“Tell Tale” explores narratives about the life and work of artist Helen Martins, who lived and worked in the rural village of Nieu Bethesda in Karoo, South Africa, transforming her own home, over more than three decades, into a fantastic world, a unique work, “The Owe House”, with more than 300 animal sculptures. In his research Kganye welcomes different sources and “places of speech”. It is inspired both by passages in South African dramaturgy and literature that address Martins’ life – ‘The Train Driver’ and ‘Road to Mecca’, by renowned playwright Athol Fugard, as well as’ Maverick ‘by Lauren Beukes and Nechama Brodie – as well as oral narratives, collected from the residents of Nieu Bethesda, where the artist lived and built her work. Kganye goes back to these stories in miniature scenic structures, composed of layers of figures in silhouette, cut out by hand, where each scene is accompanied by a phrase that evokes an event in Martins’ life. Narratives that date from the 40s until today, bringing fictionalization, experience, memory closer together, figuring the bonds that unite the inhabitants of the region to their collective truths, fictions and mythologies.
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África do Sul