The Interlude



- Suddenly she appeared to me in a dream telling me to pack my bags and to go back home but my ignorance lead to a series of unbearable tower moments.

A whole new world has opened up to me where the evidence of life is not hinged on what can be seen but also on what can be experienced. Dreams are not just dreams anymore they have become clues to a journey that began long before me and will continue long after me. It is through this knowing that I catch myself scrambling to remember all signs and symbols before they escape me as I wake.

Sabela Uyabizwa is a call to surrender and to take a leap of faith into the unknown.


blank is pleased to present Sabela Uyabizwa, a solo exhibition by Phumzile Khanyile. Moving away from the candid snapshot aesthetics of her self-portraits, the black and white images of Sabela Uyabizwa (translated as 'respond, you are being called') delve further into the artist’s own interiority, combining photographic negatives with hand drawn imagery and symbols to depict scenes and messages revealed to her in dreams.

Born in Soweto in 1991, Khanyile graduated from the Market Photo Workshop in 2017 with her debut exhibition, Plastic Crowns. Since then, she has participated in numerous international group exhibitions including the Congo Biennale (Kinshasha, 2021); NGV Triennale (Melbourne, 2020 - 2021); Lubumbashi Biennale (Lubumbashi, 2019); Not the Usual Suspects (Iziko South African National Gallery, 2018); and Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography (Bamako, 2017). In 2018, Khanyile was awarded the CAP Prize for Contemporary African Photography. 


Exhibition press:

Nkomo, V. Notes on dreaming in black: Phumzile Khanyile’s ‘Sabela Uyabizwa’. Artthrob [online] Published 6 October 2023