I used to walk the streets, sniffing out decay. On weekends I'd scavenge the beaches after storms, my long fingers pilfering tiny forgotten treasures. It was always surprising to see what I'd find, I couldn't help but think about the child who lost his little toy deer, and poor grandma without her dentures beside her bed.
I daydream about how meaning changes, as time and place go by - and wonder about the impact I have on the world, as I change within my affirmation journey. I feel like I excavate from the earth to excavate my feelings, and being. The objects I retrieve on these walking meditations present something other than myself and an opportunity for me to reflect on why I’m called to be, why I’m called to make and mark, fix and break.
I want to step back into the world, and reconnect my hand and mind to one another. I look at the physical realm with intrigue and possibility: the chemical potential, the semiotic potential, the physical potential, the intention potential and the attention potential of things, stuff, doohickies, goeters en alles and us.
Mishal Weston was born in 1988 in Harare to a South African Mother and a British Father, they currently live and work in Cape Town. Mishal formally trained as a communication designer, receiving a BTech from CPUT in 2011. As a visual artist and sculptor, their practice developed parallel to their early freelance career. The work shown in their first group exhibition, Primal Herd, Knext Gallery (2014) was dedicated to an exploration of the materiality of bone. These ideas were further pursued in A New Wave, with Southern Guild in 2016.
Some of the notable group exhibitions of their series working with found objects and scanography include: OEChangeling, Youngblood Africa (2017) Constellation, & Incite, Deepest Darkest Art (2019), CUBICLE: Everyday Iridescence, Everard Read / Circa 2022, wit(h)ness, CloudDigiital Art (2024). Their current practice is engaged with alternative photographic processes and assemblage, in relation to found objects and material explorations.