Author: Christa Dee

  • Unpacking feelings of displacement

    I interviewed photographers Nobukho Nqaba, Thandiwe Msebenzi and Sitaara Stodel about their upcoming exhibition, Displacement.

    Having met while studying at Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT and being exposed to each other’s individual creative practices, being awarded the Tierney fellowship solidified their desire to thread together the similarities in their work.

    They each create work based on their own experiences, with their art practices providing an avenue for reflection, questioning and unraveling. Sitaara’s current work revolves around the themes of home, identity, memory and exploring the subconscious. Nobukho prefers not to box her work into fixed themes, but has created work that focuses on migrant life, movement and otherness, and has recently made a body of work about mourning, letting go and “finding my own self”. Thandiwe’s recent work addresses rape culture and the silencing of womxn in places of comfort.

    The title of their exhibition refers to displacement both figuratively and literally, and the impact that comes from feeling out of place. “We talk about issues of being lost and this loss comes from being in spaces that are not permanently ours. These are often spaces that are supposed to provide comfort and those spaces include the home,” Nobukho explained. Their work addresses how in these places of comfort issues of power arise and manifested through enactments of particular understandings of masculinity in relation to the female presence. “We felt that we need to have this collective voice and bring about this educational exhibition to bring issues around movement, otherness and displacement to the fore,” Nobukho explained.

    A House is Not a Home, 1 – Sitaara Stodel

    In Sitaara’s series of works titled Suburban Dream she uses photography as a “tool for suspension of belief”. In her work A House Not A Home, 1 Sitaara uses collage and photography to create the illusion of looking at a landscape of houses. However upon closer inspection the viewer notices that it is in fact a small set with cut outs of images of different houses, lit up to look like middle class suburbia at night. This brings into question the understanding of photography as a form of documentation that reveals ‘the truth’. Sitaara also explains that this work is part of her exploration of her memories of constantly having to move with her mother and sisters as a result of being evicted from middle class houses they could not afford. “This photographic series is almost like looking at all of the homes I lived in and the cross-over of memories that I have with these houses,” she explains. The theme ‘eviction’ is used in her work as an “echo” to her own experiences of growing up but also speaks to South Africa’s history of evictions, which has a large influence on her feelings around the importance of unpacking feelings of displacement. “All of us being woman of colour, I feel that we have an understanding of how people treat us differently, struggling to feel like we have a ‘place’ – a place in South Africa, a place in the art world, a place to exist safely etc.”.

    Ndiyayekelela Undibizela kuwe IV – Nobukho Nqaba

    Nobukho uses photography to document her performativity. “I perform and document what I do and the final work becomes the photograph of the actual performance,” she explains further. In her current body of work displacement happens as the result of a state of mind because of longing for her father who has passed on. “At the same time I am fighting certain emotions that hold me back and I use material that is reminiscent of a migrant and a miner which speaks a lot about the history of [migrant life] in South Africa. I use my own female body to fight a male presence that is haunting me both in a good way and in a bad way”. The materials that she uses contain the narrative of being displaced from a place of familiarity for her father who worked on the mines. Nobukho wraps herself with these materials, “often burdening myself with an absence that is continuously present in my mind and also trying to let go but finding it difficult because I am my father’s child.”.

    “indawo yam”- my place – Thandiwe Msebenzi

    Thandiwe has two works on show that dissect displacement. A photograph of her standing on a ladder carrying a man’s blazer in her hand titled “kwawze kubenini”- for how long reflects on the question “how long will I have to climb ladders as a woman to be seen?”. This works unpacks the sense of displacement womxn feel when trying to exist in anti-feminine spaces. In the work “indawo yam”- my place Thandiwe is photographed sitting on a small hill covering herself with a lace curtain, creating her own place of safety.

    Thandiwe expressed the importance of this exhibition outside of the themes that they unpack. She highlighted the difficulty in finding womxn photographers of colour as references or sources of inspiration in the library besides the work of Zanele Muholi. “It becomes important to have this exhibition because we are all individual photographers working in a variety of creative and exciting ways,” she expressed. Thandiwe added that they thinking about working on an idea after the exhibition in the spirit of opening up a space for womxn photographers of colour, and creating an archive. So watch this space!

    Displacement will open on the 4th of May at 99 Loop Gallery in Cape Town.

    Dreamscape – Sitaara Stodel

     

    “kwawze kubenini”- for how long – Thandiwe Msebenzi
  • BLAC Designs x Anna Bu Kliewer – Phenomenal Woman

    “I am a Woman

    Phenomenally

    Phenomenal Woman,

    that’s me”

    – Maya Angelou

    Taking the words of Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Phenomenal Woman’ as their map, Cape Town’s luxury bag brand BLAC Designs teamed up with mixed media artist Anna Bu Kliewer on a collage project titled Phenomenal Woman.

