Simnikiwe Buhlungu researches the production of knowledges, how they are disseminated, and by whom. Through film, sound, installation, and text, Buhlungu transports viewers into metaphorical and theoretical considerations of the ways we come to ‘know’ and what informs those narratives. For The Milk of Dreams, Buhlungu realises And the Other Thing I Was Saying Was: A Conver-something (2022), an interactive sound installation of theremins, electronic musical synthesisers that – through the interaction of its electromagnetic fields and our bodies – play recorded sounds coming from different sources: namely, Pink noise, Mam’ Miriam Makeba, Binyavanga Wainaina, Hadedas and a Percussive Rhythm Section. Together, and with interaction from audience, this conver-something departs off of “dreaming” as a thought, a confession, as communication from biological systems, as ubiquitous bodily language, shared socio-historical encounters, as an imagination, a time-sensitive annoyance, as a mistake, as a pause, an adlib, as something very real – opening up this conver-something to existing beyond “spoken,” articulable language.
Melanie Kress
Simnikiwe Buhlungu is one of the four recipients of the grant for the inaugural edition of Biennale College Arte, launched in 2021. Participation out of competition.
