This painting is based on one of the last family portraits of Sikelela Owen's mother and her sisters with thier mother, Ida. In the original photograph, the entire family is present, but in this work Owen has isolated the women, turning it into a portrait of the female line within her family. Owen's mother, the youngest, is held on her mother’s hip.
The source image is old and originally had a reddish, ochre tone rather than full colour, which Owen has retained in the painting. The image is pared back and minimalist, keeping a quiet, muted palette. The scene is set outdoors, which also connects to the wider exhibition context and the idea of external space rather than interior or domestic settings.
For Owen, this work feels like the beginning of the story of the exhibition. It reflects a matriarchal lineage: from her *gogo* (grandmother in Ndebele), to her mother, who is now herself a grandmother. It holds a sense of continuity across generations of women and different lived experiences of motherhood.
The painting is also personal and emotional. One of my mother’s sisters has since passed away, and her likeness strongly resembles her own daughter when she was young. This parallel has become especially poignant, as that cousin is currently unwell. The image therefore carries both memory and fragility.
Visually, it draws on the tradition of formal family portraiture – dressing up, gathering outside, presenting oneself to the camera. The clothes suggest church attire or garments sent back from America by my grandfather: their “best” clothes. The figures appear youthful, healthy, and hopeful, frozen in a moment from sixty or seventy years ago.
Ultimately, the work meditates on motherhood, inheritance, and time: how women’s lives change across generations, and how family images become sites of memory, loss, and belonging.