    In an interview with founder and creative director of BLAC Designs Hamzeh Alfarahneh expressed that women have always been the primary source of inspiration for her designs.  Intrigued by London-based artist Anna’s deconstruction and reconstruction of found images through a surrealist lens and the political undertones in her work, Hamzeh felt as though Anna would be able to bring his vision to life. Together they conceptualized four collage images as a way to pay homage to the multiple ways of being that women possess.

    Feminine collage

    With the poetic words of Maya Angelou, Safiyya al-Baghadiyya, Princess Walladabint al-Mustakfi and Anna Laetitia Barbauld resonating with both Hamzeh and Anna, they took these as their starting points, transforming the words and the feelings they evoked into Anna’s signature surrealist visuals. Speaking to Hamzeh he explained that each pair of image and poem speak to a particular theme. The Smoke collage and the words of Maya Angelou are paired to represent the power of women. The words of 12th century slave and writer Safiyya al-Baghadiyya work with the Floral collage reflect on the sexual power that women possess. The Scarf collage works with the words of Princess Walladabint al-Mustakfi of medieval Cordoba to reflect on the theme of diversity and freedom. The Feminine collage and the words of English poet and woman’s rights activist in the 17th century, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, speaks to the power of women to rise up. “We wanted whomever is looking at the project to relate with some or all of these woman, thus we have taken out any identifying features of the models,” Hamzeh explained.

    Phenomenal Woman forms part of a series of collaborations involving artists that BLAC will be working on throughout the year. Check out their website to keep up with what they have planned for the year.

     

    Floral collage

     

    Scarf collage
  • Bubblegum Club Stories Ep12

    In this episode we checked out Skullboy’s exhibition The Preoccupied Lives of Islands which explores how cellphone culture has connected us globally but divided us on an interpersonal level. We share Tabita Rezaire’s healing frequencies with behind-the-scenes footage of our cover shoot with her. Hakim Malema chatted to us about his staple look for our fashion feature. We also spoke to Rendani Nemakhavhani about the latest offering for The Honey from her and photographer Kgomotso Neto Tleane in collaboration with Nonku Phiri and Odendaal Esterhuyse. This performance piece forms part of Rendani and Kgomotso’s plan for the year – bringing the characters Honey and Gavini to life.

     

  • Hanneke van Leeuwen // A sculptural approach to photography

    Hanneke van Leeuwen // A sculptural approach to photography

    I had a conversation with Dutch photographer Hanneke van Leeuwen about her work and the time she spent visiting Johannesburg.

    Growing up with a mother who is a sculptor, Hanneke always knew she was going to take on some kind of creative practice. When she was 15 she received her first analogue camera as a gift from her mother, and began shooting portraits of her friends and other parts of her everyday life. She converted part of her room into a dark room to be able to develop the images herself. From these images she put together a portfolio and went to art school.

    Unsure of how to move forward with her passion after school, Hanneke began assisting other photographers which allowed her to fulfill her love for travelling. Five years ago she met photographer Viviane Sassen and was given the opportunity to become her first assistant. She expressed with gratitude that working with Viviane has helped her push passed the initial creative barrier she faced and has enabled her to find a direction for her own work.

    For Hanneke photography is like telling a story in short lines, like a poem. In explaining how she lets these stories unfolds she stated that, “I don’t think of a concept before I take them [photographs]. I just create them in the camera or afterwards in collages.”. Taking influence from her mother’s way of looking at human bodies, Hanneke creates her photographs in a sculptural way. With 20th century Surrealism as another point of reference, she constructs collages with her photographs, allowing her work to transcend the 2D surface. “I love the texture of skin. I love the texture of fabric, of the paper,” Hanneke expressed. The viewer is able to see the tape she uses the piece her collages together, creating more layers.

    She enjoys working collaboratively with other artists.  “I want to share things. I want to create with other people,” she expresses. With a desire for creatives to help each other more, Hanneke was encouraged by the collaborative energy that she witnessed while spending time in Johannesburg. “It is so special that people here are aware of their backgrounds and they can create something together.”.

    Among other things Hanneke is going to be working with Parisian artist Caroline Denervaud on a collaborative project that will be coming out in May/June.

    To check out more of Hanneke’s work look her up on Instagram or on her website.

  • ONE – creative and spiritual hybridity

    I had a conversation with multifaceted creatives and Vela Souls co-founders Yana Seidl and Nyaniso Dzedze about how they conjoined their creative and spiritual journeys. Working together with Tribe of Doris and Drama for Life, Yana and Nyaniso bring their performance piece ONE to life as part of the British Council Connect ZA Arts Programme for 2017.

