Katlego Phetlhe
Ba Fine Art
Michaelis School of Fine Art
Graduates: 2022
Specialisms: Photography / Film / Writing for the Arts
My location: Cape Town, South Africa
Katlego Phetlhe
First Name: Katlego
Last Name: Phetlhe
University / College: Michaelis School of Fine Art
Course / Program: Ba Fine Art
Graduates: 2022
Specialisms: Photography / Film / Writing for the Arts
My Location: Cape Town, South Africa
About:
Katlego Phetlhe is a South African, multi-disciplinary artist. They are primarily concerned with rest, pleasure, and the erotic as immediate entrances into personal and communal liberation. Their latest work finds the roots of these concerns within their expressions of multiple self-hood and their personal family history. Their work is also significantly inspired by the imaginative and restorative practice of studio photography on our continent.
My long-exposure photographs are the product of grappling with my own existence historically; as a dream or wish, as an idea, a plan, a manifestation through the people who have collectively birthed me. These prints are the record of performances that ask for periods of silence, concentration, physical stillness, timing, counting and tight planning. In between each exposure, I change clothing and props in the dark, quietly, to not wake the sleeping before illuminating the space again as I take the place of another imagined figure. Both my video and photographic work are an archive exploring self-theology and strategies for self-care via my imagination which are expressed through visual media. Through recordings of patience and presence, I am giving time and attention to myself as an expression of love. The work is motivated and explored through themes of re-sensitising myself to my body and my time in efforts to re-connect with feelings of self-compassion and embodiment. I am also exploring my agency in matters of everyday liberation and self-determination.
