GO Residency: Batho Ba Style

Each year an emerging artist is invited to spend time in Oudtshoorn and explore the local history and landscape to create a body of work that is in dialogue with the space. Luxolo Witvoet, from Cape Town, is the selected artist for this year.

Luxolo says: “I’ve recently returned from a two-week residency in Oudtshoorn and want to revisit the ostrich boom heydays. I found an interesting image from the archives at the C.P. Nel Museum of a Khoekhoen man in European attire, wearing a hat adorned with an ostrich feather, which I found quite striking.

“I am reimagining the various men and women from various cultures and ethnicities and work from reference images to reconstruct these images. Currently a lot of my work depicts figures smoking tobacco, a universal act of leisure that coincides with the rich history of the town’s tobacco industry.

“My work alludes to jazz and elements of Sophiatown fashion sense, which was influenced by European fashion. How cultures evolve and collide fascinates me. I bring a new vantage point and sense of humour to this content.”