Phumulani Ntuli (b. 1986) is a South African artist born in Soweto whose practice spans collage, sculpture, video installation and performance. He studied visual arts at the University of Johannesburg before completing a master’s degree at the École Cantonale d’Art du Valais in Sierre, Switzerland. His work moves between documentary and fiction, examining the gaps in historical records and exploring how personal and collective memories shape our understanding of identity. Artist biography, Crawford Art Gallery

In 2022, Ntuli represented South Africa at the 59th Venice Biennale alongside Roger Ballen and Lebohang Kganye in the exhibition Into the Light. His international exhibition history also includes the Kampala Biennale and the Young Congo Biennale. Since 2023, he has collaborated with David Krut Projects, developing prints and works on paper that extend his exploration of historical imagery, technology and alternative ways of seeing. Venice Biennale, David Krut Projects

In Congregants (2019), four figures appear as repeated, seemingly cloned bodies, recalling the artificial human substitutes imagined in science fiction. Their repetition raises questions about a society increasingly willing to treat people as replaceable in the pursuit of technological progress. Against this drive towards mechanical perfection, the kneeling figures suggest the vulnerability of bodies that inevitably tire, weaken and fail. Artwork details

For Ntuli, kneeling also carries associations of respect, hierarchy and spiritual devotion. The gesture therefore holds several meanings at once, bringing physical frailty into conversation with reverence and submission. Writing upon the ground suggests an act of cultivation, connecting the ways people shape the land with the ways the land shapes them. Through these overlapping gestures, the work presents humanity, technology and the earth as inseparable forces, inviting reflection on what technological progress preserves and what it risks erasing.