Mwendeleo: Cinthia Sifa Mulanga
'There is never only one version of a woman. There is always another layer, another memory, another transformation.'
Cinthia Sifa Mulanga's paintings deal with the psychology of interior spaces and the politics of beauty and Black womanhood. Her work raises questions about how we perceive and express identity through fashion, architecture, culture and art. Her complex compositions imply an entanglement of elements informing the lives of the figures who inhabit these spaces, hinting at different timelines and overlapping narratives, expressing what Mulanga describes as 'limitless possibilities as a visual language'.
Born in 1997 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mulanga moved to South Africa as a child. She has explained how after the move, her family 'weren't stable; we moved often, living with people from different cultures, and I became fascinated by how they lived, cooked, spoke, the objects they kept, and the structure of their homes.' These ideas continue to inform her work: how do people express themselves through architecture and space?
In 'Mwendeleo' – Swahili for 'continuity' or 'ongoing progression' – Mulanga incorporates collages of and references to her previous work, alongside works by other artists, placing the Harlem Renaissance and Western and Classical traditions alongside African sculptures, objects and other visual forms.
Her spaces are exclusively occupied by women. Mulanga investigates 'the endless layers of Black womanhood': 'There is never only one version of a woman. There is always another layer, another memory, another transformation.'
