The divinity of bending shadows with stillness as the camera flash flickers white is all that Serpent needs to be reminded that they are here. Self-portraiture for Serpent is magic that is strengthened by writing. It is a spiritual practice that has allowed them to investigate the presence and absence of self and further work through the trauma that has cornered them in their own room. Their chosen name is Serpent.

Serpent is from Khayelitsha, a township outside Cape Town, South Africa and they are currently studying a BA in Anthropology at Goldsmiths University. A multidisciplinary storyteller and healer, Serpent uses writing, still images and moving images to transport them to worlds that exist within and beyond this one. They gather ancestral wisdom to guide the nourishment of themselves and those around them. They are deeply curious about memory and time travel in the South African context; how real and imagined worlds can be fused, how the present can be used to rectify injustices of the past and ensure stability in the future.

Serpent’s grandmother continues to be their main portal into the past. Her recollection of life during apartheid, when the white Afrikaner government systematically oppressed black South Africans, reminds them of the work that still needs to be done. They are inspired by weavers of subjective truth like Lulama Wolf, Mary Sibande and Zanele Maholi. There are barren spaces in their history and the lives of those who came before them that Serpent, a black Xhosa transmasc person, yearns to fill with celebrations of black joy and gender euphoria.