Biography
Nqobile Mkari (b. 2002) is an interdisciplinary artist from Dube, Soweto, currently in her second year of a Master’s degree in Visual Art at the University of Johannesburg. Her practice moves between performance, installation, and video, using movement and storytelling as tools to engage themes of identity, belonging, and social change. Collaboration plays a central role in her work, as she values how shared perspectives contribute to both her artistic process and personal growth.
A former student of the Deutsche Schule Johannesburg and AFDA, Mkari has exhibited at spaces including Keyes Art Mile, August House, Ellis House, Asisebenze Art Gallery, The Blue Chip Room Gallery, Constitutional Hill, Nirox Sculpture Park, and June Memorial Acre.
Artist Statement
My current body of work, "Moving as Resistance", is part of my Master’s research project in which I explore, through practice and writing, how movement in performance art can challenge the rhythms of Johannesburg’s urban space. In the time I have inhabited this space, I have felt disoriented and have used my practice as a means of reorienting myself, attempting to understand why the rhythms of the space are shaped in this way. The relentless “hustle and bustle,” driven by fear, survival, and the pressure to make ends meet, reduces the Black body to a “labouring entity,” existing solely for survival."Moving as Resistance" becomes a manifestation, a practice of reminding myself that I exist as more than a "labouring entity". It is an ongoing attempt to carve out moments of rest, play, and softness within my everyday navigation of Johannesburg's urban space.
