BODE@thestudio is proud to present A long line of hot assumptions, a solo exhibition by Rirhandzu Vermeulen.
A long line of hot assumptions is Vermeulen’s alchemical work of transforming the many restrictions and projections externally imposed on her womanhood into mythologies of self: reclaiming these sites of ordeal, and wielding them as both weapon and shield. Through A long line of hot assumptions, Vermeulen asserts her right to define herself, actively constructing her identity on her own terms. The resulting body of work is both gentle and fierce, contained and excessive; a transgressive account of the paradoxical multiplicity of womanhood.
The works offer the viewer an intimate glimpse behind the fourth wall, stumbling upon private worlds. These figures do not perform for us, but for themselves: dreaming, conjuring, contorting, refusing to mourn. Their enclosures, which attempt to constrain them, are revealed in actuality to be sovereign universes. Occasionally a gaze meets us, not with warmth or hostility, but with the quiet apathy of women who have long since stopped explaining themselves. Accompanying these self-governed spaces are clay creations made by the figures themselves; otherworldly flowers and bowls that take up space with the same insistence as their creators.
Sexuality, glamour, beauty, the enactment of womanhood; A long line of projected assumptions, are now returned to their rightful owners, wielded entirely on their own terms. This is not a gentle feminism. It is wayward, hypnotic, and fearlessly unapologetic. In an undaunted act of refusal, Vermeulen alchemises what was used against women, rendering it a mythology that belongs entirely to herself, and all women, everywhere.
Rirhandzu Vermeulen (b. 2001, Limpopo, South Africa) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, mixed-media, and sculpture. Vermeulen graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from Witwaterstrand University. Emerging from her relocation to Johannesburg, Vermeulen’s work explores and engages with the heightened social and psychological pressures, constraints, and dangers of women navigating urban life.
Her practice centres on womanhood as a process of reclamation and resilience. In her work, Vermeulen explores the private worlds women inhabit, the assumptions imposed upon them, and the strategies by which they reclaim their bodies, desires, and narratives. Emerging from the experience of navigating two vastly different worlds; her work engages the rhythms, values, and ideologies of Hoedspruit and Johannesburg, which operate at irreconcilable frequencies.
Vermeulen was shortlisted for the Wits Young Artist Award by The Point of Order in 2023. Her work has been exhibited by Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, and she has participated in group exhibitions across South Africa since 2021.