Imfundo, Impahla neBhayibheli (Education, Apparel, and the Bible)
Nomusa Makhubu, South African, born 1984
2014
Archival digital print on 35 gsm Hanhnemule cotton photo museum paper
AP
Image: 13 7/16 × 18 3/4 in. (34.1 × 47.6 cm)
Sheet: 16 9/16 × 23 7/16 in. (42 × 59.5 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Julia L. Whittier Fund
2014.58.11
Portfolio / Series Title
The Self Portrait Project (2007/2013)
Geography
Place Made: South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa
Period
21st century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Africa
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, lower left, in graphite: NOMUSA MAKHUBU; inscribed, lower center, in graphite: IMFUNDO, IMPAHLA NEBHAYIBHELI (2013); inscribed, lower right, in graphite: AP
Label
To create this photograph, South African artist Nomusa Makhubu projected an image of a colonial-era photograph of five men and a small boy onto her body. The title alludes to symbols of European culture, all worn or carried by the men and child. These symbols were used to justify the colonial project, which fractured families and continues to impinge on contemporary Africans’ sense of self and their relationships with each other. The space of the artist’s body reframes the engagement between the present and the past. She reminds the viewer that making is a part of being, as she remakes the image so that it reflects the world she knows and exists within.
From the 2025 exhibition Visual Kinship, curated by Alisa Swindell, Associate Curator of Photography, Dr. Kimberly Juanita Brown, Dr. Thy Phu and Dr. Iyko Day
Course History
SART 17.9, The Photographer as Activist: Making Art Inspired by the Hood Museum's Collection, Virginia Beahan, Winter 2015
ARTH 17.2, AAAS 80.5, Twentieth-Century African Art , Ugochukwu Smooth Nzwei, Spring 2015
ANTH 55, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2021
ANTH 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2022
History 67.01/African and African American Studies 46.01, History of Modern South Africa, Robert Zeinstra III, Winter 2024
Writing 3.06, Ethics of Representations, Min Young Godley, Winter 2025
History 67.01/African and African American Studies 53.01/Religion 74.17, History of Modern South Africa, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Spring 2025
College Course 26.01, What’s in Your Toolbox?, Casey Aldrich and Mokhtar Bouba, Fall 2025
Women’s, Gender, Sexuality Studies 65.07, Queer Popular Culture, Eng-Beng Lim, Fall 2025
Exhibition History
Body Politics: Art and Fashion from South Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, February 2-May 12, 2019.
Inventory: New Works and Conversations around African Art, Friends Gallery/Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 16-March 13, 2016.
Visual Kinship, Lathrop, Jaffe and Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 30 - November 29, 2025.
Provenance
Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa; sold to present collection, 2014.
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