Mashemong translated from Sotho into Afrikaans means ” Mashed potatoes”
Frans Thoka creates artwork on traditional Basotho blankets and Prison Blankets. Universally a blanket is used for both warmth and safety. Metaphorically, Frans uses the blanket as a symbol for the relationship many South Africans have had with the land and their identity. Forced removals from ancestral land in apartheid times deeply affected many Black South Africans who had to experience these harrowing evictions. Frans’ powerful artworks resonate with the pain of this past and the lessons we need to take into our collective future. Through his artwork he suggests that as a person takes refuge under a blanket, the blanket conceals the past that is hidden within their soul, never to be forgotten, never to be brushed over by the sands of time.
