Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe
Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe is bringing the city a global perspective through the production of her multimedia artwork that she calls “experiential and immersive.”
The 52-year-old native of Zambia says her ancestral roots in South Africa’s Barotseland is what lead to her latest production, “Wade in the Water,” and will be showcased next fall in the hall of sculpture at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
“It’s experiential and immersive, and it’s about me finding the uses of art and giving art back to the people it originated from,” Ms. Siyolwe said. “It’s an integration of me being myself in the ever-present past. This is a movie and live action all at one. It’s like being part of an animation story told in real time. I’m breaking the barriers of the walls of theater, opera and hip-hop — and the audience becomes a character with me.”
“Wade in the Water” is a hybrid epic that tells an intergenerational story through a digital landscape of the photographs and a musical score that’s ancient and modern, the history of Ku-umboka, the ritual in Barotseland, in which the people annually move to the safety of higher ground, Ms. Siyolwe said.
“I’m using old photographs of my ancestors, because I come from a dynasty in Southern Africa where we have lived since about 1200 and where we had a camera brought by Francois Coillard of the Paris Missionary Society,” she said. “So I have animated the archive of photos of my great-great-grandfather King Lewanika of Barotseland in the 1880s into a multimedia participatory exhibit.”
She received a $15,000 grant last fall from the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh grants program, a partnership between the Pittsburgh Foundation and Heinz Endowments, to help develop this exhibit.
Ms. Siyolwe, who lives in Point Breeze, praises Pittsburgh for its established art scene.
“I come from many different worlds, not just Africa and Pittsburgh,” she said. “I have a worldwide perspective that I am a part of. Pittsburgh has definitely played a big role in allowing me to have a safe space to think, grow and raise a family. It’s always taught me to focus on the essentials and it has a beautiful artist community and there is much solidarity. It’s an environment that allows you to express yourself.”
Ms. Siyolwe received a bachelor of arts from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, a master’s of arts degree in film production in 1999 from American University in Washington, D.C., and an M.A. in performance studies from New York University in 2005. She received a master’s of fine arts from Chatham University in film and digital technology in 2009.