    Nyaniso began his artistic journey at the Wits School of Arts. Since then he has been part of a number of well-known productions including the movie Hear Me Move, the TV show Ashes to Ashes, the theatre productions Shape and James Ngcobo’s Thirst, as well as interned at the dance company Forgotten Angle. In 2012 he was again invited to be part of Thirst which toured various cities. The final stop for this tour, Manchester, saw Yana and Nyaniso’s paths cross. Quite fittingly the arts tied them together romantically, creatively and spiritually. While Yana grew up in the UK, a lot of time was spent travelling with her family. This exposure to multiple ways of being influenced her perception of human expression and cultures. At school she realized she wanted to be a dance choreographer, a camera woman and something like a councilor, but better. As her creative journey has unfolded she has seen her herself come full circle, with her childhood vision being given flesh.

    In 2016 the couple took part in an emotional clearing journey called Spiral. Given the impact that they felt it had on their lives they travelled to Australia to become Spiral practitioners. Shortly after completing their training their creative practices and spiritual journeys conjoined, and Vela Souls was born. ‘Vela’ is an isiXhosa word which when translated to English means ‘to appear’. “We want people to step into themselves,” Nyaniso explains, “We want souls to appear in their entirety.”. This shift in their lives and creative practices centres the permeation of positive energetic frequencies to invite those in the presence of their work to open up to themselves and to the world. “Art heals people. It is just that now we are putting a greater, more conscious intention to heal,” Nyaniso explains. “We advocate a holistic approach to creativity,” Yana adds. The creation of their performance piece ONE under Vela Souls stems from this understanding of performance as more than entertainment, but a vehicle for healing.

    ONE is centred around mirror theory – the idea that everything we see and experience is a reflection of who we are and how we feel. “The idea that we are all different expressions of the same thing,” Yana elaborates. ONE is a performance that represents that unity. The show features Nyaniso as the main character who turns to the mirror whenever he has to deal with the outside world – the mirror symbolizing the “oneness” in the universe. The show also includes six dancers on stage performing choreography by Yana and Liz Collier in a film projection who embody The Woman in the Wind – an entity who represents the energy of creativity. The music created by Owl, Faisal Salah and Thembinkosi Mavimbela complement these elements, making the experience whole. Welcoming the audience to experience the hybrid between the creative and the holistic, to witness the vulnerability of the performers, the show becomes a moment of complete openness through voice, film and movement.

    The show will be running from the 20th -22nd of April at the Wits Amphitheatre.

     

    ‘This article forms part of content created for the British Council Connect ZA 2017 Programme. To find out more about the programme click here.’

  • Natalia Palombo – challenging the expectations of creative practice

    I interviewed Natalia Palombo about her work as an arts producer and how her research focusing on African contemporary visual art and film has manifest itself throughout her career.

    On your website you describe yourself as an “arts producer with focus on African contemporary visual art and film”. Could you please expand on this?

    I’ve worked within the fields of film and visual arts (predominantly) for around 10 years. In my last year at art school I became very interested in seminal West African films mostly from 70s – early 90s, from filmmakers like Gaston Kaboré, Ousmane Sembène, Djibril Diop Mambéty and Souleymane Cissé. I went on to do a Masters on the African film industry, looking quite specifically at the role African film festivals play in the distribution of African cinema. From that research, I went onto work with a Scotland-based African film festival called Africa in Motion Film Festival, and also programmed for organisations in Nigeria and South Africa.

    I then began to really miss working with artists, and for the last 3 years I’ve been working more broadly across the contemporary arts to produce projects with musicians, artists, writers, filmmakers, and so on. I was working mostly outside of the UK until last year,  when I opened a new project space which focuses on my research, based in Glasgow, Scotland.

    My work has always been interested in how you can use creative practice to change perspectives and challenge prejudice in the UK. Our arts sector here still serves as a vehicle to ‘preserve’ western perspectives and white supremacy, providing space for mostly white, middle class artists, as per usual. My new project space is trying to build mostly non-arts audiences to engage with authentic African and Caribbean perspectives that counter the narratives pushed through western media.

    Tell our readers about some of your research which extends from this.

    I hope all my work extends from this point.

    Tell our readers about The Telfer Gallery. Are you still involved in The Telfer Gallery in any capacity?

    I co-founded The Telfer Gallery in 2010 alongside a bunch of friends. I spent a couple of years on the programming committee before moving on to focus on my own research. I co-founded this organisation straight out of art school, so it played a big role in how I would go onto develop my career as a producer and a curator. I studied graphic design at art school, and at that point, all I knew was that I wasn’t going to be a graphic designer. This platform really allowed me to understand where my skills lay, and how I wanted to work with creative people to produce a socially and politically engaged practice. To be honest, it was here that I realised that I had no intention of creating work, and that my role was in creating spaces and places for more important voices to be heard.

    When we were designing the refurbishment for the new Many Studios building, we also designed a gallery space for The Telfer Gallery, so Many Studios continues to support this platform by giving the organisation space in kind. It complements The Gallow Gate really well as The Telfer Gallery works predominantly with Scotland-based artists, and producing more of a traditional exhibition programme which focuses on high-quality arts production. You can find out more about their programme on their website.

