2021/2022. He serves on the board of the research project ‘INSPIRE’ based at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).