The band members of Papaloko’s Haitian roots group were dressed all in white, thumping out electric, entrancing sounds at a high decibel that the crowd at Locust Projects (a Knight Arts grantee) couldn’t ignore — at one point it seemed as though the whole gallery space was swaying to the hypnotic music of one of Miami’s most interesting bands.

What a great fit it was to coincide with the opening of South African artist Nicholas Hlobo’s first solo outing in Miami. In fact it wasn’t a coincidence. Hlobo is collaborating with Papaloko and musician Loray Mistik for this exhibit, which is called “intethe (Sketch for an Opera),” and the score will be incorporated into the performative show throughout its run.

Last year, Locust brought in the phenomenon from Chicago, Theaster Gates, for its Art Basel exhibit, an interactive and highly political “event,” as Gates turned the gallery into a populated workshop. It was a standout. This follows in the same line.

Hlobo has recently hit the international scene, his mix of native and African (in particular Xhosa) traditions with hyper contemporary commentary having made a splash (he just came out of a mentorship residency with Anish Kapoor). In his sculptures, he combines common commercial materials such as leather and rubber with more delicate ones like lace and ribbons. He grew up stitching and sewing with the women in his family, he says, which influenced the way he made art, and maybe more importantly viewed art — as a combination of the masculine and feminine, queer and straight, the trappings of black and white, ancient and modern worlds.

Here at Locust, his leather sculpture creatures threaded with those extra stitchings look both formidable and ready to deflate. They are not human but express innate human qualities; is that one relaxing, or bone tired? There is a movement to these technically stationary sculptures, adding to the theatrical element that Hlobo aims at in his work.

The founder of Papaloko, Jude Thegenus, has also continually explored the dynamics of an African diaspora, and the cultural and political hybrid that makes up Miami. That these two are working together for Locust’s Art Basel installation really is not a coincidence in a global sense.

By the way, intethe is Xhosa for locust.

“intethe (Sketch for an Opera)” runs through Dec. 21, with another performance on Dec. 5 from 7-10 p.m. for Art Basel, at Locust Projects, 3852 N. Miami Ave., Miami; locustprojects.org. Nicholas Hlobo brings his leather creatures to Locust.