    Rum Retort
    Work by Graham Fagen, ‘Our Shared, Common, Private Space’ – Rum Retort (2016). Photography by Iman Tajik

    Tell our readers about some of the projects you were involved in as a freelance art producer – there are quite a few. Perhaps mention the ones you enjoyed the most or you felt related to your research directly.

    In 2016, I co-curated a group exhibition with Mother Tongue called Rum Retort. The exhibition sought to re-trace and activate the connections between Greenock, Scotland and the Caribbean, sited in the town’s former Tobacco Warehouse. At the height of trade to the port, Greenock received up to 400 ships from the Caribbean annually, arriving with sugar and tobacco, and now like the Caribbean, is a stopping point for cruise ships. Scotland’s role in the slave trade has long been a contentious issue. We have often pushed the blame towards England and focused instead on the role Scot’s played in the anti-slavery movement from 1780. Rum Retort was conceived in part to draw attention to Scotland as collaborators in the enslavement of nations.

    Ref: Scottish historian Stephen Mullen’s book “It Wisnae Us: The Truth About Glasgow and Slavery” is an interesting account of Scotland’s tangible links with slavery, focusing on physical legacy through the buildings and streets of the Merchant City.

    The Power of ZA (2014) is also a really important project to me. I co-produced The Power of ZA with a Scottish based design studio, Pidgin Perfect, for World Design Capital Cape Town 2014. The Power of ZA was a research project which served both as a big learning curve for me professionally, and also inspired a lot of my current projects through the connections made while in South Africa.

    This was one of the first freelance projects that I produced in collaboration with another organisation. This experience was important in terms of understanding how to manage two sets of objectives and expectations for one project. I struggled at points to make sure the research was portrayed in a way that was authentic, and also relevant to how my research is positioned. There were compromises that I had to make in terms of the ‘voice’ of this project – as an outsider I think it’s important to make sure the voice comes from the content and the artists, rather than the producers. However, the project also gave me the opportunity to meet incredible artists who I’ve gone onto work with in other projects. My follow-up project CC Joburg | Glasgow came from this research and allowed me to work with incredible artists Lindiwe Matshikiza, Dean Hutton and Anthea Moys, and has also been the seeds for my next project, Many Half Hours, with Mushroom Hour Half Hour.

    How do you feel this time working as a freelance art producer has shaped your understanding of what it means to be an art producer, as well as how it has informed how you approach your position as Managing Director at Many Studios?

    My time working as a freelance producer allowed me to travel to incredible places and these trips have undoubtedly shaped my research and changed both how I work and who I am as an individual. My research manifests in a number of ways, however, travel remains to be the most effective way for me to build ideas and learn about new artists’ work. When I’m reading, or even meeting artists from all over the world whilst at home, it’s definitely hard for me to fully detach from the hecticness of home! Visiting other cities gives me the chance to fully immerse myself in creative practice, and I’ve found my most important relationships come about in those periods.

    Unfortunately, I don’t get much time or resources to travel in my new role, but this realisation has definitely shaped how I work with artists that I invite to Glasgow. I think it’s important to create the space for visiting artists (in the broadest term) to engage with the city they’re in, to critique the city, and to make sure that the project is designed to be responsive to the moments that occur when you’re in a new place and meeting new people.

    Tell our readers about Many Studios. What direction do you see Many Studios going with you as Managing Director?

    Many Studios is a big beast! We’ve had such an incredibly journey building this business. We started in 2010, and ran as a voluntary directorship for the first five years. An opportunity came up in 2014 to refurbish a massive building in the East End of the city. We finally moved into the building in March 2015, and introduced 40 creative studios, two galleries, residency spaces and creative shop units. I’m the Managing Director of the organisation, but also the only staff member at the moment. This means my role is diverse, working across studio management, accounts, curation, community outreach, business strategy, etc! Thankfully, I get a lot of help from two advisory directors, Becca Thomas and Marc Cairns.

    The core of the organisation is the 70 creative tenants that work from the building on a day-to-day basis, but our public-facing programmes allow us to connect our tenants to international practice through The Gallow Gate, and locally, East End First Saturdays and Ross Street Market, our monthly culture festival and outdoor market, bring new audiences and entrepreneurial energy to the area we are in, whilst building unique partnerships that bolster footfall and grow the local economy.

    therouteswethread3
    The Routes We Thread by Arpita Shah and Paria Goodarzi, 2017

    Tell our readers more about the new space curated by you at Many Studios, The Gallow Gate.

    Through The Gallow Gate, I produce an accessible programme of creative projects but also responds to the intentional unconventionality of the space – a ‘gallery’ that doesn’t follow a white cube format, designed with modular openings allowing the room to collapse and expand, with broken walls and large, shop-front windows. We designed the gallery as such to challenge what people expect from creative practice, and to try to break down barriers of access and elitism within the sector.

    The 2017 arts programme will focus on live, temporal creative practice, tracing the process and development of included projects to consider the relationship between audiences and artists and to counter expectations within arts practice that discourages the idea of ‘failure’ and ongoing criticism of work placed within a gallery format.

