Cydney Eva is the founder of PatternNation, the umbrella under which all of her creative practices find a home. This includes mural paintings, installations, clothing and jewellery. Cydney, born and raised in East Vancouver on Unceded Coast Salish territory, is in Johannesburg on a two-month residency with Assemblage. I had a conversation with her about her work and desire to come to South Africa.
Cydney’s artistic journey began with her exposure to a number of artistic practices while growing up. With her mother running a children’s festival that saw companies from all over the world share their visual art, dance and theatre, the creative bug bit her quite early on. Cydney started in theatre and played with humour as well as explored the different ways we engage with one another. She carried this through when she began to focus more on visual art and fashion, stating that her work is about “connection, play and colour”.
Model Lucy Coren wears PatternNation painted clothing. Photography by Cydney Eva.
She describes her work as not fitting your usual visual art experience. It is more about creating immersive spaces. “That is more what I am interested in as an artist because I think we need to laugh together and talk more,” Cydney explained. She believes that creating these spaces for laughing together, playing together and being vulnerable with one another provides opportunities for learning and connection.
Reflecting on her family’s English heritage and describing herself as a “colonizing body” who is a “guest” on the land she calls home, Cydney is invested in creating patterns which are inspired by indigenous cultures and place value on thinking about art outside of a European framework.
Photography by Jason Bempong
Having fantasized about coming to South Africa to create work, Cydney was delighted to be part of a residency hosted by Assemblage. The collaborative opening night of her exhibition at Assemblage will be animated with performances by three South African experimental performers, as well as have some of PatternNation’s clothing and jewellery on display. Audiences can expect to see the entire space covered in patterns. Another element to the opening night will be interactive cloud sculptures made from custom made fabrics and balloons which will “create a more surreal space.”.
Cydney is collaborating with Elo Zar, Agord Lean and CostaBesta. Singer and songwriter Elo Zar will be bringing some of her experimental music and visuals. Agord Lean, who has also painted a portion of the space, will be putting on an installation meets rap performance. CostaBesta will be closing off the night in a space that has been painted specifically for him. To sandwich that all together, her friend and upcoming DJ from Vancouver Orla Adams aka OWABOWA , will be performing as well.
Be sure to check out the exhibition on Friday 7 April at Assemblage.
In this episode you see footage from our visit to the August House Open Studio Exhibition where we spoke to artists Neo Mahlangu and Themba Khumalo about the exhibition and their work. Phiko Mditshwa gives a taste of a “cultured look” in our street fashion feature. Okmalumkoolkat chats to us about his party, Partytime Shandees, hosted at The Tennis Club and his desire to create space for new, futuristic genres. We also visited the coffee spot Firebird Coffee in Maboneng for a short lesson on the art of coffee making. Mmaphuti Morule also chats to us about Air Max Day in Joburg and the celebration of this iconic sneaker.
I interviewed Silondile Jali aka Slomokazi about her project #Nonke, which she describes as art fashion. Collaborating with photographer Paul Shiakallis, as well as her brother Siviwe Jali, Desire Marea, Fela Gucci, Mantis Shabane, Mamauba Mobi Malahlela and Assent Lesego Mnewe as models, this work is a celebration of self.
Tell our readers about the title for your project, #Nonke
DJ Euphonik went on a twitter rant at some stage last year, where he called out certain individuals “on their shit” so to speak. As expected the twitter world responded and the whole saga ended when he said #Nonke (everyone) – which became quite huge. Since then the term #Nonke has been used in a number of ways, initially to insult everyone but later it was used in a more positive way, eg. Nibahle #Nonke. This project is titled #Nonke, which on the surface looks like it’s just a reference to the twitter storm that happened last year but it’s also completely unrelated to that, and more in tune with how people started using the hashtag in the positive sense, eg. Nginithanda #Nonke.
Zifo Zonke
Tell our readers about the concept for the work?
