conversation
Nisha Merit is an independent curator & writer. Her MA thesis foregrounds the work of South African artist, Mary Sibande. Published by the Wits School of Arts in 2017, under the title “Constructing the Self: Sophie & the Negotiation of Space"
Thati Pele is a film director. Her short film that we speak about is titled “Lerato”. It was released in 2015 as her MA thesis project at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Thati Pele is a film director. Her short film that we speak about is titled “Lerato”. It was released in 2015 as her MA thesis project at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
For Thati “the thesis [short film] came with me trying to understand myself. I’ve never gravitated towards the written word. I love to read but I don’t naturally write. I love seeing things.”
Whereas for Nisha “the magazine came very much from me reading. As a child I sat for hours being immersed in the written word. So wanting to recreate that with my thesis. “I wanted it to become physical … & that’s why it was the idea of a magazine.”
Whereas for Nisha “the magazine came very much from me reading. As a child I sat for hours being immersed in the written word. So wanting to recreate that with my thesis. “I wanted it to become physical … & that’s why it was the idea of a magazine.”
"It's kind of brutal, that's Joburg on its surface. But then you start engaging, especially with people & suddenly it turns into this really interesting urban habitat of all these lives, stories & people."
"If you really want to experience people & the beauty of people, for me there's very few other cities that can give that to you like Joburg can. Because it's such a melting pot, in all different types of classes & it's a city of greeters."
"If you really want to experience people & the beauty of people, for me there's very few other cities that can give that to you like Joburg can. Because it's such a melting pot, in all different types of classes & it's a city of greeters."
AWOW
In Sophie and Lerato “Nisha Merit and Thati Pele foreground research as a labour of love. They look back on their respective thesis projects completed in 2015 and 2017 and introduce us to two main characters: Sophie and Lerato. These protagonists become the lens through which we explore Nisha and Thati’s retrospective research work as catalyst paths of self-discovery that led them to new places.
Since 2019, Are We Our Work has documented a series of conversations that unpack relationships to work, in a changing world of work.
We ask questions about how contexts, identities and emotions motivate people’s behaviours and decision-making.
We engage with a range of practitioners in South Africa about love, work, relationships and the work of making relationships work.
website
Co-hosts: @naadirapatel____, @kemobosielo
Music: @vumalevin
Sound design: @j.r.o.z
Illustration: @softwork.studio
Music: @vumalevin
Sound design: @j.r.o.z
Illustration: @softwork.studio