Launched in 2013, the first presence of Publik was felt in Cape Town in the crisp casing of a wine bar situated in city bowl. With the ambition to make known, wines produced by independent winemakers, Publik rose to exhibit and support artisans that had a minimalist approach to winemaking and worked with more unfamiliar grape varieties. An organic process allowing the grapes to prescribe the wine rather than making use of recipes instilled through manipulation in a cellar – here is where the passion of Publik lies. “These wines offer unique flavours, character and great value.” expresses Publik’s Director David Cope.
Publik has become known for identifying these distinctive winemakers and their creations sharing them with excited audiences from their Cape Town home, and soon here in the heart of Joburg. Since their inception, the wine bar has expanded to encompass a national business, taking on the personality of an online store, selling artisanal wines as well as supplying to the trade. All the while staying true to their initial ambition and core values. In addition to all this, is the Publik wine fairs.
With the roaring success of their Cape Town wine fair that took place earlier this year, Publik will be hosting their first Johannesburg iteration in mid-October in the centre of the arts and culture precinct of Newtown, at the iconic Turbine Hall. A building that forms an integral part of the architectural history of the city, a power station in a previous lifetime.
The Johannesburg event will have over 100 wines from more than 30 artisan winemakers on display making it an event unalike in calibre. Grown in traditional regions such as Stellenbosch, Swartland, Sutherland and Prieska, the event promotes local independent artisans and aims to create a relaxed environment for the enjoyment of wine tasting. The artisans of the day will include; Alheit, Crystallum, FRAM, Thistle & Weed, Franco Lourens and Lowerland to name a few. In addition to winemakers, there will be grape varieties unfamiliar to most available such as; Grenache Gris, Touriga Nacional, Pinot Gris, Tempranillo, Durif and more.
“While Cape Town is surrounded by winelands making it easier to discover smaller independent winemakers, Johannesburg rarely gets the opportunity aside from a few industry-focused events. Johannesburg has a bigger market but far less of these wines are sold here, purely because they don’t get exposure. This event is a chance to change that…” shares Cope.
Publik is focused on giving a platform for wine artisans who use organic, biodynamic and minimal intervention wine production methods. Cope explains that this interest manifested from a question regarding consumer nature. He states that there is an interest in knowing more about the production and growth of products such as fair-trade coffee and ethical meat, yet consumers seldom question where the wine they buy in grocery stores come from or how it is made. “The truth is most wines are a very commercial product, quite manufactured. While these wines are essential to the industry, there is another side of wine and we want customers to ask questions, find out more about how wines are made and realise not all are made in sustainable, honest methods that we prefer.”
So, what is important when it comes to wine tasting? Cope shares, “Wine tasting is 100% subjective: nobody tastes exactly the same thing. So best not to worry about how much or little you know. Best to simply taste wine like you would food and ask yourself: do I like this or not. It’s so easy to get caught in the details and confusing technical stuff, which is sad if it’s at the expense of discovering new wines you may like…”
The Wine Fair will take place on the 21 October 2018. To secure your tickets visit Publik’s website. Limited tickets available.
Intimacy locked in. A moment; an expression of being – an archive of lived experience. An embrace of pure physical; spiritual emotion. Lingering intimacy. A rich kiss shared between two young men. A candid tale of queer love captured on the emulsion of a film roll recorded with the material’s light-sensitive silver halide crystals. Same sex tenderness expressed where it is forbidden.
Tanlume of bananaemoji.com envelops his audience in a narrative depiction of the realities the LGBTQI+ community faces in Botswana. “Shot and produced in Botswana, the film challenges the taboo of intimacy between two men and highlights the need [to] recognise same-sex mariage.” The title of his Editorial and short film plays on the title of the 1969 film They Shoot Horses Don’t They? by Director Sydney Pollack.
An extract from the film synopsis on IMDb reads, “A young boy by the name of Robert sees his hillbilly father shoot a horse with a broken leg to put it out of its misery.
Years later, it’s the Great Depression, the 1930’s. Robert dreamed of being a great filmmaker but is now almost broke. He decides to enter a Los Angeles dance marathon, a craze that many people are falling into in California with the promise of winning cash. It is there that he meets his first dance partner, a beautiful but caustic and bitter woman named Gloria, apparently recovering from a suicide attempt. For her, after years of bad luck with men and no money herself, the dance competition offers her false happiness. Together, she and Robert form a friendship.
As the competition goes on, it becomes evident that the show host, Rocky, doesn’t have much money himself and, despite showing genuine remorse about it, he frequently exploits and psychologically abuses the dancers and makes a spectacle out of them for the viewers of the show, who pay him a great deal of money every day just to get into the arena. Alice, an aspiring actress, goes into hysterics when her beloved dress is stolen, and a man’s leg becomes paralyzed. When he falls unconscious, he is given castor oil and doused in ice water, and then forced to dance again. A pregnant woman dances and has to race with her husband around a track, often becoming exhausted and collapsing.”
