Marie-Lorraine Kalassa

Through an autoethnographic practice; that is the primary use of personal reflexive  writing to craft narratives related to wider social and cultural experiences, Lorraine  Kalassa explores themes revolving around her experiences of ‘otherness’. 

Her main focus lies in trying to make sense of notions of home as a person born in  South Africa with ancestry rooted in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lorraine is  fascinated with her family photo archive as well as the archive existing within her  mother’s mind. She is also intrigued by how relationship with land and place  influences the development of identity and culture. Returning to her ancestral  archives have become important sites of exploration and excavation for her work as  this act becomes a form of pilgrimage and time travel to her place of origin. By  using a range of media and thinking through cracks in identity, landscape and  policies, Lorraine ultimately tethers ancestral fragments as a means to remember  and heal. 

Lorraine’s obtained a degree in Fine Arts from the Michaelis School of Fine Arts  and an Honours degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Cape  Town. Lorraine is a member of The Photographic Collective(TPC) and has been  featured in the following exhibitions and publications:  

Under Projects, Cape Town: JIVE Exhibition, 2023 ,Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg: JIVE Exhibition, 2023, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg: We are Culture Exhibition, Sept-Oct 2022  ArtThrob: Family Albums, September 2021, 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town: 12 Hours of Breathing (group show), July 2021  Group exhibition with TPC, London: 1-54, Contemporary African Art Fair, 2021 In conversation with The Photographic Collective (TPC): In Conversation with  Lorraine Kalassa, May 2020