As one of South Africa’s brightest emerging fine artists, the art world, the media and fans are all drawn to Lunga Ntila’s delicate and distorted view of the world. Fiercely original and in a lane of her own, Ntila is carving out a new approach to self and self-expression through her photographic collages. Driven by experimentation, and an impressive sense of confidence, she is ripping through milestones much faster than most self-trained artists in their early 20s. She has been celebrated at events such as Design Indaba, hosted the well-received 2019 debut solo show Ukuzilanda at Bkhz Studio in Joburg and has begun collaborating with fashion labels including Artclub and Friends.

So when we meet, I was not at all surprised by her sense of cool. Sporting a close-cropped blonde hairstyle, slim black shades and an off the shoulder black number, she is easy to spot - even amongst the guests at our chic brunch location. Not surprising too is her introspective, almost shy demeanour. After all, this is an artist whose signature style is the distortion of her own face, hidden behind exaggerated eyes and voluminous, prominent lips. While I don’t want to box the promising artist, the concept of distortion as message is probably the most easily-identified as a theme, and is an intentional part of the way she crafts her work.

“I am attracted to the skeleton of identity, awareness, perspective and framing, as a way of understanding ideologies that govern the different facets that exist within us and around us,” she explains. “I am also slowly truly discovering the interconnectedness of everything on this planet, identifying the patterns that form the bigger web, and how we all play a role in it. I think I am able to show that through distortion because I am combining elements which are ‘different’ and putting them together in a way that still makes sense.”

She’s not alone in this perspective. When I first came across Lunga’s work, it made an impression on me partly because of it’s an echo of my favourite artist, Nathaniel Mary Quinn. When I whipped out my phone to show Lunga some of his work, I was surprised she hadn’t encountered him, when their artistic kinship is so strong. Like Ntila, Quinn’s work explores the inner world of self through displacement and distortion. As he writes in his self-authored British Vogue profile, “At last I had discovered a way to harness my experiences — taking disparate fragments of the world around me and transforming them into portraits of the faces I had known.”

The use of fragment, memory and experience is a sentiment common to both of them. For Ntila, however, there is no single approach to harnessing one’s own life for the purposes of art. At this point she is content to try new approaches, and become more of herself as she goes along. Currently, she is fascinated by nature, and the idea that all beings are connected, constantly evolving together. This interest speaks directly to her philosophical imagining of herself as artist.

“I will never really be done with the searching, the questions and the growing. I have learnt that my journey is not consistent, and because of that nature I will always find myself in a state of metamorphosis,” she says. “I have made myself a vessel for higher powers to work through me, I have opened up my heart. I just know that by opening up myself I am expanding and making room for more.”

While much of Ntila’s work thus far has lived within the fields of digital art and photography, she is expanding her practice - both in terms of subject matter and use of different materials. At the moment, one of her biggest (and from what I’ve sneak peeked, most successful) new routes is her work with mirrors. “The experiments with the mirrors are honestly bringing me so much joy. I am also bridging the gap between mirrors and prints… With the mirrors the viewer gets to interact with three different environments at once. The object (mirror), themselves and their environment, which all come together in one frame.”

With a clear sense of purpose and picture, and a work ethic lauded by many in the South African scene, Ntila is going to be an exciting artist to watch. As it happens, we have met on her birthday (a fact she waited almost an hour to share) and we both indulge in a brunch time glass of bubbly to celebrate. Going into the next season of her life, Ntila is emboldened by her current success.

“The response to my work has been very encouraging, it’s great to know that it appeals to people outside of myself,” she says, laughing. “I think my solo at BKhz was the first time I got direct feedback. It was really great to sit back and watch at how people were amazed by some pieces, and the different ways they would dissect the subject matter. Ukuzilanda, has been the disruption I needed to push me into a place of uncertainty. In that place I realised how great I actually am.”

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Published on 16/04/2020