About the artist
Philiswa Lila is an artist and researcher who works across various disciplines, including painting, installation, and performance art. Her interests lie in memory histories and theories of personal identities.
Lila often uses materials such as animal skin (sheep, goat, and cow), beading, and wood. Many of her techniques are designed to engage with forms that accommodate bodies or to document stories through the body as a means of archiving personal experiences. She is also influenced by the subtleties of language, meaning, and individualism. Some of her ongoing projects examine personal experiences as recognisable narratives within broader cultural frameworks, primarily in isiXhosa, while also acknowledging the interconnectedness of South African cultures.
Lila has an Honours in Curatorship from the University of Cape Town and a B.Tech in Fine and Applied Arts from Tshwane University of Technology. She was the recipient of the prestigious Absa L'Atelier and Gerald Sekoto Award in 2018, which included a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. The artworks produced during this residency were presented in her solo exhibition titled 'Skin, Bone, Fire: The First Album' which was first hosted by the Absa Gallery in 2020.
Zimkhitha
Beads and string - 4 pieces - 2019
This artwork forms part of a series from Lila's solo exhibition, Skin, Bone, Fire: The First Album, hosted in the Absa Gallery in 2020, just before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Through this exhibition, Lila explored the physical, mental and spiritual spaces held close by her personal experiences. She focused on the link methods or story methods of remembering. Lila is particularly interested in memory histories and personal identities. She is influenced by the nuances of language, meaning and experiences of
individualism, especially concerning the physical and emotional senses that are related to humans and animals. Lila’s work is multi-disciplinary, including painting, installation, performance and writing. Many of the techniques used in her installations are linked to forms that will fit bodies. Her choice of materials is important to the recording of stories using bodies as archives and traces of personal experiences that connect the past with the present.
