Tumelo Moliko - Begin Anew

Begin Anew

As a young child, I had only ever known my mother’s surface being and drew conclusions about her personality from apparent observation. Parents become heroes, and almost gods in the eyes of young children. Because of this, there is often a difficult bridging period during teenage years in which our relationship with our parents become more sincere and rooted in a greater reality about who both parties are. Essentially my mother’s truer self has become more apparent to me in the past five years.

This work explores the rebirth of my mother’s truer character in both of our lives. My aim was to discard the airbrushed view of my mother, to showcase her strength, courage, and truer self.

The series of three drawings represent magnified sections of the objects in the room that my mother is standing in. This is to show how some people tend to praise superficial, materialistic elements that individuals have acquired, instead of the resilience itself. The objects in the portrait seem to be evaporating, which represents the fading of superficial qualities that have represented her in the past. She is “carrying” her truth, just as one would “carry” a baby.

The carrying of the material suggests the reclaiming of her essential nature and birth of her innermost self. This work encaptures how idealism becomes legitimacy as she separates herself from societal reality and gravitates toward her truth.

Moliko; Begin Anew; December 2017; 30 x42 cm; pencil on paper