Moulding, carving and playing with clay from a young age cemented Eastern Cape-born Sonwabiso Ngcai’s future as an award-winning artist who has scooped the prestigious PPC Imaginarium Award.
On Thursday, Ngcai took home prize money of R150,000 after being named the overall winner of the 2019 PPC Imaginarium Awards.
He was also placed first in the sculpting category for his work titled Isigu (The Snare).
“For me this is a huge honour and a rewarding achievement,” the 37-year-old artist who was born and raised in Buntingville, a rural village near Mthatha, said.
Sculpting had fascinated him since childhood, he said.
“I can’t remember when I was not moulding, carving or playing with clay.
“My passion is creating three-dimensional artwork, especially ceramic sculpture.
“Working with materials such as concrete poses different challenges, but as an artist one has to leave the comfort zone and endeavour to work it out.
“This is my first major award and arrives on the back of the Best 3-Dimensional Artist award I received in the Eastern Cape Cultural Awards in December 2018,” he said. “I could not be happier.” He said his winning sculpture provided an analogy for how certain religious cults ensnared their congregants.“An Isigu, in traditional African society, is a contraption used by boys to hunt birds.“It consists of a downwardfacing bowl, with one side held open by an upright stick that has a string tied to it, with a few pieces of grain scattered underneath the bowl.“Lured by the promise of food, a bird enters the area – the string is tugged and the bird is captured.“In this piece the use of a simple but effective hunting tool is an analogy for entrapment by religious cults.”Ngcai said recent reports of alleged exploitation by religious leaders and organisations had inspired him to create the artwork.“[This] includes feeding vulnerable congregants snakes and grass, making them drink petrol, sexual abuse, bullying and victimisation – all in the name of faith.“Baited by the expectation of salvation and often seduced by promises of wealth, people are increasingly falling into religious cults,” he said.Ngcai is motivated by the hardships he went through as a person and artist and how his culture often collided with contemporary practice.“I examine our cultural and religious idiosyncrasies using sculpture as the vehicle for my thoughts,” he said.Ngcai and his twin brother, Monwabisi, who is also an artist and photographer, graduated with BTech degrees from Walter Sisulu University.Their younger brother, Siyabonga, 29, is a qualified architect and poet.“Unfortunately we lost our single mother, Thabile Ngcai, in 2017. She played an immeasurable role in the people we are today,” Ngcai said.Now living in East London with his partner Chwayita Thathoba and their daughter Amahle, 10, Ngcai completed a master’s degree in fine art at the Vaal University of Technology and is a lecturing in the visual art department at WSU.