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A riveting encounter with Nyamza’s critically acclaimed, autobiographical, tour-de-force  dance performance – Hatched – sparked in Denny, the idea for an enduring cross-disciplinary collaboration with this renowned performing artist from Gugulethu.

For Denny and Nyamza, complex ties to their late mothers, and an appreciation for the phoenix-like capacity of women’s bodies to alchemise the base metal of patriarchy, formed the basis for their creative synergy.

The immersive experience of this series paired Denny’s richly dynamic inks with Nyamza’s performance in their collaborative film. Hatched 2015 started its journey at Gallery MOMO in Cape Town, before featuring at the LOOP Video Art Fair in Barcelona, en route to Slowtrack – Marta Moriarty Gallery – in Madrid.

In 2022 van Mourik brought the artists together again in an interplay between their collaborative film stills and ink paintings. Denny spoke of the terrifying Divine Feminine leading to ultimate freedom and Nyamza words came from her female ancestral lineage moving through her body in a convulsive and ultimately cathartic way.