Masamvu’s figures are always positioned in relation to the abstracted landscapes. Describing his works as “mutants”, he understands the relationship between the landscape and figure as feeding off each other, slowly changing one another. The more abstracted the paintings become, the more the figures metamorphosize, slowly amalgamating into the abstracted space. In Budding Spirits, we witness the process of metamorphosis towards its end. Although it is possible to identify the hands and shoulders of a figure, Masamvu’s mark-making here is much looser…the figure is slowly becoming one with its environment.