Ndize, 2010
Recycled rubber, frabric, ribbon, white clay
Commissioned by the Bluecoat and Liverpool Biennial 2010 for Touched
Photo credit: Thierry Bal


Nicholas Hlobo draws strongly on his Xhosa heritage in his work, exploring traditions and rites of passage and how they are evolving in changing times. Of equal interest to him is his sexual identity, and his place as a gay man within Xhosa culture in post-Apartheid South Africa. Hlobo reinvents and recycles, working with materials such as leather, rubber, ribbon, furniture and other domestic found object. Often his obsessive stitching, braiding and knotting reveals a great intensity of making that revolves around craft and touch. The tactile nature of his materials and his hand-worked methods imply tradition and skill, but result in something that is more contemporary in fetish, than historical. Sometimes Hlobo performs with his sculptures, partly dressed as or in one of his forms.