Popihuise

The Afrikaans word “pophuis” refers to a doll’s house game familiar to children. Vuyo Mabheka built the Popihuise series in reference to this game, based on the few photos he has of himself as a child. He creates interiors and scenes in which he appears, sometimes accompanied by imaginary friends represented by people from his community whom he has secretly photographed, sometimes in the presence of a fantasized, faceless father figure.

The series is built around very few elements: drawings, collages and photographs cohabit in a universe that at first glance seems naïve and tender. Gleaming cars and skyscrapers, burning tires and new pavilions stand in the background to fields of crops, colorful birds, graffiti and blossoming trees.

Among these images, which place liberalism and modernity in tension, is a lonely child, almost helpless in the face of the difficult reality that surrounds him: Vuyo Mabheka, who is rewriting his memory and reclaiming his world.