StandardHailing from Tshwane, Boikanyo Mashigo graduated with a BTech Fine Arts from Tshwane University of Technology in 2020. As a student, she was selected for the Sasol New Signatures competition in 2019. She was also selected to form part of 10and5’s Artist Acceleration and Exposure (A3E) programme in 2019 - an initiative which aims to upskill emerging South African artists. She has had the honour of participating in a masterclass taught by legendary local artist Helen Sebidi.
Boikanyo’s company name is BoikanyoArt and she works predominantly in the field of Fine Arts. The genesis of her passion can be traced to her formative years. She was born in 1996 in Temba Township (Hammanskraal) on the outskirts of Pretoria. Being an only child, she used her imagination as an escape from strict parenting and loneliness. As a child, her creative explorations were mainly focused on drawing, but this sparked her later creative work.
Through self-portraiture, Boikanyo tackles issues of self-identity. She uses her own hair as a metaphor for how she hides away from revealing her true self. Her photography and video installations are filled with the emotions and insecurities which denote a loner. Her work also conveys the attachment that she has to her own hair and the image she portrays to the outside world. Her influences range from musician Solange Knowles to artist Zanele Muholi, who have both documented black hair politics and voiced concerns about the black gaze.