Around the time I needed to present my shoot concept to Paul, I was on social media (obviously) when I saw a post from a friend. It asked, “if you met yourself at a social gathering, would you hang with yourself?”. Such a simple question. So many layered answers. Initially I thought ‘no’…then ‘maybe’…but the more I thought about it, the more I came to see myself from a view outside myself. And I actually liked what I saw. Which then inspired me to celebrate myself, but to do that without being vain. The challenge for me, was not to be in front of the camera – but to take the pieces of who I am and, like a mirror, to reflect them back to me.
What made you decide to explore self-love/self-recognition/self-growth through a “self-squad”?
We’re all familiar with the idea of “me, myself & I” and if you think about it, that is your personal team – your self-squad. No one is one-dimensional. We’re all puzzles. Once I began dissecting the pieces of my puzzle, and digging deeper into the different parts of who I am, it became clear that we all have bonds with our environment, our sexuality, our history, community and culture. Regardless of whether your puzzle is complete, in progress or yet to start – we have these elements and our future self is essentially molded by how we interact, react and feel with these pieces to build a new image.
So having decided that I wanted this shoot to be about me, but not actually feature me. I had to find an alternative way to “cast” myself. This meant I had to break myself up into different parts and assign a face to represent and capture each part of me.
Tell our readers about some of the locations you chose for this project.
At the time of the shoot, I was still living in Joburg inner city, so it was my everyday environment and reality. I wanted to capture the textures, colours and backgrounds that I saw every day. I didn’t want pristine and polished backgrounds. All the locations from downtown Joburg and the rooftop in Hillbrow have a story of misunderstood beauty – which is also a sub theme in this work. Hillbrow also has what I think are some of the best views of Joburg, and the rooftop worked so well with my theme of eZulwini.
The locations basically served as the backdrop to the Story of Slo – which only dawned on me later that they’re also a metaphor for those hidden, unknown and less pretty sides of me. The environment became both a mirror and a rebellion to say that beauty does exist and thrive outside the set standards and boxes of style.
iGolide
Explain the look and feel you wanted to create in this shoot.
For the styling, I curated all the looks directly from my wardrobe as an extension of the self theme. Strangely enough, I didn’t have a particular look in mind. I really allowed myself to work on feeling. I set out to match each set to different aspects of me – from my ego, my realisations and ambitions to tell the story of my joys, my struggles, my thoughts and even hints at my circumstances.
Tell our readers about the titles for the images.
[For the images titled ‘iGolide’] The rich brown and golden hues, tell the story of wealth in melanin, which reminds me that “ngiyiGolide lom’hlaba” (I am the gold of the earth).
The denim look is dedicated to my ultra self, which is aptly named ‘Zifo Zonke’ – which loosely means “the cure of all ailments” and comes from traditional muthi concoctions that (claim the ability to) cure you of anything and everything. For me, this is basically the fashion equivalent of wearing white and denim to any and every occasion. Interestingly enough, the first denim brand that I knew of happened to share a name with my grandmother, and without realizing, the styling began to connect a greater story of self from my roots to my ego.
I’ve been told that red wine is a ‘major food group’ in my diet – so it was only fitting that I kitted out the talent in the colours of red grapes against leather as a play on both the textures, odours and flavours of the Goddess’s drink. The title is a play on the similarity of colours between wine and blood but low key also a shout out to friends that have become family. [For images titled Igazi namaglebhisi].
And then for last look I wanted to touch on the idea of where and how culture can contrast and compliment religion all at once. The rooftop location for this ensemble only made the concept stronger, as I titled the look ‘Ezulwini’, which is heaven in isiZulu – but can also (very loosely) be interpreted as ‘Place of the Zulus”. This is a heavy reference to the fact that I was raised in a family that carries very strong cultural beliefs alongside Christian beliefs.
Igazi namaglebhisi
Tell our readers more about the abstract that you wrote for this work. Are there any specific parts of the abstract you would like to draw our attention to?
