A devotion to prayer and interiority — an interview with artist Boemo Diale

Boemo Diale is the new winner of the Tomorrows/Today Prize from the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, a prestigious visual art accolade for emerging and underrepresented artists. The prize of R80,000 is awarded to an artist whose body of work is captivating in the present, and will likely be so in future.

Featured in our Young and Vital Artists list, Diale is a multidisciplinary artist to watch for her nuanced interrogation of inner worlds guided by spirituality and personal histories. Her winning exhibition, Going Home, covers subjects ranging from femininity, freedom to mental health.

Diale’s work was selected by an international jury led by Tomorrows/ Today Italian curator, Dr Mariella Franzoni based between Spain and South Africa, Zeitz MOCAA Curator Tandazani Dhlakama and Heba El Kayal, an independent curator and researcher based between Cairo and London. 

How are you receiving your Tomorrows/Today prize from the Investec Cape Town Art Fair?

Receiving the Tomorrow’s/Today prize from the Investec Cape Town Art Fair has come as a big surprise. So many of the booths in the section stood out to me! Myself and Kalashnikovv [Gallery] put in a lot of work to actualise some of my ideas and it felt especially affirming for that to have been recognised. I think now I’m feeling more settled and excited to see what awaits. I’m feeling particularly full of energy to create and make after such a spectacular art fair weekend.

The idea of home — brought up in the title of your new work — is subjective. What does it represent for you? 

Home has been a complicated and nuanced idea for me. Home expresses a sense of familiarity and comfort but also a place of pain, hurting and healing. I express this by depicting interior scenes but more specifically with the placement of my grandmother, a central figure in a lot of my work. I spent a lot of time in my grandmother’s home throughout my childhood and it is a place I have always felt most at peace. The booth was laid out to look and feel like my grandmother’s home and to express a sense of familiarity I think a lot of people can relate to. 

What is your interpretation of prayer and how is that translated in your approach?

I use prayer as a form of protection and devotion throughout my work. The pot is often so unassuming, sitting in living rooms and kitchens but unknowingly holding so much power. The vessel can be used in utilitarian ways to hold and to carry but also through prayer and intention, the vessel can hold and carry ideas, dreams and concepts to manifest new realities. I think it’s been interesting to watch my work grow through prayer. I’m finding I am currently manifesting new realities because of it.

Can you comment on how your use of colour helps facilitate the push and pull of vulnerability and hope or freedom and entrapment in some of your imagery? What motived those decisions? 

I think colour is such a powerful tool to make a statement or convey emotions. Although many of my colour choices are aesthetic choices, a lot of my choice in colour aids in the messaging of what a vessel or image is trying to call for or manifest. When using brighter more vibrant colours I find I am celebrating or conveying feelings of hope and moodier and darker colours help me to convey ideas of pain and discontentment. Sometimes a work expresses both states of being. The motivation behind this I think stems from an inner child approach of dealing with complex emotions and situations. I think it is far more fun to play with colours when navigating complicated emotions than to try and understand them analytically.  

Mental health is a pertinent issue that you bring up in your work. How would you like to see responses to it change?

I think mental health is still such a taboo and misunderstood subject within SA. Having seen mental health issues in my family and upbringing I do think we should have more compassion and patience as a society. I’m constantly finding so many parallels in mental health conditions and conditions of spirituality, which is why I feel prayer is such an important tool for protection.

What’s your hope for the immediate future?

I’m extremely grateful for how my journey as an artist has unfolded. I do hope to travel and meet people who might be communicating similar ideas in their artistic work, as well as share my work in new spaces and countries. I think I still have a lot to learn and I can’t wait to see what happens next.