STUDIO VISITS: SMISO CELE | Home, Displacement & Making Work in Johannesburg

In this studio visit, This Audio is Visual spends time with Smiso Cele, a Johannesburg-based artist originally from KZN (Potchefstroom / Kwamalake), during the final stretch of his Cassirer Welz Prize residency at Bag Factory Artists’ Studios. Working primarily from drawing as a grounding medium, Cele reflects on displacement, memory, and the complexities of home, moving between Johannesburg and his place of origin. He speaks about the material language in his practice, including the recurring use of shovels and bread clips, and how personal histories inform broader questions of labour, hunger, and belonging. The Cassirer Welz Prize residency made possible by Bag Factory, Strauss & Co, and the French Institute of South Africa, has provided Cele with the space and resources to continue building a body of work that began during earlier residencies, including the Young and Unframed programme at Constitutional Hill.