    Since opening in March 2016, The Gallow Gate has experimented with methodology by introducing play and participation to build accessibility with our local and wider audiences, and to push the artists to challenge their own communication with audiences.

    Our 2017 programme invites 8 artists/collectives to undertake an on-site residency. Some of our residencies sit within existing programmes including Connect ZA (South Africa), Making More Art Happen (Zimbabwe), Stories, Stones and Bones (Heritage Lottery Fund), and invites artists from Scotland, Wales, South Africa, Zimbabwe, The Gambia, Nigeria, Cape Verde, Senegal, Morocco, Barbados and Pakistan to The Barras.

    Who or what are you excited about at the moment?

    I’m so excited about our next residency, Many Half Hours. From 22 May, Many Studios will be hosting a 2-week residency in partnership with Mushroom Hour Half Hour (Johannesburg). We’ve invited two incredible musicians to Scotland, Sibusile Xaba and Thabang Tabane, to collaborate with 6 UK based musicians to create new work. The core artists from the UK are Sura Susso, Omar Afif, Moctar Sy Sawane, Cassie Ejezi, Melanie Forbes-Broomes, Rayanne Bushell and Katie Armstrong, with other artists to be announced soon. The invited artists all come from diverse musical and traditional backgrounds. Most of the artists have never played together before, intertwining contrasting musical traditions to create a unique fusion of sound and movement. A series of live performances will be staged throughout the residency, inviting the public to trace the process of the collaboration. We have kora, drums, gimbri, guitar, cello, dance, writing all on one stage, with musicians coming from all over Africa: South Africa, Morrocco, The Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, to the UK.

    Some of you will know Mushroom Hour Half Hour –  an Experimental Music Imprint from Johannesburg doing incredible things. They curate location specific recordings featuring musicians that would not ordinarily play together – musicians from different generations, traditions and musical styles, to form unique, once-off collaborations. This residency is built around the theme of collaboration, both between Many Studios & Mushroom Hour Half Hour, and between artists in UK & South Africa. As well as inviting public to a series of live performances, “MANY Half Hours” will produce a series of recording sessions in and around Many Studios which will be hosted online.

    Anything else you would like to share about yourself or your work?

    I’m currently programming for next year at The Gallow Gate (from March 2017 onwards) and I’m always interested to chat to people about collaborations. Give me a shout if you’re interested in working with me to produce an exhibition/events/live performances in Glasgow.

    To keep up with Natalia or to get in touch with her check out her website, Twitter and Instagram. To keep up with work at Many Studios check out their website, Facebook and Instagram.

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
    The Routes We Thread by Arpita Shah and Paria Goodarzi, 2017

     

  • Rethinking documentary photography – A conversation with Giya Makondo-Wills

    Rethinking documentary photography – A conversation with Giya Makondo-Wills

    Giya Makondo-Wills is a young British-South African documentary photographer based in the UK. I had a conversation with her about her latest project They Came From The Water While The World Watched, within which she explores both sides of her heritage through the history of colonization and the clashing of beliefs.

    Tell our readers about your journey as a photographer and the approach you have to your work.

    I just enjoy working with people. It’s about human interaction and meeting people. I am able to explore and visualize things that I am interested in that I otherwise would not be able to do. Things around history and race. It might be impossible for me to put these into words in the same way that I can describe in pictures. Photography started as hobby. I used to take photos with my brother’s camera. I started studying photography when turned 18.

    What kind of themes do you like to work with? Perhaps you would like to talk about this through other projects you have worked on?

    I started an ongoing project around Coloursim titled I take these differences and make them bigger. In this project I work from the alleged speech by William Lynch, a speech which was given to slave owners in America. After a slave uprising he was brought from the Caribbean to teach slave owners how to control the slaves. In his speech he said if they put men against women, light skin people against dark skin people, the slave owners would be able to control the slaves. In the project I photographed various tests that have been used throughout history to separate people of colour. These are used in relation to the social media. I was on Instagram and saw a lot of hashtags related to light-skinned vs dark-skinned. I realized that the roots of these was in something that was implemented by Lynch. I find it interesting that that way of talking has continued.

    I also started another ongoing project by photographing her two grandmothers. One lives in a township in South Africa and the other in suburbia in England. Both women are incredibly similar. In the work I explore themes around identity and aspiration.

    Tell our readers about the title for your project They Came From The Water While The World Watched. Discuss how this relates to the themes you look at (i.e. clashing of beliefs, colonizer vs colonized, etc.)

