A series of 5 silkscreened posters that merge the geometric visual language of the South African Ndebele tribe with the graphic energy of American artist Keith Haring.
Passed down from mothers to daughters, the bold geometric patterns of the Southern Ndebele (historically the Transvaal Ndebele, comprising the Manala and Ndzundza populations of regions like Mpumalanga and Gauteng) are a complex code system. These designs originally proliferated as a powerful form of cultural resistance and visibility against colonial dispersal and apartheid policies. By decorating their homestead walls in these starkly delineated shapes, Ndebele women transformed their architecture into a vibrant, public declaration of territory, resilience, and personal history.
I found a powerful resonance between this traditional "visual language of messages" and the activist work of Keith Haring. Like the Ndebele, Haring used bold outlines and vibrant structures to speak directly to the public—proclaiming love without boundaries, defending creativity and fighting for equality. This series combine the abstract structural power of Ndebele patterns with distinct Haring-esque flourishes, including his iconic dotted fills, energetic radiant lines and celebratory hearts.
The choice to produce these as stark, black-and-white prints is a direct reference to Haring's foundational subway drawings, where his powerful chalk visual language first replaced blank urban advertisement space.
This project is an homage to Ndebele culture and a celebration of universal, geometric forms that can carry messages of resistance and human connection across different eras and continents.