Three master’s students from Stellenbosch University (SU) recently launched an art exhibition aimed at showcasing the progress they have made over the academic year.
This is according to Rebekah Pringle, an MA (Visual Arts) student, who presented her artwork at the exhibit, which was launched on 7 August at the Gallery University Stellenbosch (GUS).
Three Stellenbosch University MA (Visual Arts) students are currently presenting their artwork at the Gallery University Stellenbosch (GUS) as part of a master’s review series that aims to showcase the progress of master’s students over the course of the academic year. This is according to Rebekah Pringle, one of the students. Left to right: Thabo Ngwenya, Rebekah Pringle, and Emily Fitzgerald. PHOTO: Buhle Bam
The title of the exhibition is Matter of Self: Private fragments, public forms, which was agreed upon by all the master’s students who presented their art, according to Pringle.
The artworks are explorations of the self as part of a greater pursuit of autobiographical exploration, said Pringle.
Exploring the domestic
Pringle said that her artwork is an exploration of her personal domestic experience.
According to Pringle, the practical component of her “prac-ademic master’s degree”, which will be followed by a thesis about the artwork, was an opportunity for her to unpack her caretaker-granddaughter relationship with her grandmother.
“She’s got quite a sick body, and so my physical body interacts with her body in very heavy ways,” she said.
Pringle said that she often repurposes old furniture as part of her artwork.
Rebekah Pringle standing with her artwork 22-07-2025, which are pieces she made out of furniture while her grandmother was recovering from a knee replacement surgery, said Pringle. “The structure of our domestic life and routine kind of turned upside down,” she said. “The furniture connects with the cement, because that’s kind of the textures and the relationship I have with my grandmother.” PHOTO: Buhle Bam
‘Boundary objects’
Thabo Ngwenya, co-artist of the exhibition and an MA (Visual Arts) student at SU, said that his artwork centres on unpacking the sense of alienation he felt as a Ndebele man in Zimbabwe, where the majority of the country consists of Shona-identifying individuals.
Ngwenya’s work consists of South African and American pop culture references, so as to observe what it means to be part of a globalised world, he said.
“My research was on boundary objects […] that have different meanings and cut across different cultural lives,” said Ngwenya.
Ngwenya presented himself as a boundary object through his self-portraits, which contain South African, American, and colonial references that audiences can connect with, he said.
Thabo Ngwenya with his artwork at the Gallery University Stellenbosch (GUS). “My work was dealing with that concept of identity being a very liminal experience,” said Ngwenya, an MA (Visual Arts) student at Stellenbosch University. “You know, it’s an in-between. Not here, not there, but always somewhere. Becoming and unbecoming, building and unbuilding – reconstructing.” PHOTO: Buhle Bam
‘Prim and properness’
Emily Fitzgerald, co-artist of the exhibition and an MA (Visual Arts) student at SU, said that she rejected patriarchy and heteronormativity through her artwork.
Fitzgerald’s artwork consists of archival photographs of female figures in her family, clay, and other items of sentimental value, she said.
In some of her work, Fitzgerald uses photolithographic processes that utilise oxides that “come from rusted metals or rocks that also speak to erosion”, she said.
Fitzgerald said that she challenges the notion that females have to be “prim and proper” by using materials that adapt to their environment’s condition, thereby resisting perfection.
Emily Fitzgerald, an MA (Visual Arts) student at Stellenbosch University, standing next to one of her untitled pieces. “I work with ordentlikheid, which is like the propriety or, like, prim and properness that is expected from females,” she said. PHOTO: Buhle Bam
The exhibition will be open to the public until 5 September, said Fitzgerald.