FROM growing up in a rural area with limited access to the arts to winning R100 000, artist Sphumelele Zondi is celebrating a major milestone.
Tap here to download the FREE Daily Sun App
The 26-year-old artist from Sweetwaters, a rural-urban fringe community near Pietermaritzburg, KZN, was named the overall winner of the 2026 Sasol New Signatures Visual Arts Competition for her mixed-media work, The Laundry of a Nation.
Sphumelele never imagined her first time entering the competition would take her this far.
“I honestly couldn’t believe it. I was overwhelmed with joy, excitement, and at the same time shocked. Sasol New Signatures is such a big and highly competitive competition, so making it this far and being selected as one of the final 7 is a dream come true. I also felt incredibly proud of myself and the work I’ve created,” she said.
ALSO READ: ‘Talk before it’s too late!’ - 460 suicide attempts daily
Sphumelele said her relationship with the arts started long before she understood it could become a career.
“My relationship with art began long before I understood it as a career or a discipline. Growing up in a rural environment where formal access to the arts was limited, creativity existed in everyday life: in play, observation and the ways communities passed knowledge from one generation to the next. Looking back, I recognise these experiences as the foundation of my artistic practice,” she said.
Her winning work, The Laundry of a Nation, looks at young South Africans and the pressure of abantu bazothini? (what will people say?).
ALSO READ: Mum’s pain as DJ vanishes
“The work I submitted, The Laundry of a Nation, speaks about the social and emotional inheritance carried by young people in South Africa,” she said.
“It was inspired by a personal and broader questioning of what’s passed down to us, influencing how we see ourselves, how we behave, and how we imagine our futures.
“I began thinking about the realities and social struggles that shape our lives as young people and became interested in how these conditions become part of our homes and shape our country.
“The work draws attention to clothing that carries these experiences, traces of labour, care, hardship, and survival that can become embedded within them. Was I also interested in the idea of abantu bazothini? The awareness of being watched, judged, or questioned by others, and how this can influence young people from an early age.”
Creating the tiny clothing pieces was not easy for the artist.
“The creative process was hands-on and required a great deal of patience, particularly because of the scale and detail of the work.
“One of the biggest challenges was creating clothing at that small scale. Another challenge was creating clothing that appeared as though it was being worn by an actual person.
“I was not working from a human figure or a fixed mould, so I had to imagine the proportions and construct the form from my own understanding of the body.
“Burning the paper was another process that introduced an element of unpredictability. Sometimes the flame would travel further than I intended or alter the material in a way I couldn’t have planned. Instead of always treating these moments as mistakes, I became interested in what they produced, all the unexpected textures and marks,” said Sphumelele.
She said winning the competition has given her more confidence to pursue her career as an artist.
“Being selected as a finalist is a huge opportunity for recognition and growth within the art space.
“For me, it is an important affirmation of my practice as an emerging artist and an encouragement to step further into the art world with confidence. Beyond the competition, I hope to establish myself as an artist, continue developing my practice, and share my work with wider audiences,” she said.
As part of winning the competition, her work is currently on display at the Pretoria Art Museum until 8 November.
She will also show her first exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum in 2027.
