Changing Facets

27/11/2025

27/11/2025

Title: The Sacrifice

The Sacrifice merges Zulu and Wolof traditions to explore devotion and continuity within African craft. The bronze bust recalls ancestral presence, while the silver cow skull pendant signifies wealth and offering in Zulu culture. Filigree details (drawn from Senegal’s Wolof metalworking traditions) intertwine with symbolic forms of adornment, creating a dialogue across regions and generations. The red thread represents life force and bloodline, binding body and ornament in shared sacrifice. Through handmaking, the work speaks to the endurance of indigenous artisanship and the transformative act of crafting identity from material memory

25/11/2025

King Sekhukhune I is remembered as one of the most formidable leaders of the Bapedi, known for resisting Boer and British invasions in the nineteenth century.
His leadership during the Sekhukhune Wars became a powerful symbol of Pedi resistance, land protection and the long struggle against colonial dispossession.

This text honours his legacy as a central figure in the resilience and identity of the Pedi nation.

25/11/2025

King Sekhukhune Textile, 2024
Springbok hide, glass beads, cotton twill, image transfer, watercolour paint and charcoal, 1 meter x 1 meter

This textile work reimagines King Sekhukhune I through materials that echo Pedi identity and sovereignty.
The use of springbok hide gestures to traditional attire and protective regalia, while the densely beaded surface draws attention to the weight of his leadership, the battles fought and the enduring strength associated with his name.
Through texture, hide and handwork, the piece reflects Sekhukhune’s presence as a figure of resistance and a symbol of Bapedi determination to defend their land and autonomy.

24/11/2025

King Moshoeshoe I is remembered as the founder of the Basotho nation, whose legacy extends across both Lesotho and South Africa.
His leadership shaped ideas of land, unity and resistance during a time of colonial pressure and shifting borders.

This text honours his role in building a shared Basotho identity that continues to live through language, culture and memory across imposed national boundaries.

24/11/2025

King Moshoeshoe I Textile, 2024
Embroidery thread, glass beads, cotton twill, watercolour paint and charcoal, 1 meter x 1 meter

This textile work centres King Moshoeshoe I as a figure who remains clearly recognised within Basotho history, while the beaded faces of surrounding figures speak to identities that have become fragmented, shifted, or forgotten over time.
The contrast between the unaltered central image and the obscured faces becomes a visual language for memory, loss and selective historical remembrance.
Through this interplay, the work reflects how Moshoeshoe’s presence endures as a point of anchoring within Basotho identity, while many other lives remain obscured, unnamed and unresolved.

21/11/2025

The Tswana people are made up of interconnected but independent chiefdoms, rather than a single unified kingdom.
King Sechele I of the Bakwena emerges as a key figure whose leadership shaped Tswana responses to colonial pressure, religious change and political adaptation.

This text reflects the complexity of Tswana identity, where leadership existed across multiple lineages rather than within one singular kingship.

21/11/2025

King Sechele I Textile, 2024
Cream white knitted scarf, glass beads, shweshwe fabric, image transfer, cotton twill, coffee stain, watercolour paint and charcoal, 1 meter x 1 meter

This artwork reflects the layered identity of King Sechele I, whose historical image often shows him in Western dress rather than Tswana traditional attire.
Beading, stitching and the use of shweshwe fabric introduce colours widely associated with Tswana cultural dress, bringing forward visual markers that communities have come to recognise and embrace as expressions of Tswana identity.
Through these materials, the work celebrates Tswana culture by reconnecting adopted visual symbols with ancestral presence, honouring both change and continuity within Tswana heritage.