South African artist Lesego Seoketsa inspired by her roots

DW (English)

Emerging South African artist Lesego Seoketsa, a skilled painter and fashion designer, is making headlines because her work speaks to her roots and the lives of Black women in the post-apartheid era.

Transcript

00:00Why, for this young designer, is fashion not possible without art?

00:09And what does her work have to do with freedom, feminism and identity?

00:14We're in this new world, freedom, democracy, but our bodies are still remembering things

00:22that happened like just two generations ago, it's not even ten, like you're literally

00:28your grandmother who's still alive.

00:29They lived through this and we carry their DNA in us and their trauma, even their strength

00:34and resilience.

00:36So I think just navigating that in modern times as an African, there's a lot to work

00:43with.

00:44Multi-talented 29-year-old Lise Jose Oketza started her creative journey as a visual artist.

00:51But we'll get back to her art later.

00:53First, let's explore her recent and very first clothing collection that aims to create

00:58a dialogue between past and present while celebrating the rich narratives of her lineage.

01:05So my latest capsule collection is called Gwapikoli.

01:09So my mom is from a small town called Perdi in the Eastern Cape, and she lives in like

01:15a section called Gwapikoli.

01:17So every time I go there, I don't know, I feel a sense of belonging because in a sense,

01:23that's where I come from.

01:24My mom tells me that all her great-grandfathers, they were buried there.

01:28So I feel like it's a site of information for me, like where I come from.

01:34And more importantly, I want to pay homage to my mother's side and to recognize her people.

01:40So me titling this collection Gwapikoli is me acknowledging her role in who I am.

01:50Nseho's Gwapikoli collection draws inspiration from the natural surroundings of her maternal home.

01:57How did she translate this onto the garments?

02:01It's very dry, very rocky, there's mountains and everything.

02:06It has these brown earthy colors that remind me of the desert vibe.

02:11Also like the sunsets, you know, even the silhouettes, I cut out asymmetric forms because

02:18I don't believe, I don't think symmetry is the ideal of beauty, personally.

02:26I think harmony, you know, things can be asymmetrical, but if they balance each other out, I think

02:32there's so much beauty in that kind of imperfection.

02:36So I took inspiration from the landscape and implemented it on the fabric.

02:41So I used traditional Xhosa fabric, Mpago, and then I dyed it, hand dyed it.

02:47Leseho has even spiced up fashion icons like Adidas sneakers with hand-dyed laces.

02:53She uses traditional craftsmanship to find creative and sustainable alternatives in design

02:58and art.

03:00So my work is centered around figuring out how to deconstruct her identity in order to

03:05reconstruct it.

03:09For Leseho the artist, why is it important for her to reconstruct her identity and how

03:14does she do this?

03:17I look at themes of religion, being a girl growing in religion, especially like Christianity

03:25and the beauty and the pain of Christianity.

03:29One of the paintings that I'm working on right now is part of an ongoing series called Amakletu.

03:34And Amakletu is a Zulu word meaning earrings.

03:38So when I was a child, I wasn't allowed to wear earrings or wear makeup or just to like

03:43be a girl in that sense.

03:46I wasn't allowed, I think, because of the religion at that time, you know, in my family.

03:51But, you know, as I've grown up, I realized how much I wanted to do that.

03:56And I think this is the time for me to express that through this series that I'm working on.

04:02It's so fun because I always put these like exaggerated earrings on these figures and

04:08I always make their hair red, you know, it's kind of like I make it so expressive and not

04:14necessarily like a normal like black hair or woman.

04:19I always make it very fun, like just to feel that feeling that I didn't feel as a child.

04:25Yeah. And being a black girl who grew up in the township and then you go to a private

04:29school, then you just switching those identities because sometimes you go back home, you go

04:35to your grandmother in the township and the way you relate to the people there compared

04:40to how you relate to the people when you go to your private school, it's like it's two

04:45contrasting worlds and it creates different personalities from yourself.

04:50And I try to understand that and how to separate and protect myself from the performative self,

05:00you know.

05:02This personal view of the lives of black women in post-apartheid everyday life makes Lisege's

05:07work unique.

05:08But how did she get into art in the first place?

05:10Whilst I was in fashion school, I think that's where my love for art developed because there

05:15was like a module called Fashion Theory where we looked at images and broke them down and

05:21we found meaning.

05:22I think for me, that's what art is, it's like creating meaning out of images, out of your

05:28life.

05:29And so from that module, I started creating visuals, I started sketching, I started doing

05:34photography.

05:35And I think that's where art started, like my love for art developed from there.

05:40I guess it started from fashion.

05:42I think fashion feeds art and art feeds fashion.

05:46I don't think the two can exist without each other and that's how I moved between the two.

05:51Sometimes I feel more called to be a designer and other times I feel more drawn to be an

05:56artist.

05:57So there's a fluidity between the two mediums because I believe they speak to each other.

06:03As a designer and artist, Lee Se-ho has found her very own visual language that makes her

06:08stand out.

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