    I don’t really remember how I came up with the title. I think I was in a lecture and someone said something about water and then I started piecing it together. But the title is referencing the first ships that came and landed in SA. ‘While the world watched’ is effectively saying that no one did anything about it because it was deemed normal. I am talking about Europeans here. The work directly carries on with the work on my grandmothers, which is looking at it from two sides. Being brought up in UK and being half British half South African, I think it does give me that dual perspective on themes of Britishness and South Africaness. In the work I am trying to find little pieces of both sides of my heritage in exploring this idea of a clashing of beliefs. The title talks more about beginning of European colonization in South Africa.

    sacred site

    You deal with contested topics in this work. What made you feel you wanted to explore this in your work? Perhaps you would like to mention the research you conducted for this project as well as your creative process?

    I came about it because my family in South Africa are pretty religious, Christian, but also have traditional ancestral beliefs. The combination of the two I have always found really interesting. The more I looked into themes around colonization it started springing up more and more – this kind of clash of beliefs and the attempt to rid a country of indigenous religion, which happened around the world. With regards to the research I conducted, I spent some time at the University of Johannesburg in their archives. But most of my research comes from talking to people. Especially with a subject like this, you have to have conversations with people. You are not always picking up a camera. Sometimes it’s just sitting and listening and observing, and sometimes you learn so much more this way. I get a more human perspective on it, because I don’t have a full understanding of it. I am just trying to understand people’s relationship with faith whilst looking at the historical implications of it.

    Tell me about how you think photography helps you capture the themes you are trying to explore?

    With this project in particular [They Came From The Water While The World Watched], it has given me the ability to visualize something that is hard enough to talk about. When you have a camera you can piece things together bit by bit, and you can make a story. Having a camera allows you to go into people’s lives and that is great because it becomes a two-way conversation. You make the pictures for your work and you can make pictures for other people. You can give them portraits or you can give them landscapes. And I really like that interaction. I am not just dipping in and out. I come back and I give people things and we continue our relationship. I think photography helps you build a relationship, and through the relationship themes are stronger. And they can also change completely. I can go into a project with one idea and come out of it with something completely different. It’s an amazing tool to be able to talk to people.

    © giya makondo-wills 3

    Elaborate more on your comment that, “This work looks from a new perspective regarding documentary photography and the western gaze.”.  How do you think your work deals with this?

    I think that the Western gaze and documentary photography are two things that have come hand-in-hand. I have been writing about it recently, non-African photographers photographing sub-Saharan Africa. It’s really easy to exoticize, to stereotype. It is easy to have pre-conceived ideas of what a country on the African continent is like. What you learn in school and what you know historically, depending on where you are from. More often than not it is quite an outdated view of countries on the continent, and the continent as a whole. Documentary photographers still pander to these stereotypes today. So I’m just trying to give a different perspective, you know, being from the West. I just want to make sure that my work isn’t feeding these old stereotypes. I want to show real people – how they are, and how I know them to be. I have been going to South Africa on and off since I was born so it is a country that I know. And I want people to see the South Africa I know.

    They Came From The Water While The World Watched will be shown on the 2nd of May at Assemblage in Johannesburg.

    To keep up with Giya and her work, check her out on Instagram.

    © giya makondo-wills 2


  • Bubblegum Club Stories Ep11

    In this episode we chat to Norwegian womenswear designer Edda Gimnes about the collection that she showed at SA Fashion Week. DJ Okapi shows us the right way to end off the week with old-school SA music on vinyl at The Q-Club in Maboneng. We speak to Young and Lazy designer Anees Petersen about the collection he showed at SA Fashion Week which embraced the brand’s streetwear roots. We also chat to Jake Singer about his multi-media exhibition RGB Sky which explores what Johannesburg might look like in the fourth industrial revolution.

  • Isaac Kariuki on internet culture, autonomy and identity

    Disillusioned by the idea that the Internet is a democratic space, digital artist Isaac Kariuki centres his work around internet culture, the body, autonomy and identity. I had a conversation with him about these themes, as well as his zine, Diaspora Drama.

    Having studied a BA in Digital Art, Isaac confesses that playing around with Photoshop was where he learnt most of what he uses to create his work now, which is a combination of solo, collaborative and commissioned work.

    Diaspora Drama issue 2

    As he started delving into more theoretical work, he realized that there was not much talk about the Internet in conjunction with African identities, or non-Western identities. “As someone who is from Kenya and who got on to the Internet thing very late as opposed to Western countries, I found we have our own structure and our own way of connecting with the Internet”. Isaac is interested in exploring those structures and relationships to connectivity, expressing that he thinks that the Internet is something that we can tether to what is going on politically, socially and culturally in non-Western countries, specifically African countries. Hence his focus on internet cultures and identity. “It is about what works in certain countries in certain contexts. So since the Internet is a Western territory, we have to go around it in certain ways to not get lost inside the western context and just like feed into it”.

