Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a South African term meaning “I am because of you,” a recognition that our humanity is bound together in relationship. This series takes the form of large-scale paintings inspired by a childhood scribble game, once nurtured by a loved family member. Each canvas began with abstract grounds, each set with thematic intentions, such as matriarchy, patriarchy, or “anything goes.” I then invited groups of participants – children, family, friends, my twin, and artists from Art from the Streets – to contribute bursts of energetic scribbles and marks in a spirit of play, spontaneity, and memory. Afterward, I completed the canvases, layering their gestures into compositions that stretched between the absurd and formal.

Here, a simple line or scribble becomes a metaphor for freedom, vitality and collective imagination – how fragments and remnants can be re-seen, reinterpreted, and transformed into new worlds.