Usha Seejarim probes gender, power and domestic labour with 'Unfolding Servitude'

Southern Guild Cape Town is pleased to present Unfolding Servitude by Usha Seejarim, a solo exhibition of assemblage sculptures on view from March 13 – May 22, 2025. This body of work explores the domestic sphere as a site of servitude, subversion and resilience through an intersectional lens. Using found objects associated with domestic labour—such as clothes pegs, ironing soleplates, brooms and trays—Seejarim, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, repurposes and reframes them to address themes of oppression and agency in relation to gender, race and class.

Through repetitive acts of assembly, Seejarim evokes the 'relentless', cyclical nature of domestic labour, often seen as women's work. In Unfolding Servitude, the contemporary artist "deliberately reconfigures these items to highlight the interplay between the materials' original function and the denial of their utilitarianism through art-making, transforming symbols of domesticity and containment into objects of liberation and ambiguity," the show's press release mentions. In her first show at the art gallery, tools of cleaning, folding, holding, washing, pressing and smoothing become powerful statements of individuality and resistance.

As the South African artist states: "At the heart of my exploration is the complex relationship between servitude and sexuality. Domestic labour 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 care-giving and service."

Seejarim also asserts the feminine experience through vulvic forms in the ongoing art exhibition, confronting societal taboos and reclaiming the power of the female body. "Receptacles, nest-like objects and ovoid shapes predominate, poised between containment and constriction," the release states. Her sculptural art pieces, including a towering wall piece reaching two and a half metres high, and titled Contours of Isolation, use iron soleplates to create an armoured portal that suggests both defence and passage.

Other works in Unfolding Servitude reference the body, such as tongue-like forms extending downwards, invoking the Goddess Kali, a forest of phalluses rising from a decorative tray, as well as sheaths of conjoined wooden clothes pegs which part and close in fleshy contours. These abstracted domestic objects reveal intimate connections between physicality and the power structures shaping our experiences. "The works speak to the intersections of vulnerability and strength, subordination and defiance, intimacy and universality," as mentioned in the press release.

"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 things themselves, but also for the location of women in relation to capitalist consumption. Unfolding Servitude gives voice to invisible labour while simultaneously critiquing the systems that advocate these roles," it continues.