    SIM card project

    Isaac’s ongoing SIM Card project was recently part of the exhibition Potentially “Flawless” in Toronto. In this project he looks at supposed “third world countries” and their relationship to the internet, and connectivity in general. With African countries having heavily embraced the cellular boom, he critically explores how cellular culture has become restricting and overwhelming. His work is a commentary on the monopoly that certain service providers have, and the limited narrative around connectivity created through their marketing strategies. As a way to subvert or mock the institutions that put forward this limited narrative, Isaac replicated the aesthetic of the advertising or what you would see on a SIM card, such as a smiling person. As a next phase in this project Isaac is working on developing a limited number of working SIM cards.

    “I enjoy how people of colour use the Internet,” Isaac syas. Coming from the understanding that the Internet is an unsafe space for people of colour, seeing people of colour create spaces where they can represent and express themselves is encouraging for Isaac. With the Internet being flattened out in the sense that anyone who has access to it can create a page, Isaac enjoys how people of colour are creating safe zones in the scary, unsafe structures of the online where other people of colour can get access to information. When asked how he would re-imagine the Internet, he expressed that the main servers would be situated in remote places across the world so that it could be taken out of the control of large American corporations.

    In keeping with the need for outlets for people of colour to share information represent themselves, Isaac started his zine Diaspora Drama in 2015. Using the word ‘Diaspora’ was important because he wanted to connect it with more light-hearted content about people of colour and their relationship to the Internet. Volume 1 of Diaspora Drama will be sold at the DIY Culture festival in London in May.

    Check out more of Isaac’s work on his website

  • 2BOP Litephase 4.1 Lookbook

    In their Litephase 4.1 lookbook 2BOP explores interesting ways of presenting a collection that is predominantly made up of t-shirts. Luke Doman explains that they were “trying to make the t-shirt the focal point without producing a bunch of straight up product shot type portraits”. In this lookbook the emphasis is on being able to wear a t-shirt in an interesting way “without the wearer having to be extra”. To create a sense of continuity in the 2BOP story, they worked with models that the brand has shot with before. “I really like brands who use characters to deliver their story, so the continuity was an important aspect. Introducing one or two new characters was also fun,” Luke explains. These characters are presented in a setting that is a contrast to the urban, heavy imagery they have been doing of late. “Calm and vulnerable were words we used to describe what we were going for, kind of how you feel when you’re in your room in your underpants on Sunday.”.

    The collection takes cues from mid ’80s to early ’90s home computer and arcade gaming, taking it back to the label’s roots as a t-shirt brand. “We also reference some of our favourite video game developers from that era and their logos, as well as the colour palette of the era,” Anthony Smith explains. Be sure to keep up with the label to see how they explore new terrain with their womxn’s line, and combine Ulfah Davids’ minimalist design aesthetic with their classic sportwear silhouettes.

    Photography: Kyle Weeks

    Styling: Luke Doman and Seraaj Semaar

    Models: Casey Redlinghys, Haneem Christian, Niyaaz Dramat, Shannon Kobison and Kelli Storm

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  • Tabita Rezaire – Transforming the screen into a gateway for healing frequencies

    Johannesburg-based digital artist, intersectional activist and Kemetic yoga teacher Tabita Rezaire is spreading love and inviting healing through her screen-based artistic practice. Having moved to Johannesburg a few years ago from Paris, she has been continuing to work within the Internet’s ecology to confront the legacies of colonialism and address our collective need for healing.

    Tabita navigates her personal life and art embracing decoloniality – a theory and practice that involves a de-linking from the West and becoming one’s own centre. She encourages us to unlearn and reboot as she tries to connect with herself, people and life with love and gratitude, and with the intention to heal herself and others around her.

    Her work is geared towards a spiritual technology and thinking about how we can become spiritual humans beings again. Through her “digital healing activism” she challenges our cis-het-patriarchal-racist-capitalist system through the use of the screen as her medium. Bringing an awareness to African cosmologies and the sacred power of the womb, she presents a diagnostic of the pain felt by Trans/Queer/Black/Brown/Femme beings and proposes a strategy through decolonial technologies which can allow us to reconnect with ourselves, each other, the earth and our ancestors to bring about holistic healing and an outpouring of love.

    Tabita’s work transforms the screen into a gateway, inviting the viewer on a spiritual journey. The screen becomes an interface which allows access to therapeutic vibrations, healing frequencies and tools for working towards “soundness”.

    The womb is a prominent symbol in her works. This is a push back against the demonizing, shaming and disposing of women’s bodies and femme energies which has polluted our world through patriarchal structures. Tracing back to times when femme-ness was celebrated, Tabita is invested in restoring our relationship with the womb and reviving an understanding of its sacred, love- and life-giving power. For her, addressing this disconnection from the womb offers a door through which we can learn to love ourselves.

