Konadi Marcia Ntsoane (Cape Town)

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

This series of hyper realistic digital collages, Ruri Ke Tla Loka and We Mend In Circles, draws inspiration from the quiet, persistent ritual of textile mending as both metaphor and method. Created from found images of textiles, the works explore the beauty that emerges from repair, holding space for both the violence of rupture and the tenderness of restoration.  

Patchwork, like collage, is an act of assembly that begins with fragmentation. Each torn fabric or isolated image contains its own history of wear, use, and meaning. By layering these fragments, I investigate how healing is not a return to a pristine or unbroken state, but a creative reconfiguration of what remains. The resulting images are not meant to conceal damage, but to honour it. To say: “I am still a person my life happened to. And still, there can be beauty”. 

The first piece, Ruri Ke Tla Loka, when translated from Sepedi, means “Truly I will be made well”, echoes the longing for healing while resisting simplistic notions of wholeness. The second, We Mend In Circles, gestures toward the communal nature of survival and repair, where healing often happens in nonlinear, overlapping cycles, supported by others.  

Informed by my own experiences and the broader social fabric we inhabit, these works are an offering. A visual theology of imperfection, endurance, and care. They ask: how do we live with the knowledge of what we’ve endured? And how might we transform it into something that speaks of dignity, resilience, and shared humanity? 

GALLERY

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