In the realm where art meets activism, imagination flourishes as a powerful tool for challenging the status quo. Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum and Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, two formidable artists in their own right, converge their talents in the ongoing and provocative project known as The Legend of DISRUPTER X. Described as an ‘anti-opera,’ this multimedia performance work transcends traditional boundaries to create a vivid narrative universe that critiques and questions our present reality.

The DISRUPTER X PROJECT

At its core, The Legend of DISRUPTER X unfolds within a dystopian narrative landscape. Here, X is a pivotal figure—a soldier in the Disrupter Army, a resilient force standing against The Agency. In this imagined world, The Agency seeks dominion by transforming living entities into programmable data, erasing individuality in favor of homogeny. It’s a stark allegory reflecting contemporary anxieties about control, surveillance, and the erosion of personal freedom.

The project manifests through a dynamic interplay of mediums: video projections, live internet streaming, dioramas, holograms, handmade replicas of archival objects, and original music created from archival instruments. This immersive blend not only engages the senses but also invites critical reflection on the intersection of technology, power, and resistance.

About Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum is an artist and creative researcher working in the fields of drawing, animation, installation and performance. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Artists in New York, The Kitchen in New York, Room Urban Art Space in Johannesburg, the Ithuba Arts Gallery in Johannesburg, the FRAC Gallery in Carquefou, France, and the 2012 Havana Biennale in Cuba. Her research interests include exploring the political possibilities of imagining and occupying what she calls “Mythologies of the Future.” Sunstrum was born in Mochudi, Botswana and grew up living in different parts of Africa, Asia and North America. After completing her Masters in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, USA, Sunstrum returned to Johannesburg where she currently lives and works.

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi was born in New York and has lived in Harare and Johannesburg on and off since the early 1990s. She is a painter, video artist and filmmaker who divides her time between studio work and navigating the field of art as social practice. Her work investigates power and its structures – political, social, architectural. Implicit in her examination of these structures is an interrogation of the invisible forces that create them, and an imagining of alternatives. Her paintings and films have been shown at the Ifa Gallery in Berlin, the South London Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rio de Janeiro and the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg. Reflections on the collaborative project Border Farm will be included in the publications Wide Angle: Photography as Public Practice (Fourthwall) and What We Want is Free: Critical Exchanges in Recent Art (SUNY Press). Nkosi obtained her BA from Harvard University and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York.