Fireflies and Ashes: Seeds Beneath the Fire
Opening on Mandela Day provides an opportunity to reflect upon legacy not as commemoration alone, but as responsibility. Mandela's enduring commitment to dignity, equality and human interdependence remains an unfinished proposition, one that successive generations continue to negotiate, reinterpret and expand. As Mandela himself observed, "After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb."
Fireflies and Ashes ultimately proposes that the future is composed in the present: through memory, through artistic production, through acts of empathy, and through the sustained effort of imagining societies that are more equitable, inclusive and humane.
Like seeds beneath ash, or fireflies illuminating the landscape around them, these artistic practices remind us that even within conditions of uncertainty, possibility remains.
Artists
Andrew Ntshabele
Morgan Mahape
Steve Maphoso
Percy Maimela
Trevor Aloka
Gift Dlamini
Asanda Kupa
Samantha Maseko
Opening Reception
Saturday, 18 July 2026
Artyli Gallery
Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton