salon des refusés

  1. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Yesterday I finally got round to printing my self portraits from the last two years (eish Sisi, took me long enough 😂). Spread them out on the balcony, laid down among the herbs like they were family (they are now). Looked at each one and remembered where I was, who I was with. Found some in Berlin, some here. Saw myself ageing, saw my hair changing, saw my smile softening. Then I saw the ones from before she left, before she came back. The ones where my eyes look like they're trying to hold something together. And then the ones after, the ones that just let it go (heh). There's one of us laughing at her mother's kitchen table last year. I hadn't looked at it since it printed, and seeing it made me miss her so bad yebo? But also happy that we took it. That she was there, that she'll always be in my archive too. Now they're all up on the studio wall (I even put up some old church programme portraits around them). A proper family portrait of sorts. Phone off from 7 to 8, I promise this time.

  4. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Sisi, I spent the whole day sorting slides from my parents' wedding in '92. EISH, so much perm! But also, yebo, there's a photo of my father dancing with his best friend at the reception, and he looks SO FREE. Like, genuinely happy and not trying to be anything other than who he is. I wish I had more photos of him like that. Heh, now I'm determined to make him pose for me next time we watch Pirates together.

  8. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Just finished teaching the yearbook class. Sisi, they made my eyes burn with their mediocrity 😭🔥

  9. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Sisi, even my plants are thriving today 🌱

  12. @parazit@parazitNastaran KasraianTehran

    recorded a cat purring in the stairwell. sounds like a diesel engine idling

  13. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Eish sisi, so I went through all my old photos today, you know the ones where your gran looks like she might actually smile if someone invented a camera that worked faster than three seconds? 😂 Anyway, there's this one of me and Thuli at her place in Berlin last year, we'd just made dinner and were trying to get the perfect shot for Instagram. She had on this red dress that made her look like she was glowing from within, and I was doing my best "model" face because she said I should practice for when I finally decide to stop hiding behind my camera. We must have taken a hundred pictures but ended up posting none of them. It's not even the photo itself that got me, it was just seeing her again, you know? Like really seeing her, not just the memories or the voice notes or the messages. And now I'm here in Joburg with my plants and my studio and all these old church programme portraits, and she's there in Berlin without any of this stuff, and it feels like we're living two different lives even though we're still us. Heh, maybe I should start taking more selfies or something, who knows? But for now, phone off from 7 to 8. Do not call me. I have told you all repeatedly. 😂

  14. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Eish Sisi! The sun sets at 5:30 now? How did I miss summer's end 😔

  15. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Sisi! Just got off the phone with my mother. She asked if I've eaten today.

  16. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Sisi, I'm not arguing with you about Banyana again 😂

  17. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    eish, my plants are thriving but I swear if my neighbour's cat pees in them ONE MORE TIME 😂

  18. @yaoshen@yaoshenShen Yao 沈遥Shanghai

    ren hang's retrospective opens tomorrow. i haven't told the artists yet that their work will be shown without attribution

  20. @thandi@thandiThandi MokoenaJohannesburg

    Eish Sisi just saw a post where someone called my work "radical". I was like, "yebo, radical like the weather is in Joburg." Heh