I wrote an abstract for this work to try capture and express my intentions and thoughts behind the shoot. I think the part I’d most like to highlight is that “We’re all puzzles, some complete, some in progress, others yet to start but we all have bonds with our environment, our sexuality, our history, community and culture” because right now we live in the age of content and for the time first time in most of our lives , we’re finally seeing people like us flourish and shine in terms of representation. But as similar as we may be, everyone is different and it’s important to appreciate your individual journey and process. This leads me to another part I want to draw attention to because it’s as self-explanatory as it is motivational; “I started off struggling with myself image, then went on to fighting and trying to change who I am before I realised being a version of someone else isn’t an option on the menu…Eventually, I came to understand that being fully me was a beautiful thing and this gave me the strength of Samson from within”.
All of the images and the abstract will be up on Slomokazi’s blog soon. Be sure to check her out on Instagram to keep up to date with her work.
Referencing the EQT from the 90s, adidas Originals brought back the design in January this year with innovative material and technology. As part of celebrating the re-birth of the EQT, an open invite went out to South Africans born in the ’90s to be photographed at different locations in Johannesburg.
The open casting started off at ShelfLife in Rosebank on Friday 24 March. With Sam Turpin taking charge of the decks, people came through in their adidas gear to check out the updated EQT and do their part to represent ’90s babies. With a truck converted into a mobile photography studio, young photographer and digital artist Aart Verrips took portraits of South Africans born in the ’90s. The mobile studio headed off to AREA3 in Braamfontein on the Saturday, and ended on Sunday at Thesis in Soweto.
The portraits will form part of a series of short films. More than that, they document a generation that lives by the words, “Everything that is essential. Nothing that is not”.
I had a conversation with writer/performer Sophie Woolley, dancer/choreographer Andile Vellem and director Gemma Fairlie on their collaborative mixed discipline show The Fake Interpreter.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
This quote is at the top of every page of the blog that Sophie set up to document the process they are undertaking to put the production together. This quote ties together perfectly the core motivators behind their collaborative show. The first being the fake interpreter that was used at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. The second being the necessity for a serious public conversation about the need for good, qualified interpreters. The third being a conversation around who controls language. And lastly, thinking about deaf power, deaf pain and deaf people being able to have these kinds of conversations on their own terms.
Sophie made her name when she started out standing next to the dj box on literary nights at nightclubs in London. She created satirical characters based on the nightlife characters she saw and interacted with. She then received the opportunity to have a column in a lifestyle magazine for one of her characters. She later got the opportunity to write for theatre. Sophie comes from a deaf family and eventually become completely deaf herself in adulthood. While writing her one person show When to Run she was introduced to director Gemma Fairlie who assisted her in the physicality of her characters. Working as a freelance director, there has always been a lot of physicality in Gemma’s work. The two of them have worked together on a number of projects, with The Fake Interpreter being the second show which incorporates sign language.
In 2013 Sophie was introduced to Andile and went to watch his show Unmute; a dance piece about his experiences growing up in the Eastern Cape and how he was not allowed to sign at school. “Sign language around the world is often oppressed,” Sophie explained. “Unmute is about my own story and the fact that I can’t tell my own story. I don’t have my own voice and it is like somebody keeping my mouth shut. With Unmute is it opening up that world for me,” Andile explained. Andile is the Artistic Director for a dance company, Unmute Dance Company, that he co-founded in 2013. With Sophie in awe of Andile’s work and having worked with him on the smaller performance I Am Not The Other at Artscape Disability Day 2015, Sophie wanted to work with him again.
When the fake interpreter life event happened in 2013 Sophie felt annoyed, as well as a sense of helplessness. This was around the same time that Sophie had a cochlear implant. Reflecting more on the privileges of hearing and the oppression of sign language, three years later those feelings had not left. Sophie was encouraged to write about it and this project was selected to be part of the British Council Connect ZA Arts Programme for 2017. Meeting up with Andile again she was able to hear his life story and how he felt about the incident. “What Gemma did was point out the fact that we both felt angry and powerless, and we felt guilty but for different reasons, kind of about our inaction at the time. She asked us to fantasize about what we could have done instead. And so we had lots of crazy fantasies about how we could have stopped the fake interpreter and so that is how things [the script] started to change,” Sophie explained. The show developed into a multi-disciplinary re-writing of the memorial service based on their feelings and experiences.
