Xirilo Wyne Ngobeni - Lufuno lwa mme

"My mother’s passing made me look through the lens of cultural perceptions around the notions of funeral urns within the African context. I use anthropomorphism as a tool for creating new meanings. The creation of funeral urns that honor my late mother and this is achieved without the use of cremation because that is known to be a taboo in an African context and it is believed to block the spirit of the dead. The funeral urns provide me with the liberation I seek and it gives me a chance to celebrate my mother’s physical and spiritual existence. My late mother was the only one amongst her siblings who went through the ritual process of scarification and the process was significant for her eyesight, therefore, I incorporate scarification in my practice and also acknowledge its history. Scarification seen in my artworks is done or created to esthetically please the viewer, though the reason or inspiration was drawn from a ritual scarification process that was not meant for beauty but for healing."