#57: Moesha Raphael

This week we are joined by photographer, textile & collage artist, Moesha Raphael, who tells us more about curating your home, artworks by Lunga Ntila, flossing your teeth, and more!

Moesha Magagula Raphael is 23 years old and really sensitive. They’re a photographer, textile, and collage artist, who is currently based in Cape Town and in the final year of a BA in Fine Arts at Michaelis, UCT. They grew up in Mpumalanga in a big family, always feeling they had to escape that… only to start making work about family and home.

Moesha recently exhibited my graduate body of work ‘me,you,  us’. In the project they explore care that they are giving and teaching themselves. By reconstructing memories from my childhood, exploring my identity, and reimagining concepts around family.

We welcome Moesha to The FRM Newsletter to share what they’ve been into recently!

💇‍♀️👱‍♀️ Decorate your body

There’s something special about a natural born blonde!!!

Lol, if you’re going to bleach the hair, bleach your brows… it will always be famous, I promise.

Bleached brows, hair + a fluffy scarf + rain boots = happiness.

🎧🎹 Music

I LOVE SAD SONGS. I always have and always will, it offers me a space for a rawness to feel my emotions loudly. Sad music alternative, rock, indie by black people… g*ddamn.

Also, if you’re going through heartbreak (I am) it’s time to queue Sampha’s latest electronic masterpiece, Lahai. It has a perfectly blended reflectiveness to it.

But also…

Lipstick – Willow

The Palisades – Childish Gambino

Do you miss me? – PinkPantheress

19 – Flo Milli

🎬🐺 Movies

TWILIGHT!!!! Mwahh no barz. We need a remake with an all POC cast, that’ll shake up Stephenie Meyer’s world a little.

🎨🖼 Lunga Ntila & Wolfgang Tillmans

Being a photography major and experimenting with collages late last year and this year, is where these two artist intersect. They’re both so freaging COOL. The way that Ntila disjointed photography to create this strange way of looking at oneself, really resonate with my art praxis. 

Tillmans has an episode on the podcast ARE WE ON AIR? by Arman Naféei–please please please listen to it.

Ntila, rest easy.

📕💔 Reading has been hard

However, the current book I’m reading is ‘I Am Pilgrim’ by Terry Hayes. It’s giving murder mystery, it’s giving America(n)–even thought the writer is British-Australian (I think :)). It is very good, interesting read.

I’ll be reading Chinua Achebe’s, ‘Things Fall Apart’ next (again) and I think you should too if you’d like to micro-dose high school & because things really do be falling apart, so why not read/digest it in different way.

🥙😘 Food

Hmmm, shoutout to my eating disorder baddies. you’re doing great.

But in relation to food, please FLOSS your teeth. For yourself and everyone else (in relation to kissing, because kissing is great).

💐🏡 Home (the one that you make or curate)

Buy yourself flowers, get the incense & turn on the speaker.

Living with friends is difficult, living alone is difficult and lonely–but both are fun.

Personally, I like leaving myself sticky notes, all my plants have names & half the time I have dishes in the sink :)

Aaannnddddd WHITE SHEETS ARE MID & A TRAP. Let’s leave that aesthetic on Pinterest.

👝💄 Essentials; inside my bag

Bepanthen Baby (for lips & tattoos)

Smudge clear gloss (buy three, you will loose them all)

Glow Guardian Mist (Standard Beauty) 

Sunscreen

Digital Camera 

FLOSS (again, please)

Money (optional)

💭 A bit you didn’t ask for

Go to therapy, dance by yourself, or hike, or yoga… or something. You deserve it.

❗❗ Lastly

Please get a chest tat!

It’s the thing you don’t realise that you needed. It’s like a forever necklace and you can layer with actual necklaces… and we love some layering.