How do you describe your own art practice?
I’m a multimedia artist currently focused on photography. In my work, I use a variety of photographic styles such as documentary, portraiture, photomontage and miniature tableaux.
Which question or theme is central in your work?
I’m interested in exploring and examining familial, social, and geopolitical histories in South Africa and Botswana.
What was your first experience with art?
Watching cartoons and anime as a child. In my teenage years, my art teacher, Mr. Jobson, exposed me to artists such as Meleko Mokgosi, David Goldblatt and Jane Alexander. The first time I can say I saw a large contemporary art exhibition was in my first year of university in Cape Town, which was a Zander Blom exhibition.
What is your greatest source of inspiration?
I watch a lot of anime. Some of the greatest stories and art storyboards come from anime. Music also informs my practice a lot, trying to put my own artwork side by side with certain songs and also naming my artwork after music.
What do you need in order to create your work?
At the present moment, a digital camera, tripod, disposable film camera, external flash and laptop.
What work or artist has most recently surprised you?
Just yesterday (February 27, 2024), I saw Zico Albaiquni’s painting “Ruwatan Tanah Air Beta, Reciting Rites in its Site” for the first time at Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam. Although his painting is about the historical Dutch traces in the Botanical Garden in Bogor, Indonesia, it reminded me so much of the Company Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa. The scale of the painting transported me to that place in my memory and made me conscious of the similarity of the Dutch colonial projects in South Africa and Indonesia, which I had not been aware of before.
