Part of the Project
In an effort to solidify photographic imagery in material form, South African visual artist Mohau Modisakeng cast his own likeness in resin and bronze. It forms part of a larger travelling exhibition known as Lefa La Ntate.
It was the unsettling attention to detail in the artwork that caught the eye of musician Nakhane Toure: the facial texture, expression and life-like form of the bronze figure that moved Toure. As he puts it, “I like my beauty to be a little bit more… rough.”
Owing to the original intent of the sculpture (to be a singular physical representation of a greater idea), the artist does not consider the sculpture to be an object in and of itself. According to Modisakeng, it is one integral part of Lefa La Ntate.
“The inspiration came from my photography. I’ve been doing a self-portraiture project where I’ve cast my image in different ways depending on the theme that I’m dealing with,” Modisakeng says.
