Senzeni Marasela
Marasela in 2019
Born(1977-02-11)11 February 1977
Thokoza, South Africa
EducationUniversity of the Witwatersrand
Occupation(s)artist, author
Years active1997–present
Notable workIjermani Lam (2013-2019)

Senzeni Marasela (born 11 February 1977) is a South African visual artist born in Thokoza who works across different media, combining performance, photography, video, prints, textiles, and embroidery in mixed-media installations. She obtained a BA in Fine Arts at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1998.

Her work has been exhibited in South Africa, Europe, and the United States, and is part of local and international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Newark Museum.[1][2][3][4][5]

Education

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Senzeni Marasela attended Jonimfundo, a school, in Vosloorus, where she matriculated in 1994. After a one-day trip to the University of the Witwatersrand in 1992, she decided to enroll there. She developed her multimedia and performative practice at the Wits School of Arts, graduating in 1998.[6]

Career

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Marasela's work has been regularly shown since the Martienssen Prize Exhibition in 1997. She was accepted as an exhibiting artist by the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg after being part of the group exhibition, Not Quite a Christmas Exhibition. She had her first solo exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery's Fresh exhibition series in 2000, which was part of a residency program. In 2003, she started a long-term performance entitled Theodorah comes to Johannesburg, which is based on stories her mother told about her 11-hour travel from Mvenyane to Johannesburg.[7]

In 2011, Marasela began work as a full-time artist and was part of the Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.[8]

Work

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Marasela's mother's collection of doilies and Victorian lace works, handed down in her family, influenced her artistic practice. Marasela's work explores the experiences of Black, South African women across a range of media. This includes photography, video, prints, and mixed-media installations that involve textiles and embroidery. In her work, she translates memories of struggle and urbanization through the use of material culture and narratives. For example, the use of the color red refers to cultural memories around the time of the "red dust," a period of drought in the early 1930s in South Africa. Her performances interweave these elements and multi-media works, making visible the dimension of the every day[9] through objects and clothes.[10]

She is known for her six-year performance work Ijermani Lam [11]which "materializes the condition of waiting"[12] by wearing the same red dress every day from 1 October 2013 to 1 October 2019. The original dresses were part of the group the exhibition, "Made Visible. Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (February–May 2019).[13] Her work taps into cultural memories, such as using archival materials like newspapers and photographs printed onto colonial textiles. It tells stories of black women in South Africa, such as Sarah Baartman and Marasela's mother, Theodorah Mpofukazi Marasela, through series such as Covering Sarah Baartman (2011), Sarah, Senzeni and Theodorah come to Joburg (2011), Theodorah, (2005),[14] Waiting for Gebane (2017), Izithombe Zendawo Esizithandayo (2017). Marasela's artwork builds an "intimate archive",[15] giving voice to experiences of black women.

Exhibitions

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This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately.Find sources: "Senzeni Marasela" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
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Group exhibitions

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Biennales

[edit]
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately.Find sources: "Senzeni Marasela" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

References

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  1. ^ Clarke, Christa (2017). Hodgson, D. (ed.). Art, Identity, nationality and Autobiography. Senzeni Marasela and Lalla Essaydi. Oklahoma: University of California Press. pp. 221–236. ISBN 9780520287365.
  2. ^ Hudson, Heidi (2015). de Jesus, Angela (ed.). Representations of Otherness and Resistance in Africa. Bloemfontein: Johannes Stegman Art Gallery. pp. 4–14. ISBN 978-0-86886-830-1.
  3. ^ Crawshay-Hall, Jayne (2013). Trans-Africa. Africa curating Africa. Johannesburg: Absa Art Gallery. pp. 14–15, 52–53.
  4. ^ Gordon-Chipembere, Natasha (2011). Gordon-Chipembere, Natasha (ed.). Under Cuvier's Microscope: The Dissection of Michelle Obama in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 165–180. ISBN 9780230117792.
  5. ^ Richards, Colin (2004). Perryer, Sophie (ed.). 10 Years 100 Artists. Art in a democratic South Africa. Cape Town: Bell-Roberts. pp. 230–233. ISBN 9781868729876.
  6. ^ Marasela, Senzeni (26 April 2018). "Creative dialogue with Senzeni Marasela". Art on our Mind (Interview). Interviewed by Dr Sharlene Khan. Grahamstown/Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa: Art on our Mind. 00:04:05-00:04:51.
  7. ^ Kouoh, Koyo. "Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela". artreview.com. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  8. ^ Das, Jareh (7 April 2021). "Senzeni Marasela: 'My work is rooted in Johannesburg'". Ocula. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  9. ^ Ndebele, Njabulo S. (1984). "Turkish Tales". Staffrider. 6 (1): 24–48 – via South African History Online.
  10. ^ Marasela, Senzeni (26 April 2018). "Creative dialogue with Senzeni Marasela". Art on our Mind (Interview). Interviewed by Dr Sharlene Khan. Grahamstown/Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa: Art on our Mind. 00:18:25.
  11. ^ "2021 - Witsies with the art edge - Wits University". www.wits.ac.za. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  12. ^ Mwaura, Denis (7 June 2019). "South African Fashion and Identity". AFRICANAH.ORG. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  13. ^ "Made Visible". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  14. ^ "Senzeni Marasela | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  15. ^ Bystrom, Kerry; Nuttall, Sarah (2013). "Private lives and public cultures in South Africa". Cultural Studies. 27 (3): 307–332. doi:10.1080/09502386.2013.777295.
  16. ^ "A R T T H R O B _ R E V I E W S _ G A U T E N G". artthrob.co.za. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
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