About Me

Who is Nonhlanhla Florence Mkwanazi? Possibly someone with a really long name, or perhaps someone with a story as interesting as the name behind it. Nonhlanhla means "lucky one" in the Zulu language and it is a name given to a child who survived a particularly difficult birth. The staff at the Florence hospital in Johannesburg walked away with the proud knowledge that their hard work of delivering this miracle would never be forgotten. Fast forward past a colourful life of achievements, failures and perseverance and we have the young lady before us. Friendly, kind, driven, self-motivated and positive.

Through her work she attempts to examine the phenomenon of Individuality in a Collectivist society through the metaphorical representation of indexing. What began as a personal journey of exploration has translated into images of hersef on the pages of old books where she has attempted to turn each image into an index. Her mixed media Indexes embody an idiosyncratic view of the collective as it interacts with the individual, yet the familiar imagery allows for a visual connection between systems and individuality.