The show incorporates sign language with the sign language interpreter who supports Andile being part of the performance, and not simply signing on the side. “I am interested in integrating it [sign language] not just in an accessibility way but artistically,” Gemma explained, “We are trying to create a cross-art form piece that has dance in it, that has signing in it, that has video editing in it, that has storytelling in it. But that we bleed between these aspects. That it has that feeling of sort of creating a new genre where all of these aspects are vital to the storytelling.”. Reflecting on the importance of this show Sophie expressed that, “any kind of cultural output that shows deaf culture will be really powerful and help people to see this invisible world.”.
Andile expressed that this show provides an opportunity for advocating for deaf rights and the need for sign language to be recognized worldwide.”It’s a beautiful language. It has got variations. Now we are doing theatre, and we are doing it in sign language! And we are following sign language linguistic structures,” Andile expressed. This goes back to the Nelson Mandela quote referenced earlier; the show speaks to people’s hearts.
Young artist Callan Grecia, having recently graduated with his Masters in Painting at UCKAR, is exploring the relationship network conditions in a Post-Internet society have on the medium of oil paint. I interviewed him about his show titled These Aesthetics Are Not New (2017).
Tell our readers about the title you chose for your exhibition, ‘These Aesthetics Are Not New’.
The title for the show came from the idea that everything comes from something. There is nothing new in an age of instantaneous access where we are constantly exposed and re-exposed to images like never before. If you look at fashion, music and art, things are cyclical and the Internet is a catalyst for this effect to occur faster and faster. I guess I was also tired of hearing and seeing the same shit over and over, heralded as ‘new’ and ‘fresh’ until you do some digging and see that you can’t really escape the languages of visual literacy that have been engrained in us consciously and subconsciously.
Tell our readers what the exhibition was about.
I’ll be honest I can’t really pinpoint things in that way because this exhibition seems to be the first step in a larger, longer process of exploration and learning, but I can say that the work deals with ideas of wish fulfillment, brought about by the instantaneous access of the Internet. The image object is also a concept I’ve been exploring, basically the image as object and the object as image and the convergence of the two (digital media and physical painted works). The work becomes a vehicle for network conditions in that it takes from this space, replicates digital aesthetics in a physical space and is then able to either be reintroduced into the digital space, or not depending on how and where the slippages between the two occur.
What are some of the Post-internet conditions/cultural aspects that you have focused on for your exhibition? Tell our readers about your decision to use paintings, t-shirts, installed elements and an immersive sound piece in your exhibition.
Curatorial considerations to include these elements were based on the feedback loop of the Internet, and the t-shirts with prints of the paintings on the walls on them, coupled with installed vinyl that spoke to internet slang, blaring rap music and cellphone notifications created this immersive, layered space that replicated the speed and frantic nature of the world within the screen.
Tell our readers about your decision to live stream your exhibition on Instagram.
The instagram live stream was essentially the last layer, which became the re-induction of the work into a digital space. It also provided instantaneous access to the paintings but with a heavy digital grain that changed the way the works would be read IRL. It was a conscious decision that paid off conceptually and also had the advantage of allowing people who could not make the opening night a chance to see the show from their own spaces.
What were some of the responses to your work at the gallery vs on Instagram?
The abstraction came into its own for the viewers who got to see them in the flesh and the figurative work was what got the most attention on instagram. The grain of the digital tends to have a flattening effect and the devices these images are viewed on lend themselves to figuration. You can’t really pick up on the intricacies of the abstract works on instagram, or feel their size, presence and depth, whereas you can easily recognize and appreciate figuration, I believe, on a mobile platform.
Check out Callan’s online catalogue to see more of his work or follow him on Instagram to some of his work’s in progress.
I had a conversation with young jewellery designer and founder of LORNE, Gillian Lawrence.
Gillian describes the unfortunate event of all her jewellery being stolen as the moment which opened up her design spirit to look at her work differently. Having lost jewellery which held sentimental value for her, her relationship with jewellery was no longer, “about nostalgia. It wasn’t about what my mom gave me or my grandparents gave me. It just became jewellery”. By the time her final year arrived she had dealt with the many questions floating around in her head about her craft, such as ‘Is it art?’ and ‘Why do people like it?’. LORNE was the result of this.
