Pyda (b.1991, Harare), is a Cape Town based artist who uses speculative fiction, mythology and trickery to imagine the ways in which pidgin languages came into the world. A pidgin language happens when two or more languages meet/collide to create a third hybrid language. A pidgin can also happen when a dominant language is broken and taken apart to create a remixed version of the dominant language. Pyda has a strong engagement with the written, oral, visual and sonic traditions which she uses to world build around a fictional character known as “Pidgin.” This character is the physical manifestation of pidgin languages and is an entity that is rarely ever seen, but exists and is understood through the traces of itself that it leaves behind. With the collective, Pfimbi Yemashoko (the place where the words are kept), Pidgin sightings and happenings are often documented by the various fictional and non-fictional members of the collective. Together with the collective, Pyda continues to build the narrative of Pidgin and to propose a poetics of language that engages all the senses.
Pyda’s work has been presented at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, Real Art Ways in New Haven, Zeitz MOCCA in Cape Town, Artist Alliance Inc in New York, AC Institute in New York, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York, Participant Inc Gallery in New York, Young Blood Gallery in Cape Town, AVA Gallery in Cape Town and others.
Pyda has completed a residency with Braunschweig Projects in Germany (2019), Artist Alliance in New York (2018) and was a fellow at the Whitney Museum’s ISP Program (Independent Study Program 2016-2017). Pyda was a finalist for the Cassirer Welz Award, 2020 and is the recipient of The Real Art Award (2018), the ABSA Art and Life Award (2013) as well as a top finalist for the Sasol New Signatures Award (2014).