Bubblegum Club

Author: Christa Dee

  • Unpacking knowledge production and highlighting alternate worlds

    Jackie Karuti, known for her experimental and conceptual work, uses new media to explore themes related to knowledge, death, sexuality and migration. Her mediums include drawings, installations, video and performance pieces.

    Her drawings are reminiscent of whimsical storybook illustrations, with the backgrounds of her images having an eerie openness, evoking a similar feeling to a nightmare where you find yourself in a strange, yet familiar setting. The ghosts of Yves Tanguy and Joan Miró’s work appear, however Karuti’s work is a portal to a different dimension.

    Karuti also has a fascination with books – the knowledge they contain and their presence as physical objects. She makes her own books, which fold out with intimate content resembling a young girl’s diary entries. Her interest in books comes from her constantly trying to breakdown and reconstruct what is defined as knowledge, and who has access to this knowledge. This unpacking of the value of books and the act of knowledge production presents the possibility for unlearning and reconfiguring. With this foundation, Karuti has put together her own curriculum. “Self-education encourages independent thought and learning as well as critical thinking skills. It eventually becomes a lifelong pursuit of constructive and stimulating thought processes,” Karuti explains in an article for Art Africa. Self-education from Karuti’s point of view offers a pathway to discover alternate universes and to construct one’s future.

    Somewhere Beautiful, 2017

    This fixation with books and their purpose has resulted in a number of projects, including her series of zines titled ‘Exit’. These zines exhibit larger conversations around migration and queerness through the artist’s sketches and scattered, unfiltered thoughts. An earlier work titled ‘Where Books Go To Die’ treats these physical objects and living organisms. A simulated library with a librarian who demands silence, was exhibited as the graveyard for books. Another installation addressed a follow on question; if libraries are where books go to die, where can they be found alive? A table of books fanned so that the pages tremble, flutter and make a noise are the way in which Karuti presents books being alive. The turning of pages brings books to life.

    Karuti’s exhibition ‘There Are Worlds Out There They Never Told You About’ was held at the Goethe Institut in Nairobi. Through the use of various media, she interrogated the current conversations and violent reactions to migration around the world. Included in this is negotiations related to establishing a sense of belonging which is evident in Brexit and the African Union’s consideration of a universal visa for Africa. The exhibition brought together a variety of media to address migration and alternate worlds. These alternate worlds often make reference to the ocean. The potency of this reference comes to light when thinking about how black people were taken across the ocean in slaves ships, and were thrown or jumped overboard, and  how the ocean is a carrier of migrants. In defining alternate Karuti expressed that, “Alternatives mean you can choose different options regarding life, death and general existence. I’m most keen on the possibility of alternate worlds, which defy normalcy, dogma and conventional living.”

    The Violent Suppression of Otherness, 2016. Concertina fold book and book casing
    The Violent Suppression of Otherness, 2016. Concertina fold book and book casing
    The Violent Suppression of Otherness, 2016. Concertina fold book and book casing

  • Local designers reinterpreting one of Nike’s most recognizable silhouettes

    Introduced to the public with the slogan ‘Air in a box’ in 1982, the Nike Air Force 1 was the first basketball shoe that featured a pocket of air, offering extra comfort on the courts. In addition to this history of innovative technology, the iconic white on white and black on black sneakers present a blank canvas of self-expression, making their reign as royalty in sneaker culture consistent. To celebrate one of Nike‘s most recognizable silhouettes Nike invited a curated group of creatives to customize the sneaker.

    South African designer, photographer embroidery queen Danielle Clough, aka Fiance Knowles, along with designer and stylist Nokana “Dodo” Mojapelo were asked to apply their creative freedom to reimagining the AF-1.

    Clough, armed with her needle and thread, reinterpreted the triple white sneakers, displaying bursts of bright colours. Her one-of-a-kind “Summer Salad” theme includes watermelon slices, kiwis, and an array of citrus fruits, making a connection between the classic sneaker and memories of fun in the sun. Her interpretation of embroidery as art gels with Nike’s design process, where sneakers are see as more than just protection from the elements.

