Miss Congo lies on her back dressed in a washed, paint print denim suit, with a salmon-coloured bandana on her head as she sews, intermittently screaming out in agony as her needle pricks through the fabric.
This is a scene from artist Athi-Patra Ruga’s 2007 body of work Miss Congo. Last week, at the opening of the artist’s latest exhibition, Queens in Exile, guests were treated to a dinner with a menu that reads like a retrospective culinary take on the artist’s work.
The cook, Zolitha Magengelele, named her dishes Miss Congo, Injibhabha, Beiruth, Illulwane and Miss Azania – all characters from Ruga’s work, spanning a decade.
“It was a celebration of the tenth year since Athi embarked on his art career, so this was a celebration of that, drawing inspiration from his Xhosa roots, and him being a modern man,” Magengelele explains. “The dishes all take elements of Xhosa traditional cuisine, and are inspired by the colours and textures from the relevant works.”