S E E D S   A R E   S E W N   A S   T I M E   U N R A V E L S

by   Bev de Lange & nomThunzi Mashalaba

25 Jul – 27 Aug 2025

Art is everywhere, but as a self-reflexive practice, it becomes complex, layered, and deeply personal. It engages the life worlds of the artist as both subject and object in an ongoing narrative of inquiry. During her 2023 residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, BEV DE LANGE was inspired by Anna-Eva Bergman’s monumental artworks—especially Bergman’s view of artmaking as a spiritual practice. This resonated with Bev’s own approach, where art becomes a visual expression of embodied consciousness.  Using primarily gold/silver leaf and red oxide paint, her work reflects a self-reflexive journey of embodied consciousness, made visual. Central to her practice are two recurring leitmotifs—the mandorla and the meditative acts of puncturing and suturing. The mandorla, an almond-shaped figure formed by the intersection of two circles, serves as an allegorical reference to the union of heaven and earth, the spiritual and the material. Coupled with the extended, contemplative silence required for her slow and deliberate process of puncturing and suturing floral imprints with gold thread— both delicate and deliberate, bearing witness to a practice where the spiritual, material, and personal converge.

NOMTHUNZI MASHALABA explores the intricate and often intangible mapping of time, investigating how moments, memories, and emotions are recorded, layered, and perceived. Her art speaks to time not as a linear progression but as a fluid, living presence—one that shifts, returns, fragments, and reforms within our personal and collective consciousness. Through a combination of textile-based pieces and paintings, she constructs a visual language that reflects the fluid and transient nature of time. Her work is presented in both two-dimensional wall hangings and three-dimensional pieces, creating an immersive experience for the viewer. The act of weaving becomes meditative and intentional, embodying care, repair, and continuity. The pieces embody an elusive state of shifting emotions, capturing the ever-changing essence of human experience. nomThunzi’s artmaking process is deeply introspective, inviting the audience to contemplate the passage of time and its impact on personal and collective memory. Through intricate layering, delicate stitching and weaving, she prompts us to consider how time shapes who we are, how we remember, and how we move forward. Her work offers a quiet space to contemplate the ephemeral nature of life and the enduring threads that connect us across time and experience.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

B E V    D E   L A N G E

While I have engaged with artmaking for as long as I can remember, my formal education includes that of professional nurse, midwife and operating theatre sister. I worked for many years in St George’s hospital/theatre, in a career that still influences and informs the ideas behind certain of my art works. Early art career highlights include receiving ARTEC’S ‘Most Promising Artist’ award in 2004, being selected to exhibit at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum Biennale in both 2010/11 and 2014), achieving a master’s in fine art qualification (cum laude), under the guidance of Prof. Cleone Cull, and the selection of my PhD praxis video, entitled Dust from Dust: Microorganisms and other tales. An Artist’s diary, for the ‘Mixed Realities’ exhibition at the Albert van Abbehuis Art/Science/Technology/Design Salon in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The video visually documents the myriad expressions of a living, growing symbiont. Digitally ‘stitched’ into a stop-frame video, by the artist Monique Wiffen Rorke, the myriad photographs, running on a loop, render ideas on consciousness as a subjective process of continuous self-organizing embodiment.  

I completed the Doctorate in Philosophy Degree through UNISA in 2020 (PhD. Art), just as the covid 19 pandemic entered the world. During the protracted lockdown, I engaged with and developed artmaking processes from which the series of artworks, “Botanical Translations’, emerged. Awarded a second residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2023 (first residency 2012), I further developed and exhibited artworks created while in Paris. Many of the artworks on this exhibition expand on these artmaking/art- inspiring processes. More recently, my artwork entitled ‘Biome’ was selected for publication in a book by Dr’s Cassim and du Plessis (2022) and in 2023, artworks from the series We are leaves … we are seeds… were exhibited at the ‘Bloom – Broos’ exhibition at White River Gallery in Mpumalanga. In the same year a painting, entitled ‘Athanor’, was commissioned by the Art Bank of South Africa.  My artworks are represented in private collections locally, nationally and internationally – including the United States of America, Asia, The United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.  

N O M T H U N Z I    M A S H A L A B A

nomThunzi’s practise utilise an interdisciplinary approach and across various mediums. Her current works are informed by existential philosophy and psychology, and the notion of textile as a form of language. The concerns are mainly on Autobiographical memory(emotions) These new works are established largely in two- and three-dimensional form (woven paintings, wall hanging and free-standing pieces). These works include wall and floor- based installations pieces.

The works deal with loss and mourning employing mediums ranging from textile, painting and text. By experimenting and modifying weaving methods nomThunzi deconstruct and transform weaving process to construct woven pieces into residual archives of memories. nomThunzi explores the capriciousness of memory and creates works that are an amalgamation of textile techniques both traditional and experimental reinterpretation.

She attended the Tshwane University of Technology, where she acquired a national diploma in Fine Art in 2004 and graduated in 2006, with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art. Since graduating Mashalaba has participated in several exhibitions, residencies and workshops. In 2007, she held her first solo exhibition titled, Square and in 2012, she held her second titled Mamiya. Throughout her career she has worked in a range of disciplines, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, video and even performance – choosing whichever medium best conveys an experience or idea. 

Her art has featured in international exhibitions including Map of the New Art in Venice, Crossing Boundaries in Qatar and The Art of Humanity at the Pratt Institute in New York. Mashalaba has held numerous solo and group exhibition, both locally and abroad. She has participated in residencies and exchange programmes in Switzerland, Doha, Madagascar and South Africa. Her work in corporate and private collections internationally.

Selected artworks by nomThunzi on display are courtesy of Everard Read Gallery.