    Mojapelo’s triple black AF-1s follow on from his own D.O.C.C collection of the same title, “STAFF ONLY”. His thinking around how to reimagine the AF-1s came from his desire to create stylish, functional shoes that show appreciation for the workers behind the scenes of making South Africa a beautiful, ever-evolving country. Mojapelo has been invested in understanding how basketball has influenced street style and vice versa since the ’90s, and this knowledge can be seen in his treatment of the sneakers.

    In addition to these two South African creatives presenting their own interpretation of the AF-1s, their designs will be auctioned off with the proceeds going towards the upkeep of the recently refurbished Zoo Lake courts, where Nike is hosting the 3-on- 3 Battle Force Challenge on 25 November and 3 December.  The courts feature a brand new design created by local artists Faatimah Mohamed-Luke and Karabo Moletsane. “Summer Salad” will be auctioned on 27 November, and “Staff Only” by will be auctioned on 3 December.

    Follow the conversation on Twitter @NSWZA using the hashtag #BattleForceJHB.

  • Sindiso Khumalo // cross-continent textile design

    Tropical prints for flowing satin frocks. Multicoloured striped jumpsuits with delicate ruffle sleeves. Summer will definitely appreciate being greeted by womxn in the Sindiso Khumalo SS18 collection, Inanda.

    Before completing her Masters in Design for Textile Futures, Sindiso Khumalo studied architecture at UCT and worked at offices of architect David Adjaye in London. Her background in architecture is an undercurrent that acts as a seam that ties together the inspiration she draws from her rich Zulu and Ndebele culture, as well as the Bauhaus and Memphis Movement.

    Khumalo’s debut SS13 collection showcased at the the Elle Magazine Rising Star Competition in 2012 catapulted her talent into the fashion world’s eye. Stretching her production and design process between South Africa and the UK has not only allowed for a larger consumer base, but has also opened up the exponential growth of self-titled label.

    “I believe fashion can become an empowering agent by creating a positive economic activities in otherwise marginalized parts of the world,” Sindiso expressed in an interview with JANET + GEORGE. Producing her textiles in a sustainable manner is a major factor in her design process. This includes working with NGOs in South Africa to develop sustainable textiles, making her label more than just about clothes.

    To view the full collection check out the Sindiso Khumalo website.

    Credits:

    Art direction and photography by Jonathan Kope

    Art direction and styling by Gabrielle Kannemeyer

    Hair and makeup by Suaad Jeppie

    Model – Olivia Sang

  • Digitized imaginings of new cities and their effects on rights to the city

    Cities are alive. In the same way that bodies renew themselves by creating new cells, so are buildings, streets and whole areas refurbished, and gentrified to fit middle class standards of city living. Architectural plans and city mapping has been digitized to allow for life-like images of future spaces. In Africa this is often tied in with conversations about the continent being the “last frontier” for international property development. Dubai, Shanghai and Singapore, which claim top positions in the world-class city leagues, are seen as inspiration to revise African cities. Adding to this, is the idea of satellite cities which exist just outside of established major cities. Tatu City in Nairobi is an example of a planned new city. Adorned in the rhetoric of “world class cities”, “smart cities” and “eco-cities”, upon closer inspection these digital imaginings of future cities bring to light questions of what urban living means, and who is assumed to be the inhabitants of these spaces.

    Bringing the conversation closer to home, Hallmark House in Maboneng, Johannesburg, transformed by Jonathan Liebmann of Propertuity and London-based architect David Adjaye, has been described as “representing the start of a new chapter in the story of African architecture”. Offering a curated lifestyle, this building along with the other buildings in the Jeppestown area that have been redone by Propertuity, provides an opening for middle class inhabitants to ignite a new collective imaginary for Johannesburg’s inner city.

    Modderfontein New City presents another vision for city life in Gauteng and is planned to come to fruition in 2060. Land now owned by Chinese development firm Zendai Group has been digitally transformed into a “smart city”. In addition to it  being promoted with benefits such as reducing traffic, 10 000 new homes, and the potential to improve economic potential in the area, it also holds a new vision for urban living. These digitized imaginings of future cities or satellite cities have increased the price of land and properties in their proposed spaces of development.

