Art Blog

Animated film by Lebohang Kganye wins Sasol New Signatures 2017

Johannesburg-based artist, Lebohang Kganye won the coveted 2017 Sasol New Signatures award for her animated film Ke sale teng (I'm still here). Created using cutouts of family members and other props in a diorama, the film explores how photo albums contain a fixed but constructed account of the family structure.

"Sometimes we rely on the family photo album as a way to understand what family is meant to be," said Kganye. "What we often land up with is a grouping of images that have been constructed, and perhaps do not account at all for the histories and memories that are connected to that album."

Kganye explores our feeble ability to recall memories from our past often creating conflicting stories, combining memory with fantasy. As the winner of Sasol New Signatures, Kganye walks away with a cash prize of R100 000 and the opportunity to have a solo exhibition in 2018 at the Pretoria Art Museum.

The runner up Sthenjwa Luthuli's work, Umbango, also explores family through traditional Zulu rituals and customs where an individual must claim his identity from their father's side through sacrifice. Luthuli's contemporary use of colour tinted wood cut blocks and printing was commended by the judges and described as 'Cecil Skotnes meet Azaria Mbatha meets Roy Lichtenstein's ben-day dots'.

The five Merit Award winners are: Francke Gretchen Crots for Doctor Crots's f____d up anatomy; Goitseone Botlhale Moerane for Mosadi o tswara thipa ka bogaleng; Carol Anne Preston for Cocoon; Emily Harriet Blbring Robertson for Emergency procedure for dinner with family and In case of surprise visit from parents; and Cara-Jo Tredoux for Wandering. Each Merit Award winner received a R10 000 cash prize.

The Top 100 artworks are on exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum alongside 2016 Sasol New Signatures winner Zyma Amien's solo exhibition, "Real" lives and "Ordinary" objects from 31 August until 8 October 2017.

For more information visit the Sasol New Signature website.