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