Johannesburg-based artist, Lebohang Kganye, 27, has been announced as the winner of the 2017 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition. Kganye won the coveted award for her animated film ‘Ke sale teng’, which means ‘I’m still here’ in Sesotho. The film confronts how family photo albums no longer have a fixed narrative but instead open us to reinterpret our past and even interrogates our need to preserve a certain narrative.
 
“Sometimes we rely on the family photo album as a way to understand what family is meant to be,” said Kganye. “What we often land up with is a grouping of images that have been constructed, and perhaps do not account at all for the histories and memories that are connected to that album.”  
 
Through the use of silhouette cutouts of family members and other props in a diorama, Ke sale teng’ confronts the conflicting stories, which are told in multiple ways, even by the same person – memory combined with fantasy.
  
Acclaimed artist, judge and Sasol New Signatures Chairperson, Dr. Pieter Binsbergen, said most of the finalists’ works harnessed materials of multisensory nature, “holding the viewer captive for long periods of time, thus driving home the pressing social, political, and environmental issues South Africa grapples with.”
 
This year’s Sasol New Signatures theme was “be discovered”.  The theme sought to challenge artists to come to the fore, and showcase their talent to in the country’s art-loving public. “The works ­of the 2017 Sasol New Signatures winners and finalists has lived up to the history and intention of the competition, and showcases what South African artists are capable of,” said Charlotte Mokoena, Sasol Executive President for Corporate Affairs and Human Resources. “Noteworthy this year has also been the diversity of the submissions received. This demonstrates that Sasol New Signatures is making progress in reaching emerging artists from all walks of life.”