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
The artist and her works in her studio in Nice, France
Nthabiseng Boledi Kekana South African, b. 1999
The bud slowly opens, 2023
Oil on canvas
100 cm x 100 cm
3500 €
3500 €
Series: Di thapelo tsa Barapedi
Signed and dated 2023 verso
copyright all to the artist
Further images
This piece symbolises my state in the first quarter of the residency. The foetal position depicts the vulnerability and nakedness that comes with growing in new soil. I had to adjust to new people and learn to communicate even when I feared being misunderstood.’
I remember the first day I arrived I had said to sis Nomaza that this body of work will be titled 'Their prayers carry us'/ 'Their prayers I carry', because I remember I was in awe of everything that was happening for I Nthabiseng Boledi Ramatsemela Kekana would be where I was ( Nice the South of France). This body of work is an ode to all those who came before me, who sung and prayed for a better life than the one they lived. I am paying homage to my namesake my late great-grandmother Ramatsemela for her spirit lives on within me and this body of work is also a thanksgiving to my mother Stella Kekana the hardest working woman I know and a thanksgiving to the gift of life. It is the prayers of our Grandmothers and Grandfathers that carry us daily. To be the first in my family to experience this opportunity has been a priviledge for it has awoken a lot of dreamers who are to come. Each and every piece that made up this body was a prayer and a thanksgiving. This residency cultivated a new window in my life.