ARTIST STATEMENT
Who am I to say hello to you?
Is this how we begin — with introductions? With a name, a nod,
a neat little tag to carry the weight of an entire becoming?
But I’ve learned: I am not here to be introduced.
I’m here to be remembered.
Still, for the sake of this moment, let’s meet in the middle.
Hope.
And everything.
My first name? It carries light.
My second? A quiet fusion — a soft rebellion.
Two letters from Tamsanqa (my father) and three from Winnie (my mother).
A merging. A birthright of balance.
A name that holds my lineage and my leap forward —
that’s who I am, without saying it.
I was born in East London, in the Eastern Cape —
where time moves like breath,
and beauty doesn’t perform, it just exists.
That place raised me in stillness and rhythm.
In hushes and hurricanes.
It trained my eye long before I ever held a camera.
What do I do?
I design presence.
I’m a visual designer by title, but more truthfully,
I am a student of life through image.
I don’t work with visuals. I listen to them.
I wait until they’re ready to speak,
and then I translate what they say.
I specialize in visual imagery as a form of expression —
not confined to discipline, but flowing like conversation.
My work unfolds through people.
Through interactions.
Through what’s seen and unseen.
I move with honesty, not precision.
And when it’s time to move, I drive.
Softstudios is my mode of transport.
I’m the one steering — sometimes fast, sometimes slow,
but always aligned.
So now, we arrive.
The reason we’re here:
Manifestation.
The name of this moment?
Metamorphosis.
But let’s break that open.
Metamorphosis is not about discovering who you are —
it’s about activating what’s already inside.
It doesn’t ask for your permission.
It doesn’t make a scene.
It comes in silence.
It lives in isolation.
You wake up one day, and suddenly —
you’ve shed a skin you didn’t know you outgrew.
The word itself comes from the Greek:
meta — change, morph — form.
A changing of form.
But more than that — a deepening.
A remembering.
In this exhibition, Softstudios — through image and design —
responds to the thematic and symbolic layers
of Keenan Meyer’s sophomore body of work, Reawakening,
released in September 2024.
As Artist-in-Residence hosted by
the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture,
Meyer fused his musical brilliance with his academic grounding.
A classically trained pianist, an advocate for social justice,
and a voice rooted in Black consciousness,
Meyer’s journey is as intellectual as it is spiritual.
This collaboration gave us space to translate his sound into sight.
Three visual designs are exhibited:
Wraak Vannie Dromers (Revenge of the Dreamers)
Umkhanyisi (The Bringer of Light)
The Alchemist’s Hands (the centrepiece — where the intangible becomes flesh)
These pieces don’t just accompany the music —
they are extensions of it.
Not decoration.
Interpretation.
I give thanks to God — for this moment,
for this breath,
and for the space to create and be seen.
If you’re looking for the moment,
you’ve already missed it.
Next time — be the moment.
This is luv.
Tsepo Tawie Sofute
