Oil paint on linen canvas
33x24cm
2025
Go phahla is a ritual performed to connect and communicate with one’s ancestors. It is often practiced in moments of distress or self-actualization. Within this context, it represents a man’s journey of returning to himself, shedding the flesh, finding new meaning, and redefining what it means to be a man. This rigorous process of continual reinvention can only be fulfilled through returning home and making peace with one’s predecessors, badimo. This understanding informed both the composition and the gaze of my subject.