LEBOHANG KGANYE

Keep the Light Faithfully

Lebohang Kganye (Johannesburg, South Africa, 1990) re-imagines western literature of the rarely known and gendered narratives of hundreds of women light keepers from the 19th and 20th century, including Lenore Skomal’s The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter (2010) – a tale of Ida Lewis, who tended the light at Lime Rock Lighthouse (Rhode Island, USA). Kganye returned empty handed from her research trip on the topic in South Africa, as practically all lighthouses are automated, the lighthouse keepers have disappeared. But here, bound into oral histories, she stages and invents new stories and thereby resurrects the lightkeepers. The author of a work that goes beyond photography, she re-enacts, re-imagines, re-installs and re-mixes real situations, real events using literary reflections and exaggerations to create impressive fantastic-real image theater.

Lebohang Kganye was born in 1990 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she currently lives and works. Notable awards include the Grand Prix Images Vevey (2021-22), Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize (2020), Camera Austria Award (2019) and the finalist of the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative (2019). 
Kganye is participating in major museum group exhibitions organized by international institutions such as the House of Photography in Deichtorhallen Hamburg and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. She has exhibited her work extensively within curated group exhibitions and biennales all over the world.