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    Her first solo exhibition, Exotic Trade, will be taking place at Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg on the 8th of April. As a continuation of her digital decolonizing and connecting to the power that has come before her, this exhibition celebrates alternative ways of sharing and accessing information through what Tabita has called the “cosmos database”. As she has done with previous work, Tabita threads together ecology, digital technology and spiritual communicative practices to address the history and architecture of modern technology. She unearths hidden narratives, as in one of her works which discusses the origin of computing sciences being found in African divination. Her exhibition will also delve into ancestral communicative interfaces: the womb, sound, plants, ancestors and water as databases from which we can download information. She investigates water as a signal carrier from the internet to memories about the traumatic history of colonial routes, the disruption of oceanic ecologies, as well as the healing potential that water offers. The show includes six video arrangements and a series of five prints, a lightbox, and helper metal structures. She will include earthy materials such as copper and bismuth as a symbol of her desire to re-connect and celebrate with the earth.

    Analyzing the healing potentiality of sound, Tabita is also working collaboratively with FAKA, Hlasko, and Chi (Robert Machiri) to create a “healing soundscape” for the show. Her exhibition space will be used for a Kemetic yoga class on the 13th of April, followed by a conversation with Milisuthando Bongela from the Mail & Guardian. This transference of the experience from the screen and prints on display to an embodiment through physical movement speaks to Tabita’s emphasis sharing ancient wisdom in all areas of our lives.

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    tabita x bubblegum club

    Special thanks to the Goodman Gallery, BDSM Dominatrix and Snake Bite Assist for supporting the shoot.

    Shoot Credits

    Photography by Paul Shiakallis

    Styling by Jamal Nxedlana

    Hair & Makeup by Orli Meiri

    Bondage accessories by Mistress Kink & Master Grant (BDSM Dominatrix)

    Snake handling by Arno Naude  (Snake Bite Assist)

  • Meëk: creating spontaneous and mischievous illustrations

    I interviewed twin sisters Abigail and Claire Meekel about the playful and mischievous illustrations they create under the name Meëk.

    Tell our readers about you and your creative practice?

    Claire Meekel: I work with my twin sister Abigail Meekel to create ‘Meëk’. The way we come up with ideas is always spontaneous and comes out of nowhere. The thing that makes it special is if one of us gets inspired by a stupid idea and then we go off on a tangent where more ideas develop. We bounce off one another. I would say I am more into photography and animations. I have always had a fascination to reveal hidden things in trees, corners or buildings with a camera.

    Abigail Meekel: I just pick up a pen or a pencil, when I’m anxious, bored, inspired, in class, on a roof, at dinner, at this bar called Kitcheners, upside down, under the bed, in a bath, on the loo, at home affairs, during an exam, while I drive and often in my dreams.

    How did the journey for Meëk begin?

    Officially I would say the Meëk journey began 2.333 years ago in Amsterdam right after our experience in Berlin. Meëk is a movement that is formed by a collaboration between Claire Meekel and Abigail Meekel but we love working together with other artists to expand the movement. We are excited to work with this up-and-coming artist called Kayla Armstrong, although this collaboration isn’t really ‘Meëk’. It’s 3 young artists coming together. We are having an exhibition at The Room in Maboneng soon. The exhibition is a collaboration with Kayla Armstrong and Meëk. We are planning to exhibit paintings and installations, and we want to come up with creative and interesting ways of advertising the exhibition. The exhibition will be at the end of October.

    Expand on the idea of Meëk as a movement.

    Have you ever had an itch behind your eye? Not a twitch but an itch. Is there this thought that thumps at the back of your mind? One you’re unwilling to share for the fear that you might be fucked up. Fetish. The truth is that it’s a sensation triggered by an unfamiliar fixation and it resides in us all. The lie is that all those sensations are psychologically similar. Detail is within everyone, the thoughts they hide and the fetish they mask. Meëk reveals this all – extracting the truth by peeling the plastic faces one painful strip at a time. The embarrassment is eliminated ever so subtly but always embodying a beautiful crass. We filter fetish through yellow and blue. Red or green. White, black, orange or whatever hue we desire. It’s in this action that Meëk reveals the unfettered truth of characters in an attempt at a society where judgment becomes void and acceptance reigns King. Meëk parallels that which you are shy about to the complex hidden by the person walking next to you. Or even shitting in the stall next door. This gross illumination is our fetish. – written by Cassidy Matthysen

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    How do you like to describe your work?

    Nonsenses.

    Tell our readers about some of the work you have done. What are some of the projects you have created or been a part of?

    We have worked on a few music videos through animating and painting backdrops. The music video that we worked on was for a band called We Are Charlie. We are busy working on a few exhibitions around South Africa, most of which are showcasing animations and prints on paper. We also design posters for events and paint murals on walls.

    What are you working on at the moment? What can we expect from you this year?

    This year we are working on some fashion things, as well as more exhibitions incorporating installation art and music videos. We will collaborate with some incredible young artists and continue leaving our mark everywhere we go.

    Anything else you would like to tell our readers about you and your work?

    There are definitely some Meëk drawings around the world that people haven’t discovered yet. They could hide in a corner or even under a table or on the hidden side of a rock on a mountain…

    To keep up with their work and possibly get some clues about where their undiscovered drawings are, check them out on Facebook and Instagram.

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