Messages to MmaMolao & Loleme (2023)
Messages to MmaMolao (Transl. “Madam of the Law”) and Loleme (Transl. “tongue”) are video and photographic series that take cue from popularised on-the-street style interviews and draw on the conventions of podcast style interviews with casual social commentary.
Loleme is a mask that is inspired and embodies a subverted Setswana idiom: “go akga loleme”. While figuratively, it means ‘to lie’, the literal translation is ‘to stretch one’s tongue’. The imagery for this series departs from this point and takes into consideration the pan-African norm that knows that “African masks are not intended to mirror real forms. They are designed to reflect the essence of what they stand for” (Balogun, 1990). Understanding that to some or other extent, a mask-wearer may cease to be, for as long as they are behind it, either by fully taking on or becoming a medium for the spirit of the mask itself. In this sense, it became an invitation to participants to’ extend their tongues’ with the sense of shelter realised through anonymity and constructed fiction.
LegakwanaLeo Makgekgenene 