Uhambo - Nicholas Hlobo at the Level 2 Gallery, Tate Modern, London
by Amy Halliday

Although the notion of journey (uhambo) presents a tired conceptual framework for the artist, Nicholas Hlobo's latest show at the Tate Modern's Level 2 Gallery (a space for emerging international artists) still manages to bring novelty to his navigation of self and society in the current South African moment.

Curated by Kerryn Greenberg, this exhibit brings together four pieces, drawn variously from Hlobo's recent show at the ICA in Boston, and from his second solo exhibition, 'Kwatsityw'iziko', at Michael Stevenson last year. Also included are one of his trademark sculptures (growing in both scale and ambition), two paper works and a visual diary, documenting his creative process. Though a small selection, the works are materially and conceptually expansive, inhabiting, rather than contained by, their setting.

Once a commercial site, the Level 2 Gallery presents a challenging curatorial space, with a small entry room leading into a long rectangular area. The space is punctuated only by a single store-front window looking out onto the Millennium Bridge.

Hanging unsettlingly from a hook (reminiscent of Isisindo Samadlozi, from 2006), the initial woven strands of Ingubo Yesizwe (2008) hang like exposed electrical wires, confronting the viewer with the lazy indifference of an unacknowledged safety-and-security hazard. The plaited threads lead into the main space, culminating in a corpulent mass of leather and rubber fragments, sewn together into an organic, monstrous being; a hulking beast that is initially threatening (in its sheer volume and its hybrid nature) but also commands empathy (its knotted viscera spilling out onto the floor). Drawing on the centrality of cows - and, hence, leather - as socio-economic and spiritual cipher in his Xhosa culture, as well as rubber in all its urban, sexual and industrial guises, Hlobo melds the traditional with the modern, while probing too the evocative sensuality of the in-between.

More than the sum of its pieces, the immense work is transported to and from galleries in fragments that are then zipped together and stuffed, before being variously installed, suspended and draped in situ; literally coming to life in the gallery space, while carrying with it a memory of past journeys, of pain, of pleasure and of transformative possibilities. However, the sprawling piece lacks the resolution of Hlobo's smaller, less overwrought sculptures such as Umphanda ongazaliyo (2008), or Uchitha (2006). It tries to go in too many directions simultaneously - evidenced by the jarring inclusion of the ball and claw foot as colonial metaphor - never fully arriving.

Hlobo relies heavily on the associative powers of his trademark media, particularly gendered/queered readings of rubber, as strong, yet penetrable 'masculine' material, and colloquial term for condoms; woven pink ribbon, as evocative of 'femininity' and domesticity yet also used in celebration of homosexual rights, and also localised understandings of leather and cowhides in terms of his Xhosa background. By combining these materials - and with them the various identity discourses they evoke - he attempts to cobble together a new personal and social fabric, a 'blanket of the nation' (Ingubo Yesizwe) replete with the sewn scars born of that process. Despite the rainbow nation's freedom of self-expression, Hlobo suggests, individuals must still negotiate a sense of self within a latent matrix of prevailing cultural, social, historical and political values and expectations.

In visual dialogue with the central sculpture, through the use of satin ribbon, are Hlobo's two works on Fabriano paper - Phulaphulani, 2008 and Iminxeba, 2008. The first is an embroidered meditation on communication. Its title alludes to the way in which the act of listening depends on breaking down ('[uku]phula') an array of audio stimuli to access meaning. Multi-coloured paths lead in different directions; intersecting, interrupting, literally resulting in dead ends and mixed messages. Seemingly inchoate, becoming chaotic at times, Hlobo's materials are nevertheless tightly controlled, painstakingly executed; their meaning attendant on a careful unravelling of cultural clues. The inclusion of a pair of iPod earphones suggests a concentrated listening experience, while simultaneously critiquing today's tendency to evade unmediated engagement with life through access to selective soundtracks.

Iminxeba likewise explores the processes of communication in the conflation of a literal and figurative 'grapevine'. In the same way as a vine's tendrils - evoked in the unfurling of each coloured ribbon - reach out, grow, change, intersect and attach themselves to surrounding structures, so communication forms a complex network based on the exchange of information, often through gossip. More interesting than the piece's themes is its refusal of the paper's expected rectangularity. An organic rubber shape devours the bottom edge of the border, shattering the illusion of a frame and linking the piece to the monstrous sculptural form - with all its protruding sacs, valves and appendages - that dominates the exhibition. A pervasive sense of corporeal threat emerges in these works, adding a darker underbelly to Hlobo's oeuvre, which until recently has been concerned with a more sensuous and playful (if nonetheless poignant) interrogation of sexuality, ethnicity and gender.

While Hlobo's Visual Diary most directly echoes the notion of journey and process implicit in the exhibition's title, it is the least successful on the show. Although the length of the wall conveniently accommodates the piece of fabric - usually hung in Hlobo's studio space for the duration of a project - the piece doesn't fit the wall. With its private thought processes and linguistic formulae scrawled in Xhosa, detailed anatomical renderings of penises mapped and measured onto sculptures, sewing pattern for a performance outfit, and phone numbers of relevant contacts, the piece reads as part journal entry, part blueprint; cutting room floor meets public restroom graffiti. Something is lost in this voyeuristic overexposure to process and it detracts from the ultimate destination. The sheet of 'genuine leather' stickers on the far side of the piece is, however, an amusing touchstone.

The Tate's exhibition is a small, but significant showing of an increasingly acclaimed artist, a sign that the gallery has their finger on the pulse of what's going on internationally. I was particularly impressed by the well-constructed and thoughtful brochures accompanying the exhibition, giving viewers a helpful point of entry into Hlobo's work. Having recently been named the 2009 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art, as well as exhibiting in Europe, America, South Africa and even China over the past few years, both Hlobo and his art have undertaken successful journeys across continents and contexts: it remains to be seen whether he'll be able to keep charting new territory.

Opens: December 9
Closes: March 1

Tate Modern
Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Tel: 020 7887 8888
www.tate.org.uk
Hours: Sun - Thu 10am - 6pm, Fri - Sat 10am - 10pm