Omang Malerato IV

Omang Malerato IV brings the series to its most commanding and immersive moment. Malerato stands within a field of red, black, and maroon, colours that resemble a fabric permanently stained with blood. This terrain continues the ancestral memory introduced in Omang Malerato III, but here it shifts from raw wound to ceremonial ground. The colours envelop her like an atmosphere, a reminder that her lineage has always carried both suffering and sovereignty.

For the first time in the series, Malerato’s entire body is wrapped in cowhide, sculpted from wool and hair. What was once contained in Omang Malerato II and unravelling in III now becomes a full, imposing garment. The hide extends far beyond the canvas, curving intrusively into our physical space. Its tangible presence pushes outward, forcing a distance between viewer and subject — not to separate, but to signal reverence. The viewer is no longer invited to look at her but must instead look up to her.

Malerato stands fully, firmly, as though she has stepped out of her imagined world and into ours. Her posture is upright and regal, carrying the weight of her ancestors and the resilience of a bloodline that refused to disappear. She is no longer emerging from the field of sacrifice; she is rooted in it, transformed by it, and elevated above it.

In this final form, Malerato becomes the embodiment of a parallel reality where the artist’s royal heritage is fully realised. Everyday materials — cowhide, wool, wood beads — have ascended into symbols of rulership. The imagined world has breached the edge of the canvas and asserted itself into ours, insisting that the ancestral story cannot be contained, diluted, or overlooked.

Omang Malerato IV stands as a majestic culmination of identity reclaimed — the moment where memory, imagination, and heritage converge into sovereign presence.