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Artwork Description

The material and techniques used by Turiya Magadlela, pantyhose and stitching, directly related to an intimate and domestic dimension of feminine identity, guide the observer to a participatory reflection on the dynamics of intersectional racism. Turiya Magadlela has transformed pantyhose into a symbol of violated female intimacy, the economic exploitation of women, with allusions also to a colonial past, though it is a phenomenon that concerns not only South African but the world. Magadlela applies an expressive formula in which the action of the embroidery and sewing surpass the dynamics of gender and economic exploitation, to become a vehicle which is interpreted by humanity’s collective memory in a political-cultural and mythological environment, to site a few examples: the famous Arianna of Greek myth, Arachne in Ovid, the Woman Spider of native Americans, the Japanese goddess Amaterasu, the Nornes of Nordic mythology and finally the “sutra” (threads) of the Indian Rig Veda. The artist’s work contains themes linked to autobiographical dimensions, like maternity and self-affirmation which she raises to a universal valence and the materials she uses take on the symbolic value of ransom for the commodification to which the female body is subjected in the context of our globalised society.