In Living Water: Mosa Anita Kaiser’s mystifying and engaging works

Viewing one of Mosa Anita Kaiser’s works is often a slow and considered process on account of their rich nature. Colour and texture present themselves in excess in her photographs, not to the point of spoiling them, but rather to achieve fixating and wholly mystifying ends.

Take her In Living Water series for example, where the deep hues of yellow function as a striking and compelling backdrop to a subject so still that the water practically turns to silk before you. Or her softly-lit series of nudes, each one delivering its own restless energy through natural textures and shrewd composition.

Currently studying fine art in Grahamstown, Mosa’s an artist who best finds expression through her photography. Her works ride a stringent line between the conceptual and the experimental. This balance, she says, is an important part of her overall process.

“I think it is really important because for one, it helps me maintain my sanity and bearings with art making and two, because I find it very productive. The conceptualisation gives me structure and drive, while the experimentation gives me breathing space and prevents me from getting lost in my own head,” she explains. 

More broadly, Mosa is interested in perceptions of the ‘Art World’ and its various structural enclaves as well as both fostering and understanding the conversations stimulated by artworks. 

“It’s always hard to articulate what conversations I want to come from the works. I have an attitude of taking and working with whatever manifests which comes from trusting the work in that it will manifest. But at the same time, I’d say these works come from deeply personal spaces and I’d hope to find that people can relate and identify with these spaces,” says Mosa. “Conversations that I usually deal with in the thinking process of producing these works, this year, have centered around questioning the ideas of ‘The Art World’ and ‘The Artist’ as well as a constant affirmation of humanity that comes from looking at intersectionalities, so I think I’d like to see the audience engage and converse around this.”

Find more by the artist on Instagram.