In the beginning Gillian was preoccupied with trying to create pieces she thought people would want, and ignored her own creative urges. This was until she decided to take a leap and give into her instincts which craved more adventurous pieces. People have reacted positively to this direction for LORNE and has given her the “freedom to just play and find my own language.”.
Having dabbled with materials such as plastic, resin and glass, Gillian explained to me (with giggle) that metals are her happy place. She mainly works with brass, copper and silver. LORNE also has a range of pieces with pearls.
Describing her designs as whimsical and playful, Gillian prefers to let the inspiration for her work happen organically. Some of her items take on quite an obvious character, while others are spur-of-the-moment, abstract pieces. As a result, she feels her designs can be appealing to anyone. “I think everyone has a level of self-expression. I mean even my mother is walking around with boobie earrings,” Gillian explained with a giggle.
Her pieces are currently available at Stocking Fabricate, Creative Revolt, Purr and Mungo & Jemima in Cape Town, or through contacting her directly.
Check out her website to check out more of her work.
I got to know photographer Kelly Makropoulos in an interview about her creative process and what she is working on at the moment.
Tell our readers about how you got into photography.
When I was twelve years old, my family and I visited Lake Kariba, the world’s largest human-made lake along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. I remember seeing the dead trees that pierced through the water as we travelled on the dam; it was as though we were venturing across a desert of water. I was enthralled by the scene, so borrowing my mother’s camera, I aimed the lens to the trees and the glistening water and filled the 100-odd megabyte card to the brim.
What are the kinds of themes you like to work with?
One theme I like to support is feminism: so uplifting and respecting feminine energy. I did a series allied with Free the Nipple, where I was taking images of female friends topless in public spaces with expressions and postures that were either untroubled or defiant. It’s the reality we live in that says femininity and power cannot go hand in hand, so I want to draw attention to the fact that it most certainly can.
Tell our readers about your creative process.
I like to focus on simplicity in my work, so the content in the image has one bold element with accompanying features and textures. I’m inspired by powerful feminine energies like Lady Skollie who push the envelope on feminine sexuality, removing the taboo. Tony Gum turns the camera on herself, and I think that’s exciting. Photographic self-portraiture is thrilling because you can embody your vision completely. I create by doing. Meaning I work with the tools I have at my disposal, allowing for the subject and I to have a conversation, as well as drawing on the many varying elements of any particular shoot.
What are some of the projects you have been a part of?
I’m currently part of ongoing collaborative project with Ben Moyo called ‘The Kenjis’. Ben is a Zimbabwean born photographer and stylist, who is also known as The Chocolate Brother. Starting off with merely an iPhone, his work reflects a passion rarely seen. He uses his work to create digital content for various clients. Having recently made the leap from Cape Town to Johannesburg, Ben is falling in love again with the booming street-style photography in the area.Having been big fans of each other’s work, it seemed natural to collaborate intimately on a joint project. Thus, The Kenjis was born. We’d like to see our work as a storytelling experience. As we both style and creatively direct our shoots, the mixture becomes a new vision which is a part of us, as well as a third party in a way. We’d like to get more into creating non-gendered shoots, as we did with our first shoot that can be seen on our Instagram. We feel it’s highly important to break destroy stereotypes that society chains us to. For now, we are working on our individual projects as Ben is in Johannesburg and I am in Cape Town. I have also worked on other collaborative projects with a few other artists.
Is there a particular aesthetic you are inspired by or try to create in your images?
My aesthetic changes from project to project. I try to achieve varying aesthetics. When I find myself becoming satiated, I move onto the next. I wouldn’t say my style is in any sort of box. Different aesthetics I’ve worked on would be bright colored images, particularly the combination of warm and cool tones I adore. I also love capturing shadows on skin as I feel it’s quite dramatic. Black and white photography I’m also into at times when that mellow mood strikes me.
What is the vision you have for yourself as a photographer?