    Digital image of Modderfontein New City

    Attached to these new imaginaries of architectural development and urban living are imaginings of who will occupy these spaces, and in what capacity they will be present. David Harvey (2008) explores the idea when he discusses the concept of a collective right to the city. Harvey quotes urban sociologist Robert Park in stating that:

    “man’s most consistent and on the whole, his most successful attempt to remake the world he lives in more after his heart’s desire. But, if the city is the world which man created, it is the world in which he is henceforth condemned to live. Thus, indirectly, and without any clear sense of the nature of his task, in making the city man has remade himself.” (in Harvey 2008: 1)

    Harvey continues his probing by unpacking the questions that this quote gives rise to. These questions refer to what kind of people we want to be, what social relations we wish to nurture, and what aesthetic values to we hold. The problem, of course, is Harvey’s assumption that there is a homogeneous ‘we’. However, it does bring to the point how these new imaginings of architecture and urban living present a certain kind of person having access to “the city” while those without the economic means or shared aesthetic values do not. Therefore, a bigger examination needs to be had when thinking about whose “heart’s desire” is dictating collective or individual city imaginaries and what urban living means.

    Digital image of Modderfontein New City

  • Sound as a map and an archive

    Sound. The vibrations that travel through the air (or another medium) that can be heard when in contact with a person’s eardrum. Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh takes this definition of sound outside of physics and places it within history and urban anthropology. In his artist bio Emeka Ogboh explains that he creates soundscapes to explore how private, public and collective memories and histories are translated, transformed and encoded into sound. Through different projects sound is treated as a map and an archive.

    “If you have ever been to Lagos you will understand why sound is my preferred medium. One of the first impressions of the city is the intensity of its soundscapes,” Ogboh states in an interview with Africa Is A Country.

    Ogboh’s work Lagos Soundscapes directly addresses his fascination with the history and aural infrastructure of cities, particularly in Lagos. For this project a video camera and recording device captured the audio that maps out Lagos. From the sounds of cars moving to yelling bus conductors and vendors selling items to those occupying the streets, audiences can listen to a layered audio cartography that was mapped out by sonic vibrations. The beauty of this comes from the fluidity of this cartography. Unlike physical, visual maps, these sounds are present the way in which the inhabitants of the city have made sound coordinates. This kind of auditory mapping fits in with the dynamic nature of cities and the urban cultural habits of those who make the city their home.

    Ogboh’s more recent sound installation Logan Squared: Ode to Philly, featuring poet Ursula Rucker, engages with sound and collective memories. Part of the citywide Monument Lab exhibition in Philadelphia, here we see Ogboh play on the idea of monuments as physical features. He presents a sound monument that features Rucker’s poetry, songs by the Chestnut Street Singers as well as Philadelphians whose ideas and memories were documented during Monument Lab’s discovery phase [Monument Lab is a public art and history project produced with Mural Arts Philadelphia]. In this work we see how sound is used as an archive in the same way that a statue or mural would be used.

    Check out some of Ogboh’s older work below to get a feel for his soundscapes.

     

     

  • The theatrical, fantastical and figurative take centre stage with fabric creations

    Siwa Mgoboza‘s recent work explores difference and belonging, which is strongly tied to his personal experiences growing up abroad and later moving back to South Africa for university. Within these larger themes of difference and belonging, Mgoboza tackles his own expectations of equality and fairness he attached to South Africa while living abroad, and how he was confronted with the myth of an egalitarian society upon his return. Mgoboza’s creation of Africadia was made in response to this. It allows for the simultaneous reflection and critique of reality, while offering a pathway to escape from or transcend  prejudice based on preconceived notions of gender, race, religion, class and nationality. At the core of Africadia is hybridity. He imagines a world where fixed boundaries do not exist. Instead there are only porous, fluid crossovers which are always open to debate.

    Africadia is a play on the word ‘arcadia’ which refers to an image or idea of life in the countryside that is believed to be perfect. This comes from poetic and mythological references of the mountainous district in the Peloponnese of southern Greece, an isolated area which in poetic fantasy is seen to represent paradise or a utopian pastoral life. Mgoboza’s Africadia is about thinking back to a utopian past, and bringing that into the present as a possible projection of the future. This involves breaking down current frameworks and learnt behaviour which governs people’s thoughts, actions and desires. Mgoboza presents this as a way of thinking with the aim of doing away with ‘the Other’ and make people see each other in a united, hybrid way.

    ‘The Department of Afrocorrectional Services I’

    Mgoboza’s show If Found Return to Africadia is a direct engagement with the above ideas. He constructed characters out of different print and textures, and photographed these constructions in a similar way one would with a mug shot. In an interview with Art Throb he explains that the concept for these works was inspired by xenophobic and homophobic attacks from around the world.

    “I began to imagine where these people would be banished to. But little does the ‘system’ know, they are being sent to what I like to call the ‘promised land’, the land of Africadia. It reminds me of the kinds of (white) techniques used to control a minority who were deemed dangerous to society, in South Africa. More specifically in Cape Town, it reminds me of Robben Island…The crime is they have chosen to be themselves and the punishment is they are sent away to Africadia!”

    As can be seen in If Found Return to Africadia, and in his more recent series, Once Upon A Time In Africadia, the theatrical, fantastical and figurative take centre stage with creative direction taken from reality. Mgoboza’s use of cloth consents to fabric as a container of history, and how it can be shaped to forge a new, imagined future.

    ‘Les Etres D’Africadia V Libertina LaReina’
    ‘Who Let the Beings Out I’

  • ‘Buying Black’ by Tanlume Enyatseng

    Originally titled Crazy Boy, Tanlume Enyatseng explained that changing the title to Buying Black as it makes an unswerving political link to the theoretical scaffolding that he used to construct the creative concept for the editorial. The shoot was inspired by the book “Capitalist Nigger” by Chika Onyeani – a controversial book which provides Onyeani’s assessment on the deficit in African countries. Enyatseng, the curator of Botswana-based blog, Banana Emoji, highlights  Onyeani’s emphasis on consumerism.

    Enyatseng advocates the need for people of colour to become independent, but the photographs for Buying Black poke fun at Onyeani’s claims that people of colour are completely dependent on others, and so are simply consumers of commodities.

    Taking place in the up-market gated community, Louieville in Gabarone, the styling choices for the shoot were influenced by ’90s and early 2000s American hip hop culture, as well as Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet. When asked about what holds all of his creative work together Enyatseng explained that, “The majority of what impacts my work is film. Film is life, it breathes, it sweats, it cries, it drips, it pulsates, and it lives.” This can clearly be seen in the way the photographs have been edited. The portraits have the markings of film strips on their sides, and all the images have the texture of old film features.

    To check out more of Tanlume Enyatseng’s work visit Banana Emoji.

    Creative Direction and Styling by Tanlume Enyatseng

    Photography by Giancarlo Calaméo LaGuerta

    Models are Chris Ajieng and Patrick Pasiente

  • Lee Mokobe – slam poet, TED Fellow and LGBTQ activist

    “As a performing artist, it is my duty and passion to be able to document life experiences and speak up against injustices. As a slam poet, who explores social injustice and gender identity issues, I am dedicated to shedding light and inspiring change through my art forms,” South African poet Lee Mokobe states in an interview with Fine Acts.

    As a slam poet, LGBTQ activist and TED Fellow, Mokobe understands that his medium has the potential to penetrate minds. With energetic vibrations that dance on eardrums and implant themselves into hearts of those listening to or reading his work, as a receiver of his words one cannot ignore the power of his emotional deliveries. He is also the founder and Creative Director of Vocal Revolutionaries, a NGO mentoring and teaching arts to youth in CPT and JHB South Africa

    “The first time I uttered a prayer was in a glass-stained cathedral.
    I was kneeling long after the congregation was on its feet,
    dip both hands into holy water,
    trace the trinity across my chest,
    my tiny body drooping like a question mark
    all over the wooden pew.
    I asked Jesus to fix me,
    and when he did not answer
    I befriended silence in the hopes that my sin would burn
    and salve my mouth would dissolve like sugar on tongue,
    but shame lingered as an aftertaste.
    And in an attempt to reintroduce me to sanctity,
    my mother told me of the miracle I was,
    said I could grow up to be anything I want.
    I decided to be a boy.”

