Between Eras: Baddie, Rest, & Moments. An nterview with artist & founder, Muofhe Manavhela
Throughout the 21st century, we have witnessed the rise of the ‘multi-hyphenate’ – a term used to describe individuals who cross the conventional set boundaries of industries and disciplines to forge an alternative, dynamic career path for themselves. For artist and business owner Muofhe Manavhela, being an artist wasn’t her initial career choice but rather a delayed calling that was realised two years into her architecture education.
Muofhe’s practice is an archiving of contemporary urban black womanhood. Each artwork, a personal journal entry into a shared repository that Muofhe and many other women like her contribute to everyday. She ruminates on the experiences she has gone through as a young black woman. She shows the highs, the lows and the everyday – experiences that she and other women like her have gone through and understand.
Muofhe Manavhela (b. 2000) is a 25 year old artist and founder of The Dealr. Hailing proudly from the region of Venda, Muofhe grew up in Johannesburg and holds an honours degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is our second ARTIST OF THE MOMENT and I had the pleasure of talking to her in her home-studio.
“It was never really my intention to be an artist. I always thought I was going to be an architect…”, recalls Muofhe. During her primary school years, there were two separate assignments in her art class with Miss Hope-Bailey that were important in her decision to choose a career path in the creative industries, primarily architecture, as a teenager. The first was an assignment in grade 5 where she received a photocopy of the iconic Pietà, with which she had to recreate in a drawing using grids. “So I did the homework and then I finished the drawing and I was actually so impressed with myself. Until today, I think that’s my best drawing.” In grade 7, one of her art class assignments was to design her dream house. Each element of the design was considered, from floor plan to exterior and lighting. “…That’s when I knew I wanted to be an architect cause I really enjoyed that project. Like, I had so much fun with it. So I went into high school knowing that I wanted to be an architect.’’
Two years into her undergraduate architectural studies, Muofhe found herself at home, burnt out from online lectures and remote crit sessions as a consequence of the ongoing 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns. She looked at art-making as a potential break from the pressures of architecture school and decided to order a few art supplies online, as some initial hard lockdown restrictions had started to lift. A lino plate, ink, a carving tool, a paper pad and a rolling device arrived at her doorstep a few days later. Muofhe recalls,’’”Okay, I have a blank canvas. What do I do?” You know, and I just like I pulled that artwork out of my a**. Like I literally just came up with it cause I wanted to do something. And then I documented it, you know? I was being very naive and innocent.”
“Print series is the reason why I dropped out. It gave me exactly the confidence I needed.”
Muofhe documented and shared the process of creating linographs on Instagram, finding that her audience enjoyed these social media posts. Once she was done, she posted her artworks on Instagram and two days later, all five artworks were sold. For her, this was a pivotal moment in her life and a sign to her that art is her future. “It was a light bulb [moment]. I’m like, “Wait, I can’t be sad and depressed about [ARCHITECTURE LECTURER NAME] shouting at me about a cubicle, a toilet cubicle and a black water pipe.” I literally just sold art. I just made ten thousand rand out of an artwork that I made, you know?”
Muofhe later transferred to the Bachelor of Arts: Fine Arts programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she completed her studies. Those two years of architecture school had an impact on her, an impact still felt to this day throughout her artistic practice. “…There’s something that architecture teaches you, like a certain sense of consciousness and awareness that you have to have to be a good architect. The whole thing about context, I think, is what I took the most out of architecture.’’
I like to think of Muofhe’s overall artistic practice in three separate and distinctive eras, all flowing into each other in chronological order: 1.‘Baddie’ era, 2. ‘Rest & Relaxation’ era and 3. ‘Moments in life’ era.
The ‘Rest & Relaxation’ era comes directly after her ‘Baddie’ era. This era to me reads as a sober moment of reflection after the highs of her early twenties. The end of her relationship was a major catalyst for this shift. “…To be honest with you, I really think the breakup changed a lot in me because it wasn’t nice, you know, to go through [it] and I think, if anything, it made me a lot more sensitive and a lot more softer.” recounts Muofhe. Similar to her ‘Baddie’ era, Muofhe features mostly herself as the main subject in her works, with there being a noticeable shift in the character, energy and emotion displayed by her.
For myself, a work that stands out and embodies this era of Manavhela’s practice is ‘Solitude’ (2022), pictured. In this work, Muofhe sits outdoors on a chair in solitude; her demeanor suggests she’s in a contemplative state. Many of her works in this era show her in what I perceive as a melancholic mood. She is in deep thought, reflecting and ruminating on recent events in her life and what they mean for her. ‘’So my works during that era were a little bit sad and then I think when I got out of that era, I continued to maintain the sad colour scheme…” recalls Muofhe. This similar pensive sadness can be seen in ‘The young night ii’ (2022), pictured earlier in the article, a work created in the same year. Throughout this era, there is a cooler colour scheme with a strong presence of greens and blues, a nod to the sadder mood and themes of her works.
This era of work takes on a new, more impressionist style of painting with visible brushstrokes and a more open composition.
“There’s like a threshold between me before [the] breakup and me now. And I think that threshold does a lot in terms of what my work looks like because me before [the] breakup, I felt like a child. Me after [the] breakup, and let’s not use ‘breakup’ as the metric. I don’t know what to call it, like pre-woman, post-woman, if I can say that. Then I started to feel a little bit more mature cause I think I had like gone through something that exhausted me, if I can say that, and I was just in a moment of rest.”
‘Moments in life’ era is Manavhela’s most recent and current period. ‘Moments in life’ is an active archive of treasured memories in Muofhe’s everyday life. “And I think that’s why all of my paintings lately have been very organic. I wait for the moment to happen and then I will paint it, you know. Like, I’m not forced to paint right now because I don’t have anything to say right now. And in the moment that I’m experiencing it, I’m an ‘archiver’. Like I’ll really enjoy [it] for what it is. And if I can sense and feel that this is a painting moment, I’ll make sure to take a picture of sorts to remember.”
From left to right: ‘A moment’ (2023), R 85 000 incl. VAT | ‘Scovia’ (2024), R 8500 incl. VAT
Muofhe’s ‘Moments of life’ era shifts the audience’s gaze from her as the primary subject to the people around her. This era remains as intimate as the previous ones, but the intimacy is conveyed through the loved ones she chooses to portray as her subjects and the memories or stories attached to each captured scene. ‘Moments of life’ era invites bright colours and warm tones back into her artwork – these are good memories, treasured moments, moments of her and other women forever archived in her work.
Muofhe is currently entering a new era – a businesswoman. Officially launching in late February of this year, The-Dealr.com is a dream and goal realised by young Manavhela. This is a big shift in her life and one wonders how it will affect her work. We talk about her potential upcoming show at the end of the year and how the subjects and themes of her new work might shift as a consequence of this new era. Muofhe suggests, “… I feel that like going back into the studio now with everything that I am and all that I know, I do think the work is going to be different. All I can say is it’s going to be a bit religious. Because the honesty of it is that like, running a business and moving into this era of my life has been very difficult on my own. So this year I’ve been very strong in my faith and just believing that God has my back, you know. I think when I was conceptualising the work for the show at the end of the year, all of it was coming down to like a little bit of religious influence.”
“I think what my work is going to start to look like this year moving forward: it’s going to be very mature, very calm. Very reflective, self-reflective. I’m thinking I’m going to move into [my] self-portraiture era because I haven’t made a self-portrait in a very long time and I need to look at myself again.”
