Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela
Last Known Location: Searching for Gebane
Last Known Location: Searching for Gebane by Senzeni Mthwakazi Marsela is part of a series of works that symbolize the journey of the artist’s alter-ego, Theodorah on her search for her husband, Gebane. This work consists of a large white rectangular textile featuring an abstracted composition of circular patterns and lines embroidered with red thread. In this work, Marasela symbolizes the journey of Theodorah on her search for Gebane. The embroidered drawing represents a topographical map indicating Gebane’s last known location. Here Marasela’s use of the red leitmotif indicates the altitude of the earth’s surface, but perhaps also the trail Theodorah travels as she searches for Gebane. The repetition of the circles, though also a topographical element, illustrates a journey with no notable conclusion. This marks a new active stage in Theodora’s journey in which this independent female character breaks free from her stage of waiting, dependency, and blind hope, and gains her own agency. Marasela portrays Theodora as a strong character to represent the strength of black women alike, in learning to care for themselves and assuming agency in their own lives. A relatable narrative for many South African women whose husbands leave home in search of better economic opportunities to support their families, these women either choose or are forced into a position of waiting. Last Known Location: Searching for Gebane addresses the struggles of these black women as it relates to dependency upon their husbands, as well as provokes the apex of the African dream, the broken promises, and the lasting legacies.
Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela’s artistic practice uses a variety of mediums and materials to document and communicate the experiences of the artist’s alter ego, Theodorah Mthetyane. Also the artist’s mother’s name, Theodorah intentionally represents the collective lives and struggles of many South African black women and their legacies alike. A recurring focus in Marsela’s work considers the action of waiting and the multiplicity bound up in this experience. Waiting is a tedious state of in-betweenness, marked by a dependency on what’s to come, but it is also inextricably bound up in hopefulness. Transgressing from the static state of waiting, Marasela’s work moves into the action of searching, symbolizing agency, but also the failure of results to progress from the previous state of waiting.