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September 5, 2019 – Review
Dineo Seshee Bopape’s “Sedibeng, it comes with the rain”
Lauren Houlton
Dineo Seshee Bopape’s installation Sedibeng, it comes with the rain (2016), the one work on show in her exhibition at Eastbourne’s Towner Art Gallery, darts between person and place before gesturing upward. Sedibeng, a Sesotho word meaning “the place of the pool,” can be a person’s given name and is the name of a district in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The work’s title is an apt introduction to Bopape’s approach to material associations, which, through a process of collage, allows references to complicate, fracture, and loop back on themselves. There are many avenues through this work, all contingent upon the vantage point from which the viewer enters. Knowing where to begin is tricky, but it is also the joy of navigating the puzzle.
Six sculptures made from steel bars are adorned with crow’s feathers, medicinal herbs, spices, cut-out photographs of flowers and fruit, charm jewelry, bent copper wire, and green potters’ foam. The sculptures incorporate simple, geometric shapes such as ovals and triangles, amalgamating abstracted spiritual symbols drawn from cultures across the world. No information about these sources or materials is provided. As a result, understanding this exhibition can be a daunting challenge. Navigating the periphery of …