This Poetry Minute is by Alfred Motlhapi. A theatre practitioner and overall multi-disciplinarian who graduated from the Market Theatre Laboratory. He has recently ventured into visual arts as a medium of investigating structural shifts in his process of making. Alfred describes his craft as “a way to find healing and enlightenment in his life by exploring ways of knowing using art as a tool”.

Such is the case with ‘Come Close Range - I Am The Source’. The original text was a response to his environment and landscape of encounters and experience. He observed judgements being passed without knowledge or understanding of the hidden beauty of a given thing or sentient being. The writing was his reaction to discovering the parts that are left out resulting in misunderstood symbols and signifiers of behaviour. In his own words, “This text was intended to interrogate and understand my part in my environment … To understand what is presented in front of you is to become part of seeing yourself through what it is; and to comprehend your own sense of meaning. And the writing formed itself into a prayer or a form of meditation”.

Following a rather involved process which took him through various artistic expressions (visual art, digital soundscapes and sensory stimulus), Alfred arrived at this distilled albeit captivating moment of the text, which keeps circling back to source and self.

COME CLOSE RANGE - I AM THE SOURCE
Created by | Alfred Motlhapi
Cinematography and Editing by | Noah Cohen
Sound Recording | Zain Vally

A Poetry Minute is curated by Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu