User:Erikaerika222/Nicholas Hlobo

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Inspirations:

Artwork:

Title: Ikroti

Ikroti, one of his best scultptures, describes the relationship between the feminine and masculine. It touches on many different storylines, one being the displacement of South African's throughout the centuries.

Early Life
Nicholas Hlobo was born in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Dutywa on the Eastern Cape, a region previously known as the Transkei in Apartheid South Africa. Raised by his maternal grandmother, Hlobo recalls her being very strict, yet also the source of many of his values concerning love and wisdom. Despite her passing in 1985, the “rebel, and most probably a feminist,” in Nicholas’s own words, continued to influence him through instilling in him to stay true to himself always. As a male born into a colonial Zulu culture, the infant Nicholas was both baptized in a Christian church and made an [https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/7079#:~:text=The%20imbeleko%20ceremony%20is%20a,living%20and%20the%20ancestral%20spirits. imbeleko] in a Xhosa tradition that introduces young Xhosa men to the spiritual realm. The artist was also given two names : Nicholas and Batandwa, which means "beloved" or "beloved people" in Xhosa.

In an interview with journalist Malka Gouzer, Hlobo recalls the origin of his artistic journey, which began with the young boy killing time by drawing the human body as it appeared in his imagination. Nicholas moved to Johannesburg as a young adult in 1995, one year after Nelson Mandela was elected as South African president and ended Apartheid.