"Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting": Exhibition Design Retrospective

The vibrant colour palette throughout the exhibition further celebrated her home as the original place of communal learning and creativity. They highlighted the original paint colours of Mahlangu's umgwalo.

Her voice resonated warmly throughout the exhibition, woven into beautiful quotes visible on the walls of each room, making it feel as though she was personally guiding the viewers through the space.

The work in this room invited us to explore Mahlangu’s realms of creativity and imagination while showing us how she introduced the novel forms and modes of expression that emerged from her culture to the world.

They show us her innovative, disruptive, and daring nature from which she produces work that transcends all boundaries, displaying an inimitable fluency across diverse mediums.

Through the language of colour and form, Mahlangu’s work has always maintained a fluid relationship between indigenous designs and contemporary art. Her participation in the 1989 group exhibition Magiciens de la Terre in Paris showcased this.

Through the Magiciens' invitation, we see Mahlangu demonstrate the possibility of not only transposing her design onto an artificial surface but also transporting her culture into a global context. This propelled her to fame as an acclaimed international contemporary artist.

A short video showcasing Mahlangu discussing her practice is featured in Gallery 4, adding an extra layer to her voice. Nearby were groupings of works based on their motifs and the medium used, such as beadwork, earth-toned pieces, makarapas, and works featuring star and arrow motifs.

During the research phase of the exhibition, the research team visited Mahlangu several times to gather foundational insights directly from her about the evolution of her work. During this time, she shared a box full of photographs, along with bits of ephemera and publications.

The circular motif was also central to the design of the exhibition.

Mahlangu has a unique ability to mark space and objects in ways that draw attention to abstraction and an exhibitionary effect. In the Lieberman room, we consider the impact of her work in space through large-scale objects.

With its remarkable capacity to transform the experience of space, the major benefits of transposing umgwalo include mobility and longevity.  The transition to painting on canvas during the early 1990s enabled her pieces to be collected across the globe.

While the museum entrance directed visitors to Gallery 2 as the starting point of the exhibition, the actual starting point of the exhibition is the courtyard. On entering this outside space, one contemplates that Esther Mahlangu’s work was first encountered on the walls of her home.

The original sign, which was for many years erected near her home, conveys the acclaim that Mahlangu's work has received internationally and how she mobilises it within her context. This open space has also been designed to hold educational classes for young museum visitors.