Inheriting the Future: Identity, Heritage & Global Change

October Gallery presents a dynamic group exhibition bringing together painting, sculpture, and photography by Zana Masombuka, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Alexis Peskine, and Djibril Dramé. Across distinct practices, the artists examine identity as something shaped by heritage—by histories carried in the body, in materials, and in spiritual memory—while also responding to the shifting realities of contemporary life and the disruptive pressures of globalisation. The exhibition becomes a shared space where lineage, belief, and cultural continuity are not treated as fixed inheritances, but as living forces continually reinterpreted in changing environments.

Zana Masombuka moves between the physical and spiritual worlds in new works from Akhulumile Amabhudango: Scenes from Dreams – Journeys with the Kosabo, a series inspired by the life and legacy of her late maternal grandfather, Bishop Makhuwana Piet Mahlangu. Through photography, beaded sculptural frames, and symbolic objects drawn from Ndebele culture, she constructs richly layered scenes that explore kingship, ascension, ancestral guidance, and the relationship between destiny and lineage. Her selected works from Ubonani: What Do You See?, set among the rocky hills of Kwandebele, adopt red as a dominant tone to evoke childhood curiosity, sensitivity, and openness—continuing her ongoing inquiry into how material and spiritual legacies combine to form identities that are both traditional and contemporary.

Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga presents striking new paintings that confront the enduring consequences of colonial extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly during Belgian occupation. Set against empty grey backgrounds—suggesting the erasure of recorded histories—his vividly detailed figures hold flowers that intertwine past and present, linking botanical exploitation to today’s economic realities. Imported “African” textiles, references to “red rubber,” and the cultivation of non-native crops point to systems that enriched offshore investors while devastating local communities and environments. Circuit-like patterning across his figures’ skin evokes industrial mining and the minerals embedded in everyday technologies, underscoring how cycles of exploitation persist. Yet his monumental subjects, rendered with contemplative stillness, also embody resilience and survival.

Alexis Peskine transforms photographic portraits of people from the African Diaspora into sculptural works made by hammering nails into stained wood. The layered surfaces echo the spiritually charged Minkisi “power figures” of the Congo Basin, positioning the portraits as vessels where raw materials absorb histories of trauma, displacement, and migration. His recent works turn toward healing and abundance, incorporating leafy forms stained with herbs such as rosemary, basil, mint, and macassar. From an Afro-diasporic perspective, Peskine proposes heritage as something actively reassembled—chosen, crafted, and renewed through method and material.

Djibril Dramé contributes photographs from his long-running series Ndewendeul, begun in 2010, exploring the spiritual ethos of the Baye Fall Sufi brotherhood. Rooted in close relationships with the community, the work also opens a wider dialogue about belonging and the presence of the “other.”

Dramé’s portable studio portraits in Dakar during Eid festivities capture intimate moments of joy and shared devotion, while later images made during the COVID pandemic highlight resilience under pressure.

Often set against patterned industrial PVC backdrops, his portraits amplify the brotherhood’s vibrant patchwork fabrics and expressive individuality, revealing Baye Fall identity as multifaceted, communal, and grounded in service.

Together, these four artists offer powerful, nuanced ways of navigating cultural transition—showing how heritage can operate as memory, critique, and spiritual resource amid the forces of contemporary global monoculture.