ARTIST PRACTICE

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My work throughout last year focused around two topics; The Matriarchy and Coloured Identity. Two concepts I feel very strongly about. However, I never imagined the depths of which these two concepts dwell in.

At first, I treated the two titles as different subjects. I dove into intensive research about each subject in order to learn more, understand more and then try and unpack my ideas and perceptions in conjunction with my research. I was attempting to make sense of it all.

My research about the matriarchy leads me to different avenues in the ancestral space. I was reading about different Goddess’s, women of power, a time where women ruled and a point where women were demonized along with the attempt to abolish the sacred feminine. I was attempting to track the timeline of the evolution of the perception of women from ancient times into today’s times. I asked the question – “at what point did man decide to betray women?” All this however was to ultimately unpack the way we live as women in today’s society – living as part of ‘the other’. This includes fighting for our rights, Gender Based Violence & Rape culture and how we as modern women choose to break conventions and rebel against societal standards.

My research about Coloured identity took a similar path. I found myself unsatisfied with academic literature and the lack of information surrounding the south African coloured identity. So, I ventured into the minds of coloured people themselves.  I started collecting variations of oral history – letters, pictures, stories, art, conversations. This subject in particular gave me a lot of mental strain as I realized I myself don’t know much of my own identity yet I know what I feel and I understand what I have experienced as a coloured woman.

Both of these titles, came with many subheadings that I had attempted to unpack and understand and both subjects I am extremely passionate about. Overtime I started to find links between the two, such as; integrational trauma, the womb, politics of stereotyping etc.

After almost drowning in information, I decided to create an archive. My initial intention was to create a cocoon. You can also think of the cocoon as a womb, the information manifested as artworks as a fetus, as a birth.

These works were very personal for me, but I stick to the ideology that personal is political.

My research is never ending. What I hope to do is build on what I have already done and create more elements of a timeline and the archival space.

In essence I am excited to continue on this journey as I am also finding myself within it. I am excited to lose control and be an artist.