Unathi Mkonto’s converses with spaces at Zeitz Mocaa residency

The all-to-familiar “To Let” signs are indicative of the fallout from an economic downturn and the fluidity of our ever-evolving cities. “Walking around the city, to-let signs are part of the visual language of the street, the corner, building facades, empty spaces, rims of buildings, the emptiness,” says architect-artist Unathi Mkonto who recently took up his residency, titled “To Let” at the Zeitz Mocaa Atelier.

Like his temporarily occupation of this experimental studio, the vacated spaces, “non-space”, the gaps in between and those at the city edge, are open to reinterpretation, possibly beyond original intended purposes, full of potential for new occupants and meaning. A young flâneur, Mkonto traverses these realms-in-flux with unassuming dexterity, mapping his observations — what he calls “conversations” — first through contemplative calligraphic-like lines or “scribbles” on paper, and then sculpture.

“The mark-making is my language, my cursive handwriting with its own ‘font’,” explains Mkonto of his drawings as he transcribes his experience through energetic abstract loops and downstrokes, some made under the control of architectural rule, other lines with more “punk” gay abandon at the hand of the artist. A gentle tailing off of a curve is maybe the end of a thought or sentence but certainly not the end of the conversation.

As the continent of Africa urbanises at a rate higher than any population growth in human history, it is important for us to engage in conversations about how we co-inhabit our cities. Anticipating our future, how do we reshape and reclaim our spaces in order for them to be more evolved and inclusive, and not just informed by planning bureaucracy, service infrastructure and architecture? In a more interdisciplinary approach to Lesley Loko’s “Lab of the Future” curated for the Venice Architectural Biennale in 2023, this is where the artist has more flexibility, freedom and the palette to offer immediacy to deeper social commentary in dealing with the complexities and nuances of the city.

While Mkonto does not claim to be making confrontational statements or solving the urban challenge, his conversations do offer us a different lens. “Where architecture and planning can provide new solutions, they are often superimposed quick fixes to immediate problems that fail to address the greater complexities of urban life.” Much like Mkonto, whose interpretive practice is to fully immerses himself as observer, taking cues from public space and the “spaces between people” who inhabit it, the artist plays an important role as visual commentator without imposition.

While he engages in temporary place-making in the Atelier, these are not just fleeting gestures as his sentences become human-scale “architectural collages”, taking shape through the use of “relatable materials” such as plywood, cardboard sheets and tubes, velcro, carpet squares. “I wanted to take my drawings and make them three-dimensional so that people could inhabit them,” he explains, “and through materials, objects, colour and texture I take space and reinterpret it through my own language. While there is an aspect of the work being about non-space, it also takes up space in the room. The work becomes an actor or character that is interpreting or mimicking something or the feeling of the room.” 

His choice of materials plays an important role in an open conversation, each relevant to the forms he wants to create but Mkonto says he is also open and “truthful to the character of a material” and is “guided by what a material wants to communicate, how it wants to be used”.

“There is shape or expression in a material. Something like cardboard is also the ‘way in’ to a work as it is familiar to everyone but adds value in the moment by how I present it. It might be fragile but has strength through the emotional connection.”  

Unathi Mkonto’s “To LeT” runs until February 25 2024.