A bold interrogation of domesticity, power, and resilience through found-object assemblage at Southern Guild Cape Town.
Usha Seejarim, Domestic Disagreement, 2015. © Lea Crafford & Southern Guild.
Southern Guild Cape Town is pleased to present ‘Unfolding Servitude’ by Usha Seejarim, a solo exhibition of assemblage sculpture opening on the 13th of March 2025. This body of work interrogates the domestic sphere as a site of servitude, subversion, and resilience through an intersectional lens. Found objects emblematic of domestic labour—such as clothes pegs, ironing soleplates, brooms, and serving trays—are repurposed and reframed to explore themes of oppression and agency about gender, race, and class.
Through the repetitive acts of assembling, Seejarim evokes the relentless, cyclical nature of domestic labour—traditionally gendered as women’s work. She deliberately reconfigures these objects to highlight the interplay between their original function and the denial of their utilitarianism through art-making, transforming symbols of domesticity and containment into objects of liberation and ambiguity. Instruments of cleaning, folding, holding, washing, pressing, and smoothing become statements of resistance and individuality.
The artist states: “At the heart of my exploration is the complex relationship between servitude and sexuality. Domestic labor carries with it an inherent tension between obligation and identity. The transformation of household objects into sculptural forms invites viewers to reflect on societal expectations that confine and define roles tied to caregiving and service.”
Seejarim asserts the centrality of the feminine experience through the articulation of vulvic forms, confronting societal taboos around the female body while reclaiming its power. Receptacles, nest-like objects, and ovoid shapes predominate between containment and constriction. A wall-based work titled Contours of Isolation—reaching two and a half meters high—layers densely packed rows of reclaimed iron soleplates into a sharply tapered ellipse, creating an armoured portal inviting passage and defence. Seejarim’s sculptures pivot on bodily references: tongue-like forms extend downward, invoking the Goddess Kali, a forest of phalluses rises from a decorative serving tray, and sheaths of conjoined wooden clothes pegs part and close in fleshy contours. By transforming domestic objects in this way, the artist highlights the intimate connections between physicality and the structures of power that shape lived experiences. Her works speak to the intersections of vulnerability and strength, subordination and defiance, intimacy and universality.
Seejarim’s abstraction of these objects—negating their intended purpose to become vessels of collective memory—is an act of liberation, not only for the physical materials themselves but also for the societal position of women about capitalist consumption. ‘Unfolding Servitude’ voices invisible labour while critiquing the systems perpetuating these roles.
Born in 1974, Usha Seejarim is a South African artist in Johannesburg. She earned a master’s in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2008. Her numerous accolades include the Dignitas Award from the University of Johannesburg (2022), SEED Award from the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (2019), Tomorrow’s/Today Prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2018), SCAC Marestaing & The Secular Solidarity Association Sculpture Award at the Dakar Biennale (2018), and the Ampersand Fellowship Award (2003).
Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions such as Angel of the House (2021) at SMAC Gallery, Cape Town; Vessel of the Fish (2019) at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Un balai, pourquoi pas une balai (2019) at SCAC Marestaing, France; and Transgressing Power (2019) at SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg. Her travelling exhibition Venus at Home (2012–2014) was presented at Northwest University Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art Gallery, and the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa. She has also exhibited at the 2023 Turbine Art Fair, 2022 FNB Art Joburg, and 2018 Investec Cape Town Art Fair.
Notable group exhibitions include Twenty: Art in the Time of Democracy (2015), a travelling exhibition presented at the University of Johannesburg, Turchin Center (Boone, US), and the Beijing Biennale; The Red Hour (2018), curated by Simon Njami for the Dak’Art Biennale in Senegal; and Where Do We Migrate To? (2011) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Seejarim’s work is included in the collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery, Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Stellenbosch University, Constitutional Court (Johannesburg), University of South Africa, and Fondazione Fiera Milan, among others.
The exhibition is on view from the 13th of March until the 15th of May 2025. For more information, please visit Southern Guild.