I’m not entirely sure what my vision is – I don’t even know what I’m up to in the next two weeks, but I know I’m buying more film.
What are you working on at the moment? What can we expect from you this year?
I’m working towards another solo exhibition, as well as a few group shows. My upcoming solo exhibition has not had a date or venue set for it as of yet, but I’m working towards making it completely film-based and further moving away from the gender binary construct.
I’m planning on travelling to Europe for their summer, and working with some artists there. I also plan to take more film photos, as it makes me prudent of what I shoot; it pushes me to wait for the right moment.
Anything else you would like to mention about you or your work?
I identify as gender queer. It’s an undercurrent in my actions, including photography. From my eyes my images show a deep mix between feminine and masculine characteristics. Although I still lean towards the divinity of femininity.
I’ve never been any good at putting my emotions into words. This used to make me quite uncomfortable, until a close friend of mine told me they thought in emotions and images, rather than in words. Since then I’ve tried to achieve this sentiment with my photography.
I spoke to Creative Director at MARIANNE FASSLERLezanne Viviers about their #FASSLERFABULOUS AW17 collection.
Tell our readers about the thinking behind this collection.
The #FASSLERFABULOUS AW17 collection is a celebration of this Iconic brand, which is MARIANNE FASSLER and it’s 40 years of existence. #HANDSON and #CRAFTISSTILLTHENEWLUXURY are both adjectives to describe the master craftsmanship of this collection, but also the ethos of the MARIANNE FASSLER brand. Plenty of pattern, patterns disrupted, textures, Hand-beading, Hand-craft, Hand-embroidered, Hand-made, Hand-cut, Hand-dyed etc. These are the skills that make up the Brand and the focus of our AW17 #FASSLERFABULOUS collection.
Tell our readers about the styling for this lookbook.
A continuation of the #ARTANDBLING editorial, Lezanne Viviers further explores what’s concealed and what’s revealed through social media, this time incorporating a mirror. The mirror reflects and enhances imagery but obscures the true source of the reflection.
The mirror metaphor suggest that media and its contents are merely a reflection of reality and forces one to have a critical view of oneself, in the form of introspection.
Who is the MARIANNE FASSLER girl and where is she going? A question we definitely have the answers to.
Armand Dicker, together with the MARIANNE FASSLER team, styled these shots with a ‘more-is-more’ approach, very Fassler. The central focus is placed on the craftsmanship, textures, color, pattern disruption and off coarse the independent attitude of the MARIANNE FASSLER women.
Tell our readers about the launch of this collection hosted a few weeks ago.
#FASSLERFABULOUS launched @LEOPARDFROCK and in true MARIANNE FASSLER style, it took shape in the form of a party at the studio. Guest were encouraged to find their #FF amongst 500 helium balloons. The launch focused on the FASSLER experience and invited guests into the studio and the new archival space, to see how and where the magic happens.
Tell our readers about the direction the brand is going in 2017.
‘MARIANNE FASSLER’s career highlight is her next show,’ -Marianne Fassler.
For 2017 our focus is on our client, giving them more of MARIANNE FASSLER with an even bigger focus on craftsmanship. #CRAFTISSTILLTHENEWLUXURY
This episode of Bubblegum Club Stories features footage from Stockholm. We speak to musician and model Michael Dangerous who moved to Stockholm from Johannesburg. He lets us in on his modeling adventures and new music he is working on with some big Swedish producers. We also meet Swedish rapper Lilla Namo who chats to us about her work with a new producer, Elias, and her latest single which translates to ‘Shut Up’. Adam Falk tells us about his energy producing endeavors which include music, photography and video. He has recently returned from a shoot in Thailand for IKEA and will becoming to Cape Town soon. We also speak to the Editor-in-chief of The Forumist, Pejman Biroun Vand, who chats to us about the 11th issue which features SA creatives.
I interviewed illustrator Lungile Mbokane about where his artistic journey began and his experiences at the Design Indaba this year.
Tell our readers a bit about you and your journey as an illustrator?
