LERATO LODI MORAPEDI, ONE WHO PRAYS
NWU Main Gallery Curated by Amohelang Mohajane Online exhibition opening 10 April
Above: Lerato Lodi by Taola ya Badimo I & II. Opposite page Top left: Lerato Lodi, The Gathering II, 2021. Top Right: Lesela La Badimo, 2021. Opposite page bottom right: Lerato Lodi by A conversation between Thalita and Wihlemina (church service notes). Photos Zoë Rose Exposure
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orth-West University Gallery and Studio Nxumalo Contemporary are proud to present “Morapedi, One Who Prays”, a solo exhibition by Lerato Lodi, curated by Amohelang Mohajane. In her first solo exhibition, Lodi takes us along the start of a journey that investigates her curiosity of the intricacies of dual spiritual practices prevalent in “Sebaka sa Badimo” (a shrine or a sacred ritual site that is fundamental in traditional African spiritual practice), and the church as a space of worship an important setting for Christianity. A spiritual companion to Lodi, Morapedi shows up and communicates in various forms but most notably as a memory of her late grandmother who was a community leader, an entrepreneur and a committed Methodist church member who embraced badimo le ho pahla. Morapedi converses with Lodi through song and the use of
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“Sesebediswa sa Badimo” (diphita, lesela, snuff / sacred materials) and other things that function as guides in the personal and spiritual journey that brings together this exhibition. Lodi’s body of work functions as a quest of coming to terms with her own spiritual journey, one that is complicated by her generation’s criticism of the political history of Christianity in black people’s lives and the stigma that remains attached to African spiritual practices. Lodi witnessed her grandmother’s unshaken acceptance and the embodiment of both these spiritual formations, and through this body of work, she seeks to strengthen her connection and elevate the voice of One Who Prays, embodying Morapedi’s ways of praying and her ways of being.
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