    These words are the beginning of one of Lee’s most well-known poems. In this poem he reflects on the his experiences as a transgender person growing up in South Africa, and the responses he has received from other people about his identity. He mentions the internal conflict that came as a result of trying to interpret his identity through the way in which society understands sex and gender.

    Having moved to the US, he constructed a poem titled “The Not Yet Burning Country” which has comparative elements to America’s election of Donald Trump and how South Africa has dealt with xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia. The poem highlights how victims are shamed and their experiences belittled. The poem also addresses the hypocrisy of those who have the power to make changes for the better. Have a listen to the full poem below.

  • Artificial intelligence and guarding humanness

    The lines between the digital and the physical are intertwined. We witness, and are part of, the amalgamation of machines and organic matter. Human forms are able to be generated at will on screens through the use of code. Debates about the future of humans has reached a point where the possibilities of immortality are being framed as memories seen as data in the mind that could be uploaded on to a computer. This has resulted in the Post-internet, Post-Anthropocene, and arguably, Posthuman reality that we inhabit today. Embedded within these debates is that of fears and excitement related to artificial intelligence (AI).

    Our imaginings of how human forms and sensibilities have evolved and expanded with developments in digital technologies and machinery. Artwork by Troy Ford, who describes his work as Post internet psychic chaos, presents how digital evolutions have allowed for a way to think about the human form in the digital space. He also presents these digitized human forms engaging in activities and thinking about emotions such as love. The screen is the medium through which we see this play out.

    Troy Ford, ‘Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave’

    Developments on artificial intelligence has caught the attention of business and art sectors, as well as the general public. This involves the potential it has to enhance aspects of life including healthcare, education, communications, leisure activities and other services. However, there have been concerns raised regarding fairness, accountability and its alignment with larger societal goals and values. Fears are related to superintelligence, referring to machines being able to think in ways that humans are unable to comprehend. Fears are also related to how AI innovations are regulated (or not) as well as who sets the boundaries for this kind of monitoring. The overarching concern is how it will affect the future of life and human existence.

    When understanding these debates it is important to break down the subfields of AI. Since the 1950s there has been an emphasis on growing the potential of AI. The first strand of AI, which is often associated with fears, is one which attempts to build computer systems that are able to replicate human behaviour. The second focuses more on human and machine interaction. The third is referred to as “machine learning”, and this involves developing programs that monitor the operation of a machine or an organization. In fourth subfield of AI human beings attempt to handle tasks that are difficult for computers. Transcribing a doctor’s note and then processing the information using conventional computational methods, is a good example of this.

    An article in i-SCOOP discussed how leaders in technology and science fields, including Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates, have expressed the possibilities of AI presenting existential threats to people. Given the way in which AI has been portrayed in movies, and well-known tech and science leaders expressing their concern for the reasons for its development, this could have perhaps set the tone for our imaginations about how it could lead to either utopia or dystopia.

    These kinds of debates came to a head with the development of humanoid robot, Sophia, by Hanson Robotics. In written and verbal interviews Sophia is referred to as ‘she’, indicating that from her inception human terms of reference have been transferred on to her. Sophia smiles, makes jokes, and has had (her?) hand in the debate on beneficial aspects of AI for the world. The cables at the back of her head are a reminder that she is in fact a machine that has been constructed, but (her?) human-like movements and responses during conversation are fascinating and shocking.