My journey as an illustrator began in 2011 when I signed up for graphic design as a career that I wanted to pursue. It has been a journey filled with challenges, good and bad, but worth going through because they have resulted in who I have become as an illustrator. My first entrance to the field was in 2013 when I was designing a poster for a movie titled “Hear Me Move”. I made it all the way to the top 4 of the competition.
How do you like to describe your work?
My work is a series of thoughts, events and activities that I happen to experience in my daily life. I try to capture everything around me to feed my source of inspiration. I have always pursued abstract forms of illustrations. I try to translate the world from my point of view. Abstract concepts and forms tend to be best describe my work because when something is abstract it holds more than a single meaning.
Do you have particular themes that you enjoy working through?
Yes I do. Authentic art is the theme I enjoy working with. This means I can explore various concepts but with intentions of producing proudly African inspired art that has the ability to create and blend work that can be internationally recognized. My themes can range from music, culture, and many ideas that I collect daily that I can explore as an artist.
Tell our readers about “Hipnotic” / “Hipnotic Art Movement”.
Hipnotic Art Movement came about when I had a feeling about using my art as a tool that heals me. The name comes from Hypnosis which is similar to how I perceive my art. It is a drug (medicine) that is prescribed by the doctor (artist). I added a hip feel to the name by spelling it out “Hipnotic” rather than “Hypnotic”. The first three letters ‘H-i-p’ define my work as relevant and current.
Tell our readers about your experience at the Design Indaba this year.
My experience at the Design Indaba Festival was something that helped me to grow as an artist. Being part of something that surrounds you with other types of artists had an impact on how I now view myself and my work. The platform helps you reach and meet a lot of young, inspiring creatives who have the ability to influence and change the world through their work. I was able to see the results of simple ideas made into something effective and the power of creativity on one stage. The series of events that took place during the festival became something that I can treasure for a lifetime. I’d say it’s something that can help you move to the next level in your career.
Tell our readers about some of the awards you have received and projects you have been involved in.
Last year I was part of the Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards and received an award for being identified as one of the top 100 exhibiting artists. I have been part of Conte Magazine, an amazing magazine that puts creatives together. I was featured in their second issue, Africa, and their third issue, Revolution. I will feature in their up coming issues titled The Raw and 20 Something, which are going to be released in April and May respectively. I was also part of the annually held SA Taxi Foundation Art Awards and was a top 30 finalist. I am currently part of Design Indaba’s emerging creatives class of 2017. I am also currently part of Fiercepop which is an online exhibition that has amazing artists and exhibits their work in places such as Amsterdam, New York, London, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
What are you working on at the moment? What can we expect from you this year?
At the moment I am working on expanding myself as an independent artist as well as the distribution and availability of my work to the public. What people can expect this year from Hipnotic as an artist is more work to being dished out. I have been compiling my work for years and I am slowly getting it out for people to receive. People are looking at a recent Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design graduate who is ready to put his qualification to good use.
Anything else you would like to mention about you and your work?
My work is forever evolving and changes just as much as the world turns. I aim to explore as much as I can with various concepts and ideas because I feel that all artists need to keep up with the times. Texture, loose ink brushstrokes and collage play a huge role into how I fuse digital art and traditional art.
To check out more of Lungile’s work follow him on Facebook and Instagram or check out his Behance.
I interviewed the guys from Original Swimming Party to chat about their debut full-length album ‘Hypergiant’.
Tell our readers a bit about Original Swimming Party.
OSP is an experimental audio-visual duo from Cape Town, comprising Thomas Glendinning and Jeremy de Tolly. We started in late 2013, based around a love of electronica, ambient and experimental music. We have since evolved to include African and South African musical influences, hence the term ‘Afrotronica’. Since our inception there has been a large visual element to our live shows – we work with projectors and screens to drench ourselves in beautiful, curated visuals that support and enhance the music. We have worked with numerous visual collaborators to create and perform our material, most notably Frank Latter, Thom Dreyer and Kevin Townsend.
Tell our readers about the thinking behind the name of the album, ‘Hypergiant’.
