Solo Exhibition
11 December - 25 January 2025

Exhibition Opening: Wednesday 11 December 2024
Exhibition Closure: Saturday 25 January 2025 Share Facebook Twitter

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to present Condescending, a solo exhibition by Tangeni Kambudu.

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Yourself, primarily. This is why mirrors fascinate and unsettle us; we go to them to seek reassurance as to how we appear in the world. But there is more to the mirror than what, at first, meets the eye. There is the world around you: the room in which you find yourself, the objects that surround you, the people who sidle up to you or pass you by. This is what interests Tangeni Kambudu: what does a mirror reflect beyond the self? When we look in the mirror, what do we want to see, and how does that desire function as a preclusion? What are we unwilling––or perhaps unable––to see?

Reflection, transparency, and preclusion––these are the three axes that form the matrix of Kambudu’s practice. His use of materials––mirror, glass, muted colours ––could not be more fitting. While the artist has heretofore worked with glass and mirrors, this exhibition sees him experimenting for the first time with reflective vinyl. Because the material is extremely sensitive and can scratch or tear easily, it requires precise handling on the maker’s part. Kambudu, thus, works slowly and methodically: his emotions are controlled, and his movement is focused. Each cubicle is carefully etched by hand. Each glimpse of colour is delicately painted. Often, he listens to classical music while he works, entering a meditative state. This disciplined manner of working highlights Kambudu’s respect for craftsmanship, which he says is losing purchase in a world that values efficiency above expertise.

Kambudu’s background in fashion design can be felt in this ethos. So, too, can it be seen formally in the shapes he illustrates and then cuts to construct his pieces. In many ways, they resemble the patterns dressmakers use to construct garments. Kambudu says that, in his work, “every pattern is a person.” In the same way that clothes serve a dual function––they cover the wearer’s body while, simultaneously, reveal aspects of their personality––Kambudu’s mirrors are cut into patterns that at times, expose the viewer and, at others, obscure them.

This effect is reinforced by the layers in which Kambudu works. Each frame contains two panels of glass or a mirror.  One image is superimposed upon another, resulting in a palimpsest. The viewer’s reflection becomes lost or distorted in this web of fragmentation. But that is what mirrors do: distort the image. The image we access in the mirror is not our true self but a refraction––not a whole self, but a fragment thereof.

The title of this exhibition, Condescending, gives rise to reflection on this very issue. Do we condescend ourselves when we take the fragmentary image we see in the mirror for granted? Do we condescend others by passing judgment on the fragments we perceive in them?

To answer these questions, it might be helpful to note that condescend is a word with an interesting etymology. Today, it has a negative association: to condescend is to make one feel inferior. Literally, however, the word means to climb (send) down (de) together (con). In the Middle Ages, it had a positive connotation: to condescend was to waive one’s privilege, to willingly assume an attitude of equality between fellow men. In this way, we might think of the mirror as an equaliser: it is impersonal; it does not flatter; it boasts no hierarchy. It merely questions the onlooker. What do you see? What don’t you see? Why?

Text by Keely Shinners