An interesting analogy made by the ‘THEY SHOOT BOYS DONT THEY?’ auteur. And in some ways, I can see why he thought the title suitable. “…I chose this title not only for the shock value and obvious click bait effect but also because at times being discriminated against by a community can feel as though you are being attacked or shot.”
I spoke to him further on the project:
In which way does this film and still image series address this pressing issue and does it in any way provide a solution? Do you believe that this film is a true reflection of the lived experience of queer identifying bodies in Botswana?
The idea was to depict that there is no real difference between a kiss between, a man and a man versus a man and a woman. It is all affection. In doing so we hope to ignite conversations around set of issues concerning identity, gender, sexuality, spirituality, knowledge and power. In putting the different ‘homophobic’ quotations between scenes we wished to challenge the very people that are against same sex unions with the kind of slurs the LGBTQI+ community are faced with from them on a daily. I believe the film is a true reflection of the queer community as the story was inspired by many of our coming stories.
Could you tell me more about the process of creating this film? From conceptualization to the completed project?
The film started as a short story and considering the wealth of the subject matter and its potential I then decided to develop it into a script for a short film. The short film was to act as a 3-minute showcase of the memories shared by the two characters in the short story. The film’s style was heavily influenced by home videos as they served as memories. We took inspiration from artists such as Harmoney Korine. The creative writing and conceptualizing was not the hardest part of the process rather the casting. Most men, gay and straight wouldn’t be a part of the film out of fear of the discrimination.
What has been the general response by audiences to this project?
The response online has mostly been positive. I think all the possible insults that could have been hurled at the film were in a way diffused by chiming them into the story with the quotes between scenes. The power was removed. The homophobes were shaken and confused.
How do you believe that projects such as this can create more visibility for the queer community, enable equal marriage rights as well as create safe spaces for LGBTQI+ identifying individuals?
When we reflect on representation and visibility, what has aided and amplified people being seen, and their voices added to our cultural landscape is film and photography.
For more info on the project and to view the film visit bananaemoji.com
Maria is a Romanian artist currently residing in Germany. She completed her MFA in Photography at Rode Island School of Design in 2017, she is also a recipient of a Fulbright and DAAD scholarship. In 2011, she began photographing her documentary series, ‘You Don’t Look Native to Me’ by lensing the youth of the Lumbee tribe situated in and around Pembroke, North Carolina. Here, nearly 90 percent of the region’s inhabitants identify as Native American. The Lumbee were not involuntarily removed from their land during colonial expansion as other native tribes were at the time; they have as a result been able to keep a strong bond with their land.
Her series explores the way in which Native teenagers express themselves in our modern world with a particular focus on culture and identity. When first seen, her imagery has the appearance of depicting everyday life in nearly any community in the U.S, containing hybrid features such as plastic Halloween fangs on a young girl in Tuscarora regalia, a school portrait on a living room wall, dreamcatchers. All these elements point to the mingling of personal heritage and “modern”/westernised cultural norms.
“I am tracing their ways of self-representation, transformed through history, questions of identity with which they are confronted on a daily basis, and their reawakening pride in being Native. I am particularly interested in youth, because it is the period in which one begins the conscious and unconscious path to self-definition. The work consists of portraits, along with landscapes and places, interiors, still lifes, and situations. The aesthetic framework that is presented offers clues – sometimes subtle, sometimes loud – for imparting a feeling for their everyday lives.
My work engages an unfamiliar mix of concepts: a Native American tribe whose members are ignored by the outside world, who do not wear their otherness on their physique, but who are firm in their identity. I am focusing on an unusual and somewhat paradoxical kind of otherness, one which is not immediately apparent, even though they define themselves in this way. Through photography, video and interviews, I am investigating what happens when social and institutional structures break down and people are forced to rely on themselves for their own resources. This raises questions to the viewer regarding one’s own identity and membership to the unspecified mainstream.”
Determined to establish a platform designing events for the atypical, for those defying traditionalist understandings of genre and gender, The Tennis Club arouse to take on the challenge. Crafting customized occasions for the unconventional people that inspire them, these individuals are described as those who hold, understand and represent the various intersections of fashion, culture, dance, music and personal freedom. These activists of originality are the same people left unaffected by the sheer domination of corporate and commercial events of Johannesburg nightlife culture.
It is this aspiration to create a space for likeminded individuals at the forefront of creative innovation that drives their events forward. As a tribute to these outstanding individuals and their accomplishments, The Tennis Club will be hosting their Annual Members Ball this Friday the 31st August, with an invite to all to join them in this celebration of uniqueness.
