Bahati Simoens, Halfway there. Photo: Supplied
Known for creating paintings that use vibrant colours, dark shadows and metaphorical imagery that promotes inclusivity by celebrating black bodies, 30-year-old artist Bahati Simoens will be putting on her first solo exhibition in Cape Town, A Halfway Line Through History, exploring black cowboys in a South African context.
The show is a “western love story”, looking into the historical importance and evolution of black cowboys and what they represented.
In The Halfway Line, Simoens reimagines a community of black cowboys in South Africa, which accepts women riding horses, embodying symbols of “freedom” and “self-determination”. She presents a revised version of how history can be captured and told using art.
Bahati Simoens, Halfway there. Photo: Supplied
Speaking about her unique style of painting in an interview with Metal magazine, Simoens shares that she uses art as a form of “self-expression”.
She was born in Burundi and moved to Belgium, where she says she felt out of place.
“I’ve never had a moment in my life where I wasn’t proud to be a black woman or where I questioned my blackness.
“Growing up, I never learnt how to communicate my own feelings and having a predominantly white environment made it hard to keep the same proud energy in the outside world. Only because there weren’t any, or hardly any, people to identify with.
“Once I started reading Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, I began looking for more black artists in all art forms. I was silent and alert for a long time and painting gave me a voice when I was too afraid to speak up,” she reveals.
The show will run until 19 February at Roodebloem Studios, 27 Roodebloem Road, Woodstock, Cape Town.