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Exhibitions NOW SHOWING

Temporary Exhibitions

IKHAYA LIKA MOYA by Sethembiso Zulu

Opening 1 August at 13:00. On until 1 September 2026

Ikhaya Lika Moya is a multidisciplinary installation that explores African spirituality through photography, sound, moving image, and installation. Drawing from years of research and lived experience within African Independent Churches, the exhibition reflects on breath, spirit, memory, ritual is carried through communal practices. Sethembiso Zulu (@sthe.zu) as a healer, presents multi-sensory encounters of Black-and-white photographs alongside tactile, olfactory senses, and the use of fabrics to create a space where images become immersive rather than simply viewed or read. The exhibition invites visitors to move through the work, encountering shifting layers of light, sound, and atmosphere that echo the presence of uMoya as a polysemy and its multiple layers of meaning. Rather than offering definitive answers, Ikhaya Lika Moya opens a space for reflection on faith, belonging, and the enduring presence of African spiritual traditions.

Sethembiso Zulu is a Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and visual storyteller whose practice spans photography, film and installation. Drawing on spirituality, ancestral memory and lived experience, their work explores themes of identity, place and socio-political history through immersive visual narratives. More info and artist details: Sethembiso Zulu https://sethembisoart.pb.studio/about-me-3; zulu.kampande@gmail.com; +27 79 559 5170

You are warmly invited to experience the exhibition. Please bring ID to get into campus. Parking available in front of the Origins building.

Entrance is free on 1st August 2026, thereafter R40/R70 (this gives full access to the museum and all temporary exhibitions).

Enquiries: bookings.origins@wits.ac.za; 0117174700

Permanent Exhibitions

The interactive exhibits at Origins Centre take visitors on an extraordinary journey of discovery, which begins with the origins of humankind in Africa and then moves through the development of technology, art, culture, and symbolism. The journey continues with an exploration of the diverse Southern African rock art traditions. These ancient masterworks, and the artists, are illustrated through contemporary art installations by well-known South African artists.

Our permanent exhibitions:

  • Indigenous Gardens – edible and medicinal plants from different biomes that were used in the past and currently by ritual specialists throughout southern Africa.
  • African Origins - Early African stone tools from 2.6 million years ago; the origins of humanity in Africa and what makes us human; The sands of time across the world;  replica hominin skulls showing our human evolution over the last 7 million years
  • The San and Rock Art - San and their Hunter-Gatherer past; San genocide and Sara Baartman; The eland in San belief; San painting technologies; The trance dance and how San ritual specialists enter the spirit world; rain making and neuropsychology; Interpreting a rock art panel.
  • Rock Engraving Archive - Varied engraved rock art traditions & styles in Southern Africa. Can be explored through augmented reality (Download the app on Android or IOS – originscentrear)
  • Conservation - Conservation problems facing rock art sites today and site etiquette
  • Tapestry Room – Understanding and interpreting San Art; The history of the San told through 11 embroidered panels; The ‘White Lady of the Brandberg’
  • Khoe Art - The geometric art found in southern Africa; Who are the Khoekhoen?
  • Early (Iron Age) Farmers - The rise of complex societies, including information on Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe; Protest art of the Makgabeng
  • Installations by contemporary artists – One Being by Deborah Glencross; World Map by Walter Oltman; Axis Mundi by Russel Scott; Synanthrope by Hannelie Coetzee; Signs of people by Willem Boshoff; Threads of knowing by Tamar Mason; Double Vision by Pippa Scotness & Malcolm Payne; Glass Beads by Martli Jansen van Rensburg.
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