concieved and conceptualised by Mandla Mbothwe
ARTIST STATEMENT
Sibebanye no SS Mendi”
Rob’s craft in fashioning surreal photographic moodscapes and Mandla’s unique ability to create worlds that transform dreams into live performance form a powerful synergy—a collaboration that pushes both their chosen forms toward new and unpredictable testing grounds of ideas and energies. Their stories unfold through a culmination of live-action production images, re-conceptualized and molded into dreamlike moments that transcend time, emerging as surreal representations of inhibited memories. The outcomes are never predetermined but develop organically through observation, collaboration, and dialogue.
At the core of their process is the belief that ideas should never be fixed in place but rather disrupted, combined, and reassembled—an ongoing journey toward understanding and discovery that binds their differing creative paths.
“Sibebanye no SS Mendi” is the direct result of years of collaboration with multiple artists, each playing a significant role in exploring the deeper meanings and aesthetics that inspire this work. We do not choose stories; they choose us. And when they do, we must become still—open to understanding them beyond our material and intellectual limitations. They call on us to listen with inexperienced intelligence, to humble our spiritual sensitivity, and to surrender to their wisdom.
This work is a pictorial resurrection—one that seeks durability, embraces and foregrounds identity and self-worth, and humbly opens the heart to the gift and wisdom of memory.
May this collection mark the next step in our excavation of memories, language, and the politics of translation.