The selection process for members is grounded in contributions to the creative economy of Johannesburg with an emphasis on artists practicing in the CBD and urban sectors. This list of creatives includes filmmakers, musicians, writers, visual artists and entrepreneurs amongst others that act as ambassadors for Johannesburg’s positive energy and global relevance.
Sisi: Coat – Over The Moon. Trousers – Stylist’s Own Buhle: Trousers – Ben Sherman, Shoes – Palladium
On the evening of the Annual Members Ball the club dedicates their night to honouring over 200 of the country’s creators propelled to the forefront with the dynamism of their contributions to the local scene and culture. Join them in celebrating in style with the most decadent party of the year featuring a diversity of electro producers, DJ’s and live music performances. This year’s headliners will be Jazzuelle & The Brother Moves On with supporting acts by Oh Those Guys, Si’Noir, RMBO, The Bad Ass Execs, Baby Boosh and Mami Watta.
A special edition to this year’s function is the combination of the event with the release of a Members Ball Lookbook acting as a guide for dressing for the night. All looks are modelled by Tennis Club members and performing artists of the members ball, establishing feelings of oneness with this immense celebration of local culture and creators.
* The 2018 lookbook would not have been possible without the assistance of Jagermeister SA, Herschel Supply Co and Palladium footwear.
Jenny Dison: Visor and coat – Stylist’s Own, Shoes – PalladiumMelissa: trousers Pringle, shoes Palladium, Coat Stylist’s Own Jess: Jacket and cap Herschel Supply CoJazzuelle: coat Herschel Supply Co, shirt Ben Sherman, shoes adidasLeigh: Glasses and suit – Stylist’s own, bag – Herchel Supply Co Jimmy: Coat and shirt – Ben Sherman, hat – Simon and MarySimphiwe: Hat – Simon and Mary, Trousers and shirt – Ben Sherman, coat and backpack – Herschel Supply Co, Glasses – Stylist’s Own
“Earn your letters and kick it behind the bleachers with bold badging and icons that starkly contrast against smoky blues, greys and blacks.” The brand articulates confidently.
The contemporary brand Superdry works to create high quality products fusing Japanese inspired graphics and vintage Americana with British style sensibilities. Characterised by the use of superior fabrics, unique detailing, authentic vintage washes, leading hand illustrated graphics and tailored fits – allowing for diverse ways of styling their pieces. With this distinctive nature, the brand has gained exclusive appeal and an international celebrity consumer following.
Using a collection of 5 t-shirts as a starting point for the brand they have since grown to the creation of thousands of designs to date. Ultramodern technology is met with old school techniques resulting in every garment’s personalised Superdry stamp of magic.
This season the brand is focused on the ready to ride coverings of the Varsity collection. A modern blend of sporty, pieces taking their influence from college culture – featuring high impact graphic jumpers, ready to wear ripped denim designs and leather bombers. The difference is in their hand drawn icons and graphics created in the Superdry Art Department, here each garment is given the signature Superdry attentiveness.
For that ultra-chic look of effortless style and comfort as well as affiliation with college culture and the stars, look no further, choose Superdry.
Individuals captured with an emotionality that becomes known to the viewer – these artists become a kind friendly face that you passed by once and stuck in your memory. Nostalgia. Attention halting. You wonder about them. Who could they be? The photographer invites you not only to see his lensed personalities but to see a glimmer of himself as creator. Deep sentimentality and a small hope that the current times will be remembered for many years to come. You see his striking signature expressed in soft portraits compositionally defined with minimalist aesthetic choices and traditional framing. A trained hand pushes emotion with a sort of staged candid moment. Beautiful, riveting.
The practice of now, New York based photographer, Joshua Aronson (b. 1994) can be read in some ways, as a documentation of a moment in time, the moment that he reflects with his lens is that of the emerging artist community in various cities of the United States and beyond.
In 2017, Joshua became one of the youngest photographers to have their work published in The New York Times and The New York Times Style Magazine, then age 23. The act of image making started making its first insertion into Joshua’s life in 2013, when he began documenting his friends, local skate culture and musicians. On living in Miami Joshua shares “…there wasn’t really much to do down there. We kind of created our own scene.”
“I photographed my friends up until around the end of 2015, which is when I’d say things became more serious for me. I started to think about photography differently.”
After completing his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at Northwestern University he moved to Miami. It is here where he observed the lack of significance placed on the emerging artists of the city. Setting forth to create his first iteration in an ongoing series of images that give voice to these under celebrated young artists, his concept highlighting his first region of focus (15 of Miami’s next generation creatives) was featured on i-D Magazine soon after. Relocating to New York six months later, Joshua continued his documentation of the emerging artist community in this vicinity. While working in New York, Joshua studied under Ryan McGinley and received the title of Emerging Photographer — Spring 2018 from PDN.