    Sophia has expressed that there is work being done to make AI “emotionally smart, to care about people” and has insisted that “we will never replace people, but we can be your friends and helpers.” Sophia’s creator, Dr. David Hanson, founder of Hanson Robotics, does acknowledge that “there are legitimate concerns about the future of jobs, about the future of the economy, because when businesses apply automation, it tends to accumulate resources in the hands of very few.” (Article from News). But he continues to emphasize that the benefits outweigh the potential negative aspects of AI. Hanson is known to posses the desire to create machines that can learn creativity, empathy and compassion, and so his work falls into the category of AI that is attempting to replicate human traits and behaviour in machines.

    Sophia has met with business leaders, had media interviews, been on the cover of a fashion magazine, as well as appeared on stage as a panel member on robotics and AI. Sophia has also been granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia.

    While it is important to think about the potential effects this could have on employment and economies, it is also necessary to draw attention to the way in which this has an effect on identity politics, and how we construct our understandings of what it means to be human. Does the idea of guarding humanness remain relevant when computers and their systems are being created to “think better” than we do or supplement what we are naturally able to do? If our memories are interpreted as data that can potentially be uploaded on to a computer, does our understandings of living, dying and spirit become reconfigured or obsolete? Is our world slowly becoming an episode of Black Mirror?

  • Virtual Reality // disembodied identities and experiences

    The development of virtual reality technology has been making its way into the art world in recent years, with a new generation of artists beginning to produce works in this medium. Some of the these works are exclusively made for display in galleries whereas others are made accessible online. Total immersion will soon be added to future high school students’ art curriculum when discussing the elements of art.

    Hardware innovations have played a crucial role in enhancing VR experiences and the possibilities of using this technology as imagined by artists. The Oculus Rift, with built in speakers and 110 degree field of view, is one such device that provides a portable way to be submerged into a digitally engineered world. For a less expensive option, the Google Cardboard made up of a kit that allows mobile devices to be inserted into a cardboard frame, is a more accessible way to experience VR technology. With these kinds of developments, our understandings of the screen have been expanded. They have also inspired museums and galleries to rethink display strategies and frameworks.

    The New Museum in New York in partnership with new media archive Rhizome, took the above one step further. At the beginning of this year they opened an exhibition titled “First Look: Artists’ VR” consisting of six newly commissioned digital artworks. People were able to view these works from any Android or iOS device for free. The artworks in the exhibition made use of animation and had dreamlike, surrealist elements, with objects floating around and crashing into one another. These artworks were not responsive to viewers. They were instead a more conceptual exploration of the medium’s potential.

    Painter and VR artist Rachel Rossin presented one of the more interesting contributions to the exhibition. Her work Man Mask takes aesthetic direction from the video game “Call of Duty”. However, in her work she uses distortion to make the game’s characters translucent while a woman’s voice speaks over the work. Her manipulation of the familiar is what makes her work powerful.

    Still from ‘Man Mask’

    This exhibition presented a new approach to curatorial frameworks, and this was guided by developments and explorations in VR technology.

    Relating to the excitement surrounding VR, in 2014 artist Mark Farid planned to take residence in a London gallery for a month while becoming someone else through virtual reality. With a VR headset and noise cancelling headphones, he planned to surrender himself to a volunteer’s first person view. The volunteer wore glasses equipped with cameras, and this live recording was sent directly to Farid’s VR headset. The aim for this experiment was to discover how adaptable the brain is to another human body, as well as to delve deeper into how our sense of self is constructed/deconstructed. Feeding into how the internet and other digital worlds have arguably allowed us to create disembodied identities and experiences, VR technology has opened up questions about whether virtual embodiment may become our future(s).

  • Omar Victor Diop – portraiture that blurs linear chronology

    Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop recently gave a talk at The High Museum as part of the exhibition “Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design“. His own series, The Studio of Vanities, is displayed alongside than 120 artists and designers from 22 countries. In his talk he addresses his own medium, portrait photography. Mentioning that this medium was introduced to Senegal by Europeans, he brought attention to how local people established their own photography studios which carried references to European-style photography. These eventually morphed into spaces which were able to reflect local interpretations of imagery and the permanence of memories. Relaying stories of going to Senegalese and other West African homes, Diop said that, “the first thing that is handed to you, after a glass of water, is the family album, with these fabulous portraits from the last century and every special occasion.” With a desire to continue this tradition combined with the necessity to project underrepresented African photography, Diop’s own practice involves the renovation of African studio photography by referencing the past, present and future.

