Dr. Elizabeth Perrill (Smart-Tillman Distinguished Professor of Art History) is serving as lead curator of iNgqikithi yokuPhica/Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa at the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Co-curated with Cultural Curator Muziwandile Gigaba and MOIFA curatorial staff, this exhibition is the first major museum presentation in North America to explore the history of telephone wire weaving, an art form that emerged under Apartheid and has since grown into a rich expression of South African creativity.
“It’s been a profound opportunity,” reflects Perrill. “Research that I’ve been engaged with for over twenty years (it seems wild to say 20 years, but it’s true) all came to bear on building the team that made this exhibition a success. This project has been ongoing and so rewarding.”
Dr. Perrill’s doctoral research and monographs focus on KwaZulu-Natal ceramics. Telephone wire weaving emerged as an artistic practice during Apartheid, a central period in her scholarship and is an art form she continues to shine light on:
“I was honored to bring the major artists, institutions, and trends in this art form to a broader public. MOIFA hosts just shy of 10,000 visitors each year, so this exhibition, which will be open for 16 months, will be seen by well over 10,000 national and international visitors.”
Funding for the project supported consultations with four Indigenous Knowledge Consultants, all from KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, ensuring artists’ voices were placed at the center of the story Each contributed to the project, and one—Muziwandile Gigaba—was additionally contracted as Cultural Curator; along with Santa Fe-based curators Carrie Hertz and Lillia McEnaney.
Then-student Melissa Ferguson (’25 BFA Studio Art, Sculpture and Ceramics with a minor in Art History), was also part of the project. Ferguson worked with Dr. Perrill for two semesters in independent study classes archiving curatorial and artists’ records as part of the exhibition curation team.
“It was amazing to be able to connect Melissa Ferguson with the MOIFA museum staff,” says Perrill. “Melissa undertook two independent study courses with me and was integral to data management and archival work documenting the exhibition. She was able to win a UNCG Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creativity grant to travel with me to the exhibition opening to meet the artists traveling from South Africa and to see the exhibition that she helped make a reality.”
In addition to curating the exhibition, Perrill is developing classroom activities in collaboration with South African and U.S. secondary school instructors that will be used after the exhibition closes.
“Educators will have access to all video materials that were created for the exhibition and also will have classroom activities that tie the designs and symbolism of the artworks in the show to South Africa indigenous histories and aesthetics developed by artists working in the townships and neighborhoods in the greater Durban/eThekwini municipality in South Africa.”
The exhibit iNgqikithi yokuPhica/Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa runs through March of 2026. Perrill continues her work to highlight the global significance of contemporary African art, with her next publication, an essay which will accompany the exhibit Clay Has Memory: Creative Lineages from Africa which opens in July of 2025 at the Princeton University Museum.
Story by Judith Briand
