Africa-Press – Botswana. The making of any good visual artist is in their ability to make sense from anything that might not make sense to others, and make good creation out of it.
And the description fits exactly into the story of how 37-year-old Kelebogile Marope fell in love with fine arts. Her articulacy was born out of nostalgia. As they often say, the absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Marope’s art pieces can be difficult to understand and fascinating at the same time to any layman. Most of her artwork reflects uniquely nostalgic aesthetics that brings forth original ideas and a recreation of the home objects.
In an interview with Arts & Culture, the Ramotswa-born artist explained that she is fond of conceptual art. “I’m looking at the idea of recreating the domestic space or everyday life, something of the familiar things that we overlook but happens in the domestic space and our everyday life. It started way back in school and I fell for it,” said Marope.
She stated that the idea of becoming a conceptual artist appeared to her a long time back during her boarding school days in Kimberly, South Africa. “I would come home for the holiday, and would feel that everything around me was strange. The moment I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, it felt strange to lean over the basin because my body was accustomed to the basins at the boarding school,” she said, further explaining that it was at that moment that she started to imagine another world.
So after that experience something came to me, and I think that was the journey of realising the other life of objects around, in sculpture. I thought I’ll just draw, but nope, I wanted to understand the life of objects, the things we buy, and the products around us. How do they become familiar to us? And the whole idea of my artistry came from that idea of nostalgia and strangeness,” she said.
Although it may sound a bit weird to others, Marope said for her she is mostly fascinated by the art of communicating with objects. She said her art is also about inviting the viewer into the world of not easily ignoring the objects around them. “By changing from metal and carving it into wood, something weird happens in that process and understand the properties of the object.
I want to invite the world into this idea of if we easily ignore the things that are around us on a daily basis, how much do we ignore the important things like the emotions that go in between intimate spaces; the relationship between parents and children.
It is more of trying to have a conversation with the viewer,” she said. Marope said she plans to mount her own solo exhibition in the near future, which she believes would give her artistry the necessary exposure. While the recent art exhibition at Thapong Visual Arts Centre dubbed Open Spaces, which she co-hosted with three other artists, did not produce much in terms of sales of art pieces, her biggest achievement was being able to get students who came to view the exhibition understand her work and concepts. “It was like gold,” she said.
She said Botswana’s art sector is still at grassroots level but has potential to reach greater heights. She indicated in some instances artists find appreciation hard to come by, even from the closest people such as family. For her, it took many years to convince her family that she wants to become a visual artist. She would later on earn her Masters Degree in Fine Arts (majoring in Sculpture), of course after receiving her family’s blessings. Currently, Marope says she has been juggling between doing her art calling and temporary teaching at the University of Botswana (UB).
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