Milk Cartons and Bottle Gourds Form Sipho Mabona’s Tribute to His Late Father

Sipho Mabona presents a poignant series of works, "The Calabashes We Never Drank Amasi From," honoring his late father. These large, origami-style creations feature calabash gourds, a traditional African vessel, transformed into vibrant patterns using recycled milk cartons. The artist's inspiration stems from his childhood memories of his father sharing stories about their rural upbringing in South Africa, particularly the tradition of drinking fermented milk, known as Amasi, from calabashes.

To bring the pieces to life, Mabona cuts triangular and rectangular sections from the gourds and replaces them with colorful, text-filled Tetra Pak containers secured with vibrant threads. Small mirrors embedded within each piece provide a slightly distorted, curved perspective, while quiet recordings of his father reciting poems and excerpts from his doctoral thesis on Xhosa cultural history are heard upon close examination.

Mabona highlights the intersection of personal and cultural elements in his work, reflecting the resilience of the Black population's upcycling traditions. Each sculpture represents a juxtaposition of his father's and his own contrasting upbringings, as well as a dialogue between the artist's present work and his father's academic pursuits in anthropology, which explored the significance of symbols within Xhosa culture.

The auditory components of the installation are housed in cylindrical plinths crafted from soil, cow dung, glue, and water, shaped into round stands reminiscent of the rondavel huts where Mabona spent his childhood. These installations aim to create a sense of home within an unfamiliar setting, as part of an animist worldview. "The Calabashes We Never Drank Amasi From" (2024) measures 105 × 218 × 209 centimeters and is currently on display at Kunstmuseum Luzern. Additional works by Mabona can be found on his website and Instagram.