Artist Residencies
From Houston to Italy and then back to the US, tracing Esther Mahlangu's artistic residencies over the years
By Art of Contemporary Africa
Content curated from the "Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting": Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective exhibition timeline
Mahlangu standing in front of one of the original houses built in her umuzi (2023)Art of Contemporary Africa
The artist as resident
Despite Mahlangu's extensive career and travels over the past 36 years, she has technically only participated in three residency programmes. This is separate from the many commissions that have required her presence at specific locations for a set time.
Mahlangu featured on Project Row Houses’ calendar of events for 2005Art of Contemporary Africa
2005: Project Row Houses, Round 22
In 2005 Mahlangu was invited to Houston, Texas (USA) to live and stay for two months on the Project Row Houses campus. While there she created a permanent umgwalo for the Eldorado building.
According to the Project Row Houses archives, in an article titled Collective Creative Actions: Project Row Houses At 25, Mahlangu completed not just one but four outdoor umgwalo for the space that served as an entryway to the residence. These umgwalo were installed for over a decade, but it is unclear what happened to them after that time, as we only have documentation of one of these umgwalo (pictured above in the centre frame).
#MahlanguUmgwalo
If you have more information about these remaining three murals, please upload the picture to Google Maps under the Project Row Houses location below and tag #MahlanguUmgwalo. If you're interested in learning more, check the story behind this hashtag here.
Esther Mahlangu, Un Artiste Ndebele Ai ColonosArt of Contemporary Africa
2009: Esther Mahlangu, 'Un'artista Ndebele ai Colonos'
In 2009, Mahlangu was hosted by the Associazion culturâl Colonos to create a site-specific umgwalo intervention on the external wall of a small building that was once the pigsty of the workers' farmyard.
'Ndebele. Identity schemes'
As part of the residency, she was also invited to participate in the public meeting of Avostanis 09, and the proceeding screening of the trilingual video Ndebele. Identity schemes by Ferruccio Goia.
Interview
This residency also featured a free workshop hosted by Mahlangu and resulted in a publication which included an interview with Mahlangu conducted by art historian and curator Gianni Sirch and Federico Rossi (likely translated to English by her collaborator Emma Mahlangu).
Esther Mahlangu, Un Artiste Ndebele Ai ColonosArt of Contemporary Africa
The final artwork for this residency
Artworks for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection. Completed as part of Mahlangu's 2014 residency.Art of Contemporary Africa
2014: Esther Mahlangu: an artistic residency, VMFA, USA
Six years later, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) commissioned Esther to paint umgwalo on two large scale panels in their museum. The process of painting was intentionally performative as visitors were encouraged to watch the process and interact with the artists.
Interview
Much like her Italian residency, this one also included a workshop & interview with the residency curator, Richard Woodworth, and the members of her team. This interview was made public through a YouTube video instead of a publication (translated to English by Miriam Mahlangu).
Timelapse of process
It also features a time lapsed video of the painting process of these works which the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has made available online.
Mahlangu, reflecting on the way that the painting style has changed from that of her mother and grandmothers times, during the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts interview had this to say:
"our designs are very different, in the olden days, they didn’t have the different paints that we have, and when you painted you were limited to a certain number of paints but these days I can use as many colours as I want."
Thank you to:
Howell Perkins (Image Rights Licensing Coordinator at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) for providing us with the information around the residency at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Salima Bowaniya (Project Archivist for Project Row Houses USA) for supplementing our archives with the information and documentation of the Project Row houses, Round 22 residency programme.
Most of the images in this story were graciously offered by Esther Mahlangu's Family Archives during the course of research and made accessible to public in the exhibition timeline of "Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting": Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective (2024-2025) and related projects.
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