Artist 333
Thania Petersen
Identity Art
Thania Petersen (born 1980) is a South African multi-disciplinary artist who explores the intricacies and complexities of her identity through her photography, performance art and installation.
“I am addressing ‘identity’ in contemporary South Africa where we have too easily accepted the labels that apartheid and post apartheid have given us. I stake my claim to my lineage and through my work I am reclaiming our heritage as individual people with a history of our own.” - Thania Petersen
Petersen’s practice address the complexities of her identity, redefining the stereotypes associated with her Cape Malay heritage, and the legend and myths of Sufi Islamic religious ceremonies that she grew up with.
She uses herself as the subject in her photography. When asked on the meaning of inserting herself into her work Petersen explains, “I think I am often in a state of protest in my photographs. I want to be seen as I am not heard otherwise. I think I am representational for unheard voices, not just my own. At least I hope so”
Her work expresses the perspective of an Cape Creole woman and mother. Petersen adopts a diversity of theatrical personas that range from a mythological Queen, a botanical Goddess to various personal reflections of her childhood growing up as a girl in a secular Muslim society in her work to explore identity.
Petersen's works often holds reference points to Islam and to creating awareness around its religious, cultural and traditional practices.
Petersen’s art unpacks her experience of Islamophobia and through her work she explores the continuing impact of colonialism, European and American imperialism. As well as livening as a female in these societal structures.
In her series, Barbie & Me, Petersen speaks about the inner conflict Muslim people face living in a secular environment.
She explains, “Barbie & Me is about my inner turmoil. Being a Muslim and having lived within a secular society my whole life, I face certain challenges other people take for granted which leaves me with a constant feeling of guilt. When I look at where it began I traced it back to age four when the first 3 things I owned and looked after was my prayer book, my prayer bag and a Barbie doll. I would go to Muslim school where I was encouraged to be modest in my behaviour and my dress, but when I returned home I played with Barbie who speaks of the complete opposite, and already I was torn between what I should be and what I wanted to be. The desire to be Barbie doesn’t go away, it changes but in essence the battle remains the same. I photographed my belongings as a child and then photographed my daily belongings in my handbag as an adult. I then photographed myself through the 3 stages of my life – childhood, adulthood and motherhood – to reveal that the constant struggles we face throughout our lives inevitably starts again with our children.”
Motifs in her work include the history of colonialist imperialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as the social and cultural impact of westernised consumer culture.
When asked on what sparked her desire to conduct such an in-depth exploration of her Cape Malay heritage through art Thania explains, “A serious yearning to be recognized for who we are. Not to be looked upon as though we are less because of teachings that we were all just slaves they probably lined up on some tropical beach in South East Asia, put onto some Dutch boat and brought over here to build a few houses and live in some Dutch slave quarters! It is not true! There is much more to us than koeksisters and bobotie. We have an amazing history with men who were brought here fighting! I think they should be celebrated. They were proud, and my project speaks of us as a people who have had everything taken away from them except that very pride and dignity.”
By attending the 2022 investic Cape Town art fair Art talks. Thania Petersen commented on how lockdown has brought her closer with her community and in future work she will be looking past the personal self and continue exploring collective identity.
An example of her work that explores this is during the hard lockdown of 2021 Petersen created ‘Kassaram’, a 12-minute film, draws on stereotypes about the Cape Creole community (which the apartheid government called “coloured” and “Cape Malay”), which she reinterprets to reflect the real roots of these diverse people.
“My great grandmother always referred to things as being a kassaram when they were out of place … It always implied things … being out of order, things being upside down and things being in a mess – which is what I feel the state of postapartheid South Africa is. I feel like it is one massive kassaram, where everything is not how it should be.”
Petersen continues her work of “self portraits” and plays various roles in the film, including a flower seller and a Cape Carnival performer. Loud and disturbing images of red lips appear with a “passion gap”, referring to the practice of removing front teeth. This is deliberate. In talking about stereotypes she says, “The toothless mouth is always associated with ugliness or with a person who is uneducated.”
“I hate the word ‘coloured’,” she says, “so I’m going to say the Cape Creole community. In South Africa, this community is often perceived as less educated, less refined or less sophisticated. This type of imagery is used to solidify those types of ideas, which is not the truth. When you interrogate what these symbols mean, then it is not in any way nonsensical.”
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link to her art video https://youtu.be/WJk9xkG_tFE
Sources Consulted
https://zeitzmocaa.museum/exhibition/exhibitions/kassaram/