Shani Leseman (1996) intertwines magic with visual art in an attempt to uncover the invisible world. Leseman is a witch and practices magic herself. She has been serving an apprenticeship with an expert for a considerable time now. Her ceramics and paintings can be seen as part of a specific branch of magic where objects are used for channelling energy. Much like a talisman is able to contain a wish, the paintings Leseman is showing at Prospects represent physical expressions of a wish, thought, or desire. It is perhaps similar to how some people light candles for their loved ones.
During the act of painting, Leseman tries to find out what the work wants to become itself. She is thus not approaching the world around her as a passive entity that she can use in whichever way she wants, but as an infinite whole of all kinds of voices she can have conversations with.
The artist was first exposed to magic in her native Curaçao, where ancestor worship and reverence for the spirits are closely linked to spirituality. For people who are not familiar with magic as part of religion, and with its cultural context, Leseman’s working method may seem abstract. But in fact this practice comes very close to the place where art usually finds its source: in listening attentively to the material en visualizing the indescribable.
Text: Milo Vermeire
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang