Creative Credits
Photographer: Mvelo Midoli Mahlangu (@mv_mid),
Make-Up Artist: Skye Barnes (@mentallyskye)
Creative Director: @dimpho.mashile
Kgopelo ya le Kganyo
Kgopelo ya le Kganyo is Sepedi for “an invitation of light” – a plea, a supplication. Shot after the devastating loss of the creative director’s only sibling, the project was a return to the work and a return to oneself. The use of light in the images is a beckoning to the audience and the subject to draw nearer to the source of illumination, to introspect and observe that which is brightened and to make room for light. When grief threatened a never-ending night, invoking light was the only plea.
About the Artist
Born in Emalahleni and bred between the former and Embonisweni – South Africa, Dimpho Mashile’s practice as a film and creative director expresses her interest in the topic of space. Her work often interrogates the idea of belonging within a space, the capacity of a space to hold, grow or shrink its inhabitants, and the interiority of one’s inner head and heart space – particularly that of African womxn. Her settings often include familiar and nostalgic spaces as well as uncharted and imagined ones. She ponders on the dissolution of geographic borders, the importance of personal boundaries and the intersection of personal and natural territories as part of personhood. As a technologist, she often traverses the liminality of IRL (in real life) and URL (digital/online) spaces in pursuit of merging the two landscapes. The purpose of her practice is always to envision, to behold, and build narrative for, in broad spectrum and full vast the space presented.
