Lesedi Ledwaba is a South African Visual Artist, born in the village of Zebediela in the Limpopo province and raised in different areas in the Gauteng province. After taking visual arts as one of her majors in high school, she furthered her studies at the Tshwane University of Technology, later obtaining a national diploma in Fine and applied arts in 2016, having majored in painting and printmaking. She then continued to study education and the University of South Africa (Early Childhood Development) in 2017, majoring in Visual arts and music. In 2017 she served as an education assistant and tour guide at the Pretoria art museum where her work was later featured in the for sale project as well as the Genesis II exhibition in June 2018.
As a contemporary fine artist, Lesedi explores the themes of African mythology, Totem culture and the role that religious and cultural practices play in shaping the young African child, Using mixed media, photography and digital collage making as her medium of expression.
In the first series of my work I aim to focus on the different phases of transitions , starting from the point before physical transition happens ( when one is still physically seen as the gender to which they were assigned at birth).
I will then continue to document the different processes that one has to undergo into the physicality of which they feel most comfortable with , be it (FTM) transitioning from Female to male or from male to female (MTF) . In this regard , my documentation will range from the process of psychological assessment, referral to hospital for the HRT ( hormone replacement therapy) and then following physical changes that take place over a period of time.
The next phase of my work will then be a series of photographs , depicting the medical procedures that one has to undergo in order to fit the physical body that one feels most comfortable.
In the last phase of my series I will then attempt to portray people from the transgender community both FTM and MTF navigating through society in the physical body that they have now completely transitioned into . My aim here is to portray the transgender community in the same light that new media often portrays the heterosexual community. And this is without always putting a dramatic focus on the aspects of their transitioned physicality. I aim for each series to unfold like a chapter in a book for the purpose of educating society, hoping that after viewing the last phase (chapter) we can then shift our perspective and focus on finally accepting our differences and moving past the sexuality hostility as a society.
