Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, silkscreen… What do these unusual printing techniques bring to your work?
I started working in silkscreen and van dyke brown before moving onto cyanotypes because I was interested in using photographic printmaking techniques. I chose cyanotypes specifically because I knew that I would not be limited as much as I would with other techniques. Cyanotypes allow me to achieve the kind of imagery I envisioned and the visual presence my practice entails.
You transform photographs using various techniques, should this be regarded as reappropriation?
I use photography as a medium that informs my cyanotypes. I believe strongly in creating my own composition and source material. So, photography allows me to document and curate my composition. The digital photographs are manipulated through the process of cyanotype printing because it enables me to achieve the ‘archaic’ photos without limitations. One may observe and perceive it as reappropriation…
Your body of work is focused on the representation of black women within photography, how is it different from other mediums?
It is different from other mediums because its visual representation instigates the space and time of black women representation subjected to the colonial gaze.
Can you tell us more about this colonial gaze?
Its predominance is seen in the urgency of creating a new narrative for the black female body within photography. The aim is to deconstruct and interrogate the colonial gaze and its structures that have influenced the way black women are perceived globally. So having a black woman in my composition, subverting the colonial gaze and using a photographic medium is what my practice entails.
Do you believe in the female gaze?
Yes, I believe in the female gaze. Moreover, how it holds so much power in ownership of the female narrative.
As a black woman artist, how have your gender and ethnicity influenced and shaped your career?
It has shaped my career predominantly. I have always been aware of my surroundings, how the male counterpart sees me and how other races perceive me. It is through my encounters that I knew I had to elevate my being and reveal a different perspective to who I am as a black woman artist.
What thinkers and artists have inspired you? Are there any women photographers among them?
I would say the thinker who has inspired me is first and foremost, my late mother. It is now that I get to understand her purpose a lot more and how much she has influenced my vision and wisdom. Then, I would say Bell Hooks, Susan Sontag, Okwui Enwezor, Sizwe Khoza, Andile Bhala, Neo Diseko, Richard ‘Specs’ Ndimande, Lindokuhle Zwane, Lebogang Tlhako, Lebohang Kganye, Ayana V Jackson, Wangechi Mutu, Deborah Bell, the list is endless…
