Sivivane sogogo!: An artistic reimagining beyond shadow and stone

Stairways and Ruins

Abstract

In 2021, the Centre for Visual Arts (CVA) of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) initiated an artistic experiment with the KwaZulu-Natal Museum (KZNM). An artists’ collective formed under the motif of isivivane (the Isivivane Collective) – the isiZulu word for a pile of stones, or cairn – as a physical phenomenon as well as a metaphor for collective achievement through individual gestures over time. The project culminated in 2023 with Sivivane sogogo!, a six-month-long installation. Working with stones from the KZNM’s collections, including hand-axes, bored stones, grindstones, rock engravings, and morabaraba game boards spanning millennia of human/hominin history, the Collective produced an installation that deviated from the museum’s conventional mode of display. Two seminal strategies emerged: a playful approach that prioritised curiosity and problem-solving, and the underpinning principles of receptiveness and collaboration. In a challenge to the hierarchical monopolisation of vision and the museum as purveyor of information, authority shifted to the audience, giving way to an open-ended, individualised interpretation. The co-creation extended to non-human actors as well. From our reflections on this project, we propose an alternative paradigm for sustainable change to modes of museum display that integrates diverse narratives within the constitution of new knowledge through interdisciplinarity and audience participation.