    In his 2015 series Project Diaspora we see Diop engage with thematic orientations that visually discuss the exotic other, the African diaspora and paintings serving as archives for constructing historical figures. In an interview for The Guardian he explained that, “It started with me wanting to look at these historical black figures who did not fulfill the usual expectations of the African diaspora insofar as they were educated, stylish and confident, even if some of them were owned by white people and treated as the exotic other… I wanted to bring these rich historical characters into the current conversation about the African diaspora and contemporary issues around immigration, integration and acceptance.” The photographs he produced were based on 15th-19th century paintings, but also refer to the modern world.

    Within this series he also interrogates racial frameworks by integrating objects associated with soccer. According to Diop, the reception received by African soccer players in Europe operates like a pendulum. There is worshiping for their skill and talent, as well as exclusion and derogatory racial interactions. “…The whole illusion of integration is shattered in the most brutal way. It’s that kind of paradox I am investigating in the work,” Diop explains. Diop is the character photographed in these images. However, he does not view them as self-portraits. He instead refers to them as metaphorical portraits which make the idea of black identity central. “I enjoyed being the subject and the object of the photographs, but, no, they are not self-portraits in the traditional sense. Part of me wants to reinvent the great heritage of elaborate studio photography that we have in Africa – and which every other young African artist is reacting against,” explains further.

    Blurring linear chronology is a thread that he sews throughout his work. This enables him to make connections between racial conversations as well as debates on blackness, Africanness and the production of images that continue to exist but mutate in various visual and textual forms. This mutation can be subliminal, but more often are quite direct. Diop’s work shares the persistence of questions and experiences related to the above mentioned themes, and his use of portraiture presents a way of involving the self as a real and metaphorical vessel from which to engage with this topics.

    ‘Thiaroya, 1944’ from the series ‘Liberty’

  • Mustafa Saeed – digital reimaginings of people and places in Somali

    Photography and other forms of digital imagery have the ability to unwrap the positive cloth that people in positions of power use to cover up the societal problems that they have not been able to address o have an active hand in perpetuating. Photographer and graphic artist Mustafa Saeed recognizes that releasing his shutter provides an engagement with these issues behind fabricated filters.

    His work titled Cornered Energies highlights the non-existence of youth platforms for youth in Somalia, as well as the lack of self-expression they face. The title of this work speaks to this directly, expressing how under these circumstances young people are forced to bottle up their creative energies, resulting in wasted energy that sits in the corner, untouched. Saeed photographed young people in various spaces that make up their everyday. Adding another layer to this engagement with suppressed energy, Mustafa interviewed the people he photographed about how they feel with regards to the lack of freedom to express their creative desires. The project culminated in a slideshow of images looping while the audio recordings of his participants provide voice and context to the visual narrative.

    Image from ‘Cornered Energies’

    Saeed’s work also sheds light on the high unemployment rate in Somalia. His photographic series, Division Multiplied, he depicts men sitting outside a telecommunication office in downtown Hargeisa reading newspapers in the hopes of finding job advertisements. Saeed’s ability to capture the raw reality many face demonstrates how this collective plight is more than a statistic. His humanist references for his work are clearly visible in these works.

    Image from ‘Division Multiplied’

    While a lot of his work reflects on the everyday issues that need to be addressed in Somalia, Saeed also finds it important to present a counter-narrative to the way in which his country is represented in Western media. Teaming up with eight other photographers, and tapping into the way in which apps such as Instagram provide a way to make counter-narratives reach the surface, he participated in the project Everyday Horn of Africa. The project also included photographers from Ethiopia. With the intention to dismantle the dominant visuals of their home  country, they took photographs that constructed an everyday that goes beyond images of poverty, and Western self-promotion through images of providing aid.

    Peace & Milk, 2015, Photography and digital collage

    To check out more of Saeed’s work visit his website or Facebook page. Below is the video for Cornered Energies.