Sacred Ground

The mountain is said to be a sacred site that has been the place of choice for healers and believers to perform cultural and religious rituals for thousands of years. The mountain also has a network of caves where royals and notable figures in the history of the area have been buried. Madimatle is a place of healing and divination, and the threat to disturb its state has opened up a conversation around the land question and the identities various people attach to such sacred ground.

In this work Modisakeng refers to this case in order to invite audiences to consider the relationship between the body and the land, particularly in the African context where the issue of belonging have always been contentious issues that has historical led to violent conflict, from colonial conquest to ongoing ethnic battles for the control of land.

Sewing Machine

The history of the sewing machine goes back a long way, with some early uses including the stitching together of canvas for the making of sails for ships. The machine represents the colonial or imperialist expansion and the exporting of European culture and violence in order to subjugate others.

While in this series the sewing machine anchors this colonial history, set against the body of an African person it makes reference to the influence of colonialism on the social, cultural, economic and political changes that forever defined how Africans identify. Within the framework of identity politics, the arrival of colonial influence in the African context engenders changes in peoples’ material culture, personal freedoms, and belief systems thus changing the African’s sense and understanding of their own identity.

As the machines gradually found their way into the hand of local tailors they were used different purposes but mainly to make clothing such as uniforms and “traditional’ attires for landmark events in a community’s life such as weddings, rites of passage, burials and other social rituals.