My body of work draws on links between, cleansing, healing, dislocation, and relocation. My paintings are an attempt to trace and understanding my lineage as a Mosotho woman born, raised, and still living in KwaZulu-Natal. I bring together an assortment of cultural references, including but not limited to my own Sesotho modality.
The stylized, flat disjointed looking figures of women from my dreamscapes infuse popular culture and symbols that explore notions of esoteric knowledge. My figures have flat exaggerated body proportions surrounded by vivid colors. I predominantly create these characters based on the women in my family. These women are not depicted as luscious beautiful for the male gaze, they are something spiritual, fierce, and capturing emotion over any sense of realism. Neither realism nor perspective is important but the objective is the way they carry themselves in their truest spiritual form in my dreamscapes Red clay/imbovu is used for spiritual and physical purification. In Nguni culture, it is used by both men and women in a traditional ceremony aimed at connecting with ancestors. My late grandmother had a spiritual gift of healing through prayer and my mother has a gift of premonitions through dreams and prayer. My two sisters and I are currently going through a cleansing ceremony and anointing ( lack of a better English term) of us accepting our spiritual paths in Nguni it is a ceremony that happens after a dream or premonition.
Painting from dreams is like summoning feelings and reliving these scenarios in my subconscious mind while creating an engagement with the scene. these figures become alive with an ancestral present as if they are negotiating their relationship with the environment. This is my attempt to regain the power of healing through my work I continue to refine my technique and find new ways to document and open conversations about our African spirituality within our social structures in my work.
I enjoy bringing life to the canvas with vibrant colors to mask the intensity of my subject matter and finding new ways to make people re-discover their perception of African spirituality.
Selloane Moeti, a painter and performer from KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, has garnered recognition for her artistry, winning awards such as the 2018 KZN Young Achiever Award. She founded Sketchin, a platform nurturing young artists in Durban. Moeti also serves as Art Director for the Rural Youth Development Foundation SA. And her work included at the Prizm Art Fair22 in Miami. In 2023, her participation in a trio show at the Latitute Art Fair and a transcendent performance at KZNSA showcased her evolving artistic vision and commitment to social impact.
