The title of Lerato Shadi’s show, ‘Noka Ya Bokamoso,’ which opened at National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, translates from Setswana to ‘a river of tomorrow.’ In the Albany gallery you encounter Shadi performing Mosako Wa Nako. She sits silently crocheting a ball of red wool into a scroll which unfurls with indecipherable writing. Shadi’s isolation from the rest of the artworks on the exhibition draws you closer, emphasising the rhythmic movement of her hands. The performance suggests issues of labour, time and erasure of black women’s histories. The simple gesture of crocheting can be also read as a form of preserving the culture of her ancestry and articulates both her struggles and hopes. In a conversation with Shadi she states that, ‘this exhibition is a way of honouring her grandmother in thinking about her history that is overlooked and erased.’
More: http://artthrob.co.za/2016/07/13/a-river-of-blood-flows-lerato-shadis-noka-ya-bokamoso/