ICA SCHOLAR’S SHOWCASE

The ICA’s Scholars’ Showcase offered audiences an opportunity to engage in an interchange around ongoing research by scholars.

Aika Swai presented “Unchartered Dialog”, a performance lecture. The work is based on Swai’s dissertation centred around an imaginary conversation between American Indian and African language artists and includes speculation of what would happen if the two groups found ways of speaking to each other.

Nkosenathi Koela presented “Isibeleko seSandi – The Sound Womb”. The work comprises a structure that mimics the physical and acoustic properties that the calabash produces within traditional instruments such as the Kora, Ngoni, Ngombi, uHadi, Balafon or Timbila. Koela engages the calabash as the oldest and most widely used resonator within Africa to amplify a variety of elements (wood/steel) with varying musical properties. Koela reimagines the instrument as a musical ‘womb’ in which individuals may enter the embryonic waters of sound.