Seipone

My performances deal with absence and presence. They trace the absence of the presence, along the question where is here. The performances become an exercise in locating my self within space and in particular referencing the white cube. Which represents in this context a convoluted space of my upbringing.
An additional and intrinsic element to my work is the titling of it, mainly in Setswana (my mother tongue). The titling plays on the politics of inclusion and exclusion. The use of Setswana deliberately excludes an audience that is included (in the white cube culture) and vs. includes an audience that is excluded from it. 

Seipone is a performance that is 24 hours long in total 3 times 8 hours of performance and 3 times 8 hours of rest over a period of 48 hours. 

The first phase consists of writing a biography on the wall for four hours straight. That time is concentrated only on writing. The journal ends when the four hours are complete. After an hour’s break the next four hours are spent erasing what was written. The rubbing out takes place word for word line by line. That which was recorded four hours before gets removed as it is being read. The process of elimination is a struggle in that one can never fully erase what was transcribed. Traces of what was written get left behind. An attempt at expunging a biography becomes an exercise in vanity. 

The second phase of performance continues the process of memoir writing. Using the lines created on the first day the personal journal continues. The next four hours consists of writing over what was erased. Followed by an hour’s pause, only to erase it again.
The third phase of performance is a repeat of the first and second phase. 

At the end of the performance the one foot high plinth that has been collecting all the erasure and pencil rabble tells the story of the 24 hours of performance. The narration is then two fold, in the remains of the strained wall and the evidence of that labour being collected on the plinth. 

Performance, July 28–30 2012, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg


Text: Lerato Shadi, Berlin/Johannesburg, 2012
Photographer: Erik Dettwiler, Berlin/Zurich, 2012 

FEATURED THEME ON CITY SHARING

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