Ke LEFA LAKA : HER-STORY

  • Dates
    2012 - 2013
  • Author
  • Topics Portrait, Daily Life, Fine Art
  • Location Johannesburg, South Africa

Eight years ago I lost my mother and I needed to explore the possibility of keeping a connection with her. In my journey I began looking for pieces of my mother in the house, I found many photos and clothes which had always been there but which I had ignored over the years.

The idea of ‘the ghost’ started to emerge in my work. Like a presence that isn’t, of which Roland Barthes speaks about in his book ‘Camera Lucida’ in which he explores “various photographs from his family album as he searches for a likeness that can begin to represent his feelings for and memory of his mother, who had recently died”. (Barthes, 1981, 96)

My reconnection with her became a visual manipulation of ‘her-our’ histories. I began inserting myself into her pictorial narrative by emulating these snaps of her from my family album. I would dress in the exact clothes that she was wearing in these thirty-year-old photographs and mimic the same poses. This was my way of marrying the two memories (mine and of my mother). I later developed digital photomontages where I juxtaposed old photographs of my mother retrieved from the family archives with photographs of a ‘present version of her’ - me, to reconstruct a new story and a commonality – she is me, I am her and there remains in this commonality so much difference, and so much distance in space and time. I realised that I was scared that I was beginning to forget what my mother looked like, what she sounded like, and her defining gestures. The photomontages became a substitute for the paucity of memory, a forged identification and imagined conversation.

© Lebohang Kganye - Habo Patience ka bokhathe II
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Habo Patience ka bokhathe II

© Lebohang Kganye - Kwana Germiston bosiu I
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Kwana Germiston bosiu I

© Lebohang Kganye - Ngwana o tshwana le dinaledi I
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Ngwana o tshwana le dinaledi I

© Lebohang Kganye - Sefateng khoneng I
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Sefateng khoneng I

© Lebohang Kganye - Ka mose wa malomo kwana 44 II
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Ka mose wa malomo kwana 44 II

© Lebohang Kganye - 3-phisi yaka ya letlalo II
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3-phisi yaka ya letlalo II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ke tsamaya masiu II
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Ke tsamaya masiu II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ke eme ka diaparo tsa sekolo II
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Ke eme ka diaparo tsa sekolo II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ka 2-phisi yaka e pinky II
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Ka 2-phisi yaka e pinky II

© Lebohang Kganye - Kwana borayeng Phadima II
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Kwana borayeng Phadima II

© Lebohang Kganye - Jwang ba hae I
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Jwang ba hae I

© Lebohang Kganye - Moketeng wa letsatsi la tswalo la motswalle II
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Moketeng wa letsatsi la tswalo la motswalle II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ke monahano ke ntse ke le pating II
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Ke monahano ke ntse ke le pating II

© Lebohang Kganye - Moketeng wa letsatsi la tswalo la ho qala la moradi waka II
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Moketeng wa letsatsi la tswalo la ho qala la moradi waka II

© Lebohang Kganye - Re tantshetsa phaposing ya sekolo II
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Re tantshetsa phaposing ya sekolo II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ke dutse pela dipalesa II
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Ke dutse pela dipalesa II

© Lebohang Kganye - Tshimong ka hara toropo II
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Tshimong ka hara toropo II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ke le motle ka bulumase le bodisi II
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Ke le motle ka bulumase le bodisi II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ke bapala seyalemoya bosiu ka naeterese II
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Ke bapala seyalemoya bosiu ka naeterese II

© Lebohang Kganye - Re intshitse mosebetsing II
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Re intshitse mosebetsing II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ke bala buka ke apere naeterese II
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Ke bala buka ke apere naeterese II

© Lebohang Kganye - Re shapa setepe sa lenyalo II
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Re shapa setepe sa lenyalo II

© Lebohang Kganye - Setshwantso le ngwanaka II
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Setshwantso le ngwanaka II

© Lebohang Kganye - Ke bapala seyalemoya bosiu ka naeterese I
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Ke bapala seyalemoya bosiu ka naeterese I

© Lebohang Kganye - Setupung sa kwana hae II
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Setupung sa kwana hae II

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