Artists
Bopape, Dineo Seshee
(Nder brick) --- in process (Harmonic Conversions), 2020
(c) Dineo Seshee Bopape & Steir-Semler Gallery Beirut/Hamburg
Dineo Seshee Bopape’s wide-ranging practice engages sociopolitical notions of memory, from the personal to the collective, the known and unknown, narrative and representation as interconnected forms. It addresses complex issues around memory and domination of land and body in relation to the lived experiences of African people, as well as beauty. Her work uses a variety of carefully selected, everyday, elemental materials such as earth, brick, and wood, as well as found objects and archival images, video, and sound, to develop dense and powerful installations. Their material and symbolic properties often enter into dialogue with notions of politics, aesthetics, the metaphysics of I/thing/mind and relationality, sovereignty, presence, home, land and waters, language, song, and memory.
In her installation, she materially and conceptually connects local histories of different places. She articulates the resilience of (especially) the African diaspora and their capacity for self-healing as well as the power they have long had to resist, 'traverse,’ and liberate themselves from the violence of the capitalist-patriarchal matrix of white supremacy. Their kaleidoscopic works are both immersive and elusive. It is impressive how Bopape manages to create a very personal, intimate body of work.
In her most recent works, she is preoccupied with the question of what symbols, narratives, and memories are hidden in the earth’s soil: Land as a material carrier of memories and history, of life and death. Beyond its pure materiality, the soil reveals various processes of cultivation, changing claims of ownership and geological resources.
Text: Nikola Hartl; englische Übersetzung: Johanna Schindler
Dineo Seshee Bopape’s wide-ranging practice engages sociopolitical notions of memory, from the personal to the collective, the known and unknown, narrative and representation as interconnected forms. It addresses complex issues around memory and domination of land and body in relation to the lived experiences of African people, as well as beauty. Her work uses a variety of carefully selected, everyday, elemental materials such as earth, brick, and wood, as well as found objects and archival images, video, and sound, to develop dense and powerful installations. Their material and symbolic properties often enter into dialogue with notions of politics, aesthetics, the metaphysics of I/thing/mind and relationality, sovereignty, presence, home, land and waters, language, song, and memory.
In her installation, she materially and conceptually connects local histories of different places. She articulates the resilience of (especially) the African diaspora and their capacity for self-healing as well as the power they have long had to resist, 'traverse,’ and liberate themselves from the violence of the capitalist-patriarchal matrix of white supremacy. Their kaleidoscopic works are both immersive and elusive. It is impressive how Bopape manages to create a very personal, intimate body of work.
In her most recent works, she is preoccupied with the question of what symbols, narratives, and memories are hidden in the earth’s soil: Land as a material carrier of memories and history, of life and death. Beyond its pure materiality, the soil reveals various processes of cultivation, changing claims of ownership and geological resources.
Text: Nikola Hartl; englische Übersetzung: Johanna Schindler