Lerato Shadi is a South African-born artist recognized for her performance and installation work that utilizes the body to interrogate social structures, identity, and historical erasure. Her practice frequently incorporates repetitive, process-based techniques such as weaving and crochet to explore themes of land, labor, and institutional power.
Born in South Africa and currently based in Berlin, Lerato Shadi has developed a multidisciplinary practice that spans performance, video, drawing, and installation. Her work is characterized by the use of her own body as a primary site of inquiry, examining how knowledge systems and social structures influence individual and collective belonging.
Shadi’s signature approach often involves labor-intensive, repetitive processes—including knitting, crochet, and weaving—to engage with complex themes such as land dispossession, ancestry, and self-determination. By integrating text and moving image, she creates works that bridge the relationship between the physical body and the historical landscape.
Her work continues to receive international recognition, with recent institutional engagement including her inclusion in the 2025 exhibition A Protea Is Not a Flower at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town. This exhibition places her contemporary practice in dialogue with historical figures, further highlighting her role in exploring themes of exile and identity within the African diaspora.
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