I grew up in a very poor neighbourhood that was dense, highly populated, and very vibrant. One of the most beautiful things about growing up there was everyone being on the street, and the different types of bodies having a place to exist on the street, forging a strong community where they had a space to be acknowledged, to be seen, and to be embraced. Many different types of figures that worked within and around my community, and the figures that move around the cities of Cape Town, from townships, they’ve had an impact on me in the ways that I see people. I pay attention to the humanity in them, to the souls in them, and often wonder what their stories are.
So, what I do in the studio, I channel a lot of these different types of bodies that I have come across throughout my life – some of whom were also people I was scared of as a child because of the stories that were created around them – some are imagined, some I continue to see walking and moving around downtown LA, and I want all of these types of bodies to form a population of what I call The Mine Moon.