Bongani Mashange: Stellenbosch University. Selected Graduate 2019

In this Body of work, Bongani Mashange uses jewellery design in order to interrogate his own HYBRID identity. Bongani relies on his own cultural identity in order to address and visualize issues of xenophobia, multiculturalism, place and displacement. He creates jewellery pieces and sculptural pieces that talk about these topical and complex issues of identity that young Zimbabwean’s currently face. Bongani is inspired by African relics that relates to his own identity. In his work, he reinvents these relics in an innovative way, through the use of a diverse range of materials, such as wood, silver, resin and more. The work he has done in terms of his practical discipline, as a jewellery designer, as well as the conceptual motivation for this body of work, deserves to be recognized.
/ Joani Groenewald