For her new commission at Art in General, Dineo Seshee Bopape will create a large-scale, immersive installation using materials such as soil, clay, brass objects, charcoal, flowers and crystals. The project is Bopape’s first solo exhibition in the United States, and is presented as part of Art in General’s New Commissions program.

Bopape is known for her practice that combines a digital and analog aesthetic, as well as natural and man-made elements such as plants, wood, mirrors, and video monitors. The sePedi language title can be translated literally as that which is of is dust, (that which is of dust is_). In this commission, which is partly inspired by her recent presentation at the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, Bopape explores the complex sets of relationships and tensions that arise when considering land from the perspectives of gender, memory and the politics of place. In this new work, she also taps into the inherent sonic capacity of the soil and objects themselves as a way of revealing ‘eerie’, ‘uncanny’ or ‘magical’ associations.

Dineo Seshee Bopape, born in 1981, in Polokwane, lives and works in Lone Hill, South Africa. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016), Hayward Gallery, London (2015); Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway (2015); August House, Johannesburg (2014); Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town (2013, 2011); Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam (2010); and Art Berlin Contemporary, Berlin (2010). Her work has also been included in group exhibitions at the Marrakech Biennale 6, Marrakech (2016); Bienial de São Paulo, São Paulo (2016); Tate Modern, London (2015); Center for Visual Art, Denver, CO (2015); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2015); The Jewish Museum, New York (2015); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2014); Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam (2014); Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (2013); and Bétonsalon—Centre d’art et de recherche, Paris (2012).