Things That Are My Own: Balekane Legoabe’s Exploration of Nature and Identity

Balekane Legoabe’s work explores the relationship between nature, spirituality, and identity by interrogating personal and collective histories. She is interested in how the human experience mirrors the processes of nature and vice versa. Seasons, cycles, birth, death, growth, decline, resilience, change, resistance, and expansion—all of these phenomena are markers of the human experience, and we also see them, in one way or another, affecting plants, animals, the elements, and the cosmos.

 

 

Her artistic vision is enriched by a diverse array of influences, including ancient rock art and cave paintings, as well as mythology from African, Eastern, and Western traditions. Legoabe's approach incorporates aspects of language, metaphor, ritual, and family. Driven by personal interpretations and explorations of African and Eastern healing practices, she weaves together eclectic philosophical and religious systems to inform her creative process.

 

Legoabe holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Communication, specializing in illustration, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Arts, specializing in motion design, both from the Open Window Institute. The artist has taken part in several group exhibitions and art fairs around South Africa and was the prize winner of the 2019 StateoftheART Gallery Award for Emerging Artists. Legoabe’s work can be found in collections such as the William Humphreys Gallery in Kimberley, South Africa, and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany.

 

‘Things That Are My Own’ is the artist’s debut solo exhibition in Cape Town.

 

Artist bio supplied by EBONY/CURATED.