Installations, performances and images that deal with complex themes and provoke different levels of interpretation. Nicholas Hlobo tears, resews, cuts and rearranges varied materials to build complex, unpredictable structures. His works, replete with references to the Xhosa culture and his life experience in post-apartheid South Africa, reflect such themes as language and communication, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity. He uses a variety of materials, many of which are recycled such as inner tubes, industrial wire, silicone, wood and textiles. 
A major retrospective dedicated to him at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo pays tribute to his work from 2006 to the present. Man-size installations, notes on paper, visual performances and a Moleskine notebook interpreted and decorated by Nicholas Hlobo, donated to the non-profit organization Lettera27 on the occasion of Detour.
Further information on the exhibit can be found here
Nicholas HLOBO: sculpture · installation · performance · drawing
The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
March 4 - May 29, 2011
Oslo
