Zizipho Poswa, ‘Lobi’, 2024

Zizipho Poswa, Lobi, 2024. 

Bronze, glazed earthenware. Presented by Southern Guild   

About the Work

Lobi (2024) pays tribute to the culture of adornment specific to the Lobi women of West Africa. A majestic bronze disc rests atop a monumental ceramic body comprised of individual spherical forms – a larger-than-life reproduction of an ornate brass hairpin worn by the Lobi people, who settled in the area that is now Burkina Faso. The pin’s curvilinear form represents the white waterlily (nymphaea alba species) that flowers after heavy rains.  

With their heraldic bronze ‘head-dresses’, the five works in Indyebo yakwaNtu reference precious metal jewellery, beadwork, hair combs and pins made by master artisans across the continent, a praise song to early African civilizations and Poswa’s amaXhosa heritage and culture. Often passed down through generations of women as family heirlooms, such jewellery surpasses its material value to encompass cultural, geographic, sentimental and matrilineal significance. In Poswa’s sculptural totem, beautification transcends the decorative to become a tool for spiritual resonance.   

Lobi is a colossal ceramic and bronze sculpture measuring more than eight feet tall. The clay body was produced during a residency at the Center for Contemporary Ceramics (CCC) at California State University Long Beach in summer 2023. Working under the guidance and apprenticeship of renowned American ceramic artist Tony Marsh, Poswa had access to the centre’s immense kilns, enabling her to explore scale in her work.  

About the Artist

Zizipho Poswa (b. 1979, Mthatha; lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa) creates large-scale ceramic and bronze works that are bold declarations of African womanhood. Her work is a deep invocation of her personal journey and an homage to the spiritual traditions and matriarchal stewardship of her Xhosa culture. 

Poswa’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Art Institute of Chicago, as well as private and corporate collections such as the LOEWE Foundation, Schulting Art Collection and the collection of HRH Franz, Duke of Bavaria. She has taken part in group exhibitions at Kunsthal KAde (Amersfoort, The Netherlands), Mariane Ibrahim (Chicago), Jeffrey Deitch Gallery (Los Angeles), the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial (Perth), and other galleries in New York, Paris, Milan, Hamburg, Liverpool and Singapore.  

Frieze Sculpture is in The Regent’s Park, 18 September – 27 October 2024. No booking required, it is free and accessible to all. 

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^{Main Image: Zizipho Poswa, Lobi, 2024. Bronze, glazed earthenware. Courtesy: Elizabeth Carababas/Southern Guild}