Bongani Vincent

In our new body of work, “the13apostles,” a series of Afro-surrealist portraits opens a portal into nether realms of identity, sexuality, and spirituality. We use the framework of tarot archetypes to journey into the subconscious, delving into the nuances of our own struggles with mental health, identity, and the search for self-acceptance.

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“the13apostles” evokes a transformative hero’s journey, a series of dreamlike encounters with distinct entities whose character offers us a glimpse of self-understanding.

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Each canvas in the series began as a manifestation of a whisper or a fleeting dream. Upon each entity’s arrival, we got to know them by painting them—learning the geometry of their form, touching their face as a blind person would. Their names, and their essences, remained fixed throughout the creative process. But they have morphed in the way they represent themselves outwardly, physically, visually. Like all of us, these entities have past selves concealed beneath that which is visible. And they may yet have future incarnations.

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Drawing inspiration from the rich visual language and symbolic power of African mask art, we have adapted the forms, motifs, and meanings of these revered objects into our own surrealist renderings. Our characteristic geometric abstraction, layering and scraping techniques, emotive brushwork, and metaphysical explorations honour these ancestral art forms while simultaneously reimagining them through the lens of our contemporary experience. “the13apostles” creates a space where the echoes of our ancestors reverberate, guiding us towards a future where the multiplicity of Black identities are honoured, explored, and empowered.