“When I speak of the spiritual, I refer to the recognition within everyone that there is a place of mystery in our lives where forces that are beyond human desire or will alter circumstances and/or guide and direct us. I call these forces divine spirit. When we choose to lead a spirit-filled life, we recognize and celebrate the presence of transcendent spirits.” – bell hooks, “All about Love: New Visions”
Boemo Diale’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in the exploration of internal worlds, guided by a devotion to spirituality and personal histories.
Inspired by hooks’ seminal work, ‘All about Love: New Visions,’ Diale’s works delve into the themes of completion and healing within a personalised framework shaped by the concepts of prayer and hope. This intuitive and reflective process prompts Diale to contemplate her relationship with self-love, self-worthiness, and worship.
In July of 2023, Diale returned to the workshop to collaborate with Kim-Lee Loggenberg-Tim. She continued experimenting with the monotype and linocut process and was introduced to pronto lithography and chine colle. These experiments resulted in a series of bright and bold unique works on paper. The new works allowed the artist to combine her natural painterly capabilities with the photographic nature of pronto lithography. Diale was able to introduce black and white photographs from her personal family archive into the whimsical interior scenes, creating a type of push-and-pull between the artist’s reality and her envisaged world. These central compositions exist within a linocut frame that signify various motifs within the artist’s thematics, often symbols of spirituality, femininity and freedom.
The themes within Diale’s images expand beyond conventional religious and social connotations. Her artistic practice becomes a form of reverence—an homage to the self. As Diale draws inspiration from bell hooks’ insights on love, her works become an ode to the sacredness of self-discovery. Within the context of her current creative process, Diale is working to define her own version of the Divine.
DKW collaborative printers, Kim-Lee Loggenberg-Tim and Sarah Judge printing the various monotype and linocut layers.
Boemo Diale, born 2000 is a Johannesburg based multidisciplinary artist.. She is currently studying Film and Television at the University of Witwatersrand. She grew up pervading different racial structures in Rustenburg, Mafikeng and the suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Diale has had three solo presentations; Permaculture (2021) with Kalashnikovv Gallery (JHB), The Pink Room (2021) at P72 Projects (JHB) and most recently, No Matter How Far I Run (2023) with Kalashnikovv Gallery. She has participated in many group shows in Johannesburg and exhibited at both Turbine Art Fair (2021, 2022) and FNB ART JOBURG (2022).
Boemo Diale started her internship at David Krut Workshop in July 2022, after having met with David Krut at the Turbine Art Fair in 2021. She is an Honours student at Wits University studying Film and Television, and undertook the internship to see how print could influence her practice. Diale’s first show with David Krut, entitled, Can I Play? was held at the 151 Gallery in February, 2023. The exhibition presented a series of prints created during her internship at DKW as well as unique paintings. Diale returned to the workshop in 2023 to create a new series of unique works on paper.