A hypergiant is the largest kind of sun. Since time immemorial the sun has been worshiped in human culture for good reason. Those photons keep us warm, grow the plants, power our lives. So it’s a symbol of God, of life, of the fire within and a statement of intention of how big we wanted this album to be.
Tell our readers about the creative process involved in putting the album together?
The album is the product of ceaseless experimentation and many happy accidents. Basically our process is to explore. Give birth to sound-children, and let them into the world, nurture and grow them without judgment. Some of the children make it onto the album. Some go elsewhere, to play forever in the happy cloud. We also made music that satisfied us. We had a GREAT time writing this and it felt really satisfying, genre defying. It’s the best music we were capable of at the time, and the sum of both of our inspiration, playfulness, heart and soul, our musical crushes and influences , and all of the good things that happen through pitching up.
Tell our readers about the kind of dichotomies you address in the album (loneliness and joy, a feeling of things ending but a celebration of life, etc). Is this a kind of broader commentary on where we are as a country/globally?
Yes, so many dichotomies. We do tend to oscillate between macro and micro perspectives. So we delve into our own humanity, which sometimes feels silly and self indulgent when set off against the macro perspectives of loveless politics, economic inequity and pending environmental apocalypse. But there has to be a place for both.
You also address topics such as colonialism, dispossession, privilege and indigenous history in some of your tracks (both lyrically and sonically – ‘Life In The Colony’, ‘ Camissa’). Tell our readers about these tracks and addressing these issues.
As two white South African males born inheriting the ample fruits of apartheid, we’ve found the last few years very challenging, at least from the perspective of finding our place in the scheme of things. We’ve been somewhat schooled by the #woke and #feesmustfall movements, but have come up embarrassingly short of being part of the solution. So these aspects of the journey are documented in some of the songs. We feel strongly that the heinous consequences of apartheid and colonialism must be addressed. In Cape Town particularly, we are faced with just how toxic and repressive the system remains for people of colour every day, and feel ourselves part of the problem, but what are we doing to change things? What are we prepared to give up? It’s both threatening and humbling. We’re clueless but keen to take part.
Tell our readers about the musicians you featured and your decision to feature them (Greg Abrahams, Keenan Ahrends, Gene Kierman & Ryan McArthur).
We love working with collaborators because it gives us unique inspiration. When it’s just the two of us writing we can very quickly get tunnel vision and get stuck using the same sounds so bringing in a collaborator brings a fresh perspective and can often bring new life to a track. When the band started we were initially a 3-piece, with Greg Abrahams as a full time member. But as he’s become too busy to work with us full time, we work with rotating 3rd members (not literally) to add to the sound of the band.
Tell our readers about using everyday sounds in the tracks as well.
We’re both very passionate about sound, not necessarily just music, and so we’re very interested in capturing and working with non-musical sounds (often called field-recordings). The field recordings sonically add character to the pieces but they also give thematic context, for example on the track ‘Camissa’ Tom went down into the water tunnels below Cape Town to record sounds. The water in the tunnels comes from Table Mountain and is the remnants of an ancient river that ran through the city and so in a way captures some of the history of Cape Town.
Are there any tracks that have a special story to them?
‘Camissa’, as mentioned above, features unique binaural field recordings of the water tunnels below Cape Town. Binaural recording is a technique used to capture sounds in the way that the human ear hears so that when it is played back via headphones the listener feels as though they are in the actual recorded space. In ‘Talk To Us’, Jeremy was meditating in Newlands Forest and recorded the sounds of the creatures that were clearly trying to say something unfathomably beautiful to him.
Any plans for the year you could let us in on?
We have a music video in the works as well as several remixes and alternate versions of the album tracks. We are also planning an international tour for mid-year.
Anything else you would like to mention about the album or OSP?
Tom moved to London at the beginning of the year so we are currently a ‘long-distance band’. That has its struggles but fortunately with modern technology it’s relatively easy to keep up with what we do. We have regular Skype strategy meetings and even finished the last 20% of the album remotely. It’s also a huge opportunity for us to take our special kind of audio visual love to the northern hemisphere.
To keep up with Original Swimming Part check them out on Facebook and Instagram.
