Day Eight: Usha Seejarim

Usha Seejarim was born in 1974 in Bethal and currently lives and works in Johannesburg. She is widely recognised for her work, in a variety of media, which reflects the mundane experiences of everyday life as well as eternal truths. 

Using materials and objects from daily rituals such as sweeping (broomsticks), ironing (irons) and hanging up the washing (clothes pegs), Seejarim takes her audience on a journey that is a metaphor for life. 

In presenting domestic objects in an unexpected fashion (in a recent exhibition, she turned irons and hangers into cow heads), Seejarim interrogates our cultural traditions and perceptions and invites her reader to see life differently.

In the traditional worlds of art and politics, the male voice continues to dominate and Seejarim asks her audience to recognise the fact that the voice of women also needs to be heard.