Artists

Josephine Ghesa arrived at the Ardmore farm in 1990, five years after the studio’s inception. Ghesa, born and raised in Lesotho by her grandmother, had received no formal education but had learnt to build pots with her grandmother. Feé Halstead Berning saw potential in Ghesa’s creative intuition and, like Bonnie Ntshalintshali, encouraged her to explore sculpture and pursue her own creative style. The resulting zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures disregard naturalism in a way that feels unique. Ghesa would create figures by hand coiling terracotta, then working textures into the surface to add detail and dimension. Post firing, Halstead Berning oversaw the painting and the finishing of the sculptures, always with the combination of shoe polish and scumbled acrylic paint, creating a mottled effect. In the Ardmore spirit of collaboration each piece is always worked on by multiple artists.

Links to Ghesa’s Sotho heritage are strong in her work, with many zoomorphic creatures inspired by folklore, and as forms thought to be typical of indigenous and specifically Southern Sotho sculpture are present in the way she constructed her sculptures. The stoutness of the tables and four legged creatures are typically robust with splaying legs, which is juxtaposed with the inherent fragility of the medium.

There is a link to the spiritual realm in Ghesa’s work, connecting directly to her source of inspiration. Ghesa would often draw from vivid dreams and the ancestral connection therein to create her mystical sculptures. It is possible that the recurring motif of the bird might be based on the lightning bird — a direct link to the ancestral realm. Other artists who draw inspiration from dreams and ancestral connection include Noria Mabasa, Jackson Hlungwane and Magabo Mapula Helen Sebidi.

Spirituality and the mystical are not the only sources of inspiration for Ghesa, she also pulled from the people she encountered in her day-to-day life. Her figures are often garbed in fashion prevalent to her neighbours and the people around her. Most notably many of her figures wear tekkies, tying into the practicality of everyday life.