Khumo (Wealth)

Kavula uses a mechanical paper punch to extract miniature circles from textiles, applying them to gridlines of thread and draping them on the wall. Referring to them as paintings, she is interested in destabilizing aesthetic hierarchies—particularly as they existed in Apartheid South Africa—in which the elitism of painting was pitted against the “Black,” working-class medium of printmaking. In this work, the circles bear traces of the vibrant patterns of the cotton fabric from which they came. Known as Shweshwe , this fabric is in fact a colonial import but is now considered traditional in the region.