Pippa Hetherington – portfolio

Contact the artist

https://www.pippahetherington.co.za/
07562 27013
pippa@pippahetherington.co.za

Exhibition information

In May 2026, I will present an exhibition at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, exhibiting alongside fellow local Oxfordshire artist Anita Joice.

I am a lens-based artist working with textiles and experimental processes. My practice draws on my family history as descendants of the 1820 British settlers in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and engages with the Great Fish River, which was designated as a formal boundary during periods of conflict. I work with pigment ground from rock, material long used by amaXhosa communities and later restricted under British rule. By reintroducing this pigment into my work today, I reflect on layered histories, inherited narratives, and the shifting ways stories are carried, marked, and retold through landscape.

Artist information

I am a South African photographic artist with a lens-based practice spanning over two decades. Working at the intersection of fine art and documentary photography, my work explores post-colonial identity, inherited memory, and the fragmented nature of personal and collective histories. I engage themes of erasure, grief, and belonging.

My practice extends beyond the photographic frame to include textiles and natural clay pigments, creating layered, tactile works that echo the land and bodies they speak from. These material gestures both extend and disrupt the image, evoking what cannot be seen but is always felt…what remains, stains, or fades.

My visual language also informs collaborations with NGOs, development agencies, and international publications. Through work across twelve African countries and years based in New York City, I have used photography to amplify voices at the intersection of social justice, environmental resilience, and grassroots development.

Now based in the UK, I continue to develop a multidisciplinary practice grounded in photography and expanded through material experimentation. I hold an MFA from the ICP–Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies (New York, 2019). My work is held in public and private collections and has been recognised by international juries, including shortlists for the Contemporary African Photography Prize in 2021 and 2022.