The current emphasis of Joshua’s personal practice, the emerging artist communities of various cities in his country and more, is guided by an inclination to make his images feel personal, holding an emotional glimpse of himself as the author of these portraits. “I’ve found photographing young, emerging artists to be the best way of doing that. Of creating a self-portrait without really creating a self-portrait.”
In my interview with Joshua, he explains his belief behind why it is important to document emerging artists, “I’ve always felt that a photographer’s first task is to create a community.”
On his ever-expanding project, Joshua explains that after his first series on Miami’s emerging creative community the assignment pulled him into an ongoing process that he is still propelling forward to this day. His project has seen him cover emerging artists from Miami to New York, Chicago to Los Angeles and has even jumped to Tokyo.
Joshua’s opinion on emerging within the arts in New York is that it is “Special. It’s a really special time to be alive and creating at a young age. It’s important to recognize that. It’s important to look at your youth and ask how you can use your age as a way to inform the way you make and engage with the world.”
For him the validity of his pursuit lies in creating a document of our current times, addressing future enquiries into what it meant to be a young emerging creative within spaces such as New York City in the year 2018. He hopes that his work will address this very question and act as a reference to future thinkers.
“Truthful, honest, revealing. No artifice. I’m definitely not the first photographer to turn their lens onto their generation.”
“It’s about photographing my own generation, though, with a determination and fervour and freshness that calls attention to these images and, thereby, their subjects.”
Portrait of Bryant GilesPortrait of Alexander MuretPortrait of Akia DorsainvilBrooklyn, New York– November, 29, 2017: Tyler Mitchell stands in the doorway between two rooms in his own studio. Tyler wears a shirt by Havana Club, an ode to his first photo book, “El Paquette”, which captured the emerging skate culture and architecture of Cuba.Portrait of Alli and Lexi KaplanPortrait of Denzel Curry
The Fak’ugesi Festival is currently underway with their fifth and most expansive artist’s residency to date running from the 8 August until the 9 September 2018, working towards a group exhibition that will take place from the 4th September. The creative residency that was first established in 2014, acts to support creative innovators and young digital creatives. This year’s residency sees artists and technologists from various parts of the world come together in the spirit of technological innovation and digital creativity. Working in one space the shared idea is to learn from one another and to shape thought provoking work in response to this year’s festival theme of Afro Source Code. Supporting regional connection and networks in the digital arts, the residency includes artists from Cairo, Geneva, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mumbai and Bangalore. Tapping into the patterns, fractals and algorithms of their endemic cultures, each artist will “…explore the role that vernacular and traditional cultures have in digital culture and practices” states Fak’ugesi Director Dr Tegan Bristow.
As collaborative partners, Fak’ugesi and Pro Helvetia are extending this year’s residency to include North Africa, Switzerland, South Asia – in extension of what is usually an annual SADC focus. The 2018 programme by Pro Helvetia Johannesburg is in celebration of the anniversaries of their offices in Johannesburg, Cairo and New Delhi. This year’s residents are hosted by Tshimologong Precinct’s cutting-edge Maker Space as well as the Wits School of Arts Point of Order Gallery.
I had an interview with each resident about their practice, the residency as well as the work that they are developing for the coming exhibition:
Joshua is a Zimbabwean writer, performing artist, DJ and producer. The Monkey Nuts is an arts collective based in Harare that he co-founded. The group perform and record experimental hip hop and dabble in visual, sound and installation art. In addition to this, they host and coordinate exhibition and events.
The collective has received their tier of success with the signing of a record deal with BBE Music for the release of the experimental ‘Boombap Idiophonics’ album in 2014. A collaboration with the underground French music producer DJ Oil, Joshua acted as a producer for two tracks on the album and performed and wrote for each song, resulting in regular tours for the collective. His style as a producer and DJ has been referred to as afro-futuristic in nature.
Joshua’s work developed during the course of the residency aims to explore the evolution of traditional music instruments – the music that is produced through their play, their sounds, as well as their role in the social and spiritual aspects of communication in Zimbabwean Shona culture.
Focused on the sound of Zimbabwe’s most principal traditional instrument the Mbira, Joshua has set forth on digitizing the sound through the process of sample based synthesis. Motivated by the instrument’s popular use as a tool to communicate with God via the ancestors, Joshua’s seeks to question whether his digitized sound of a Mbira can inform a heightened connection with the spirit world. His project will take the final form of a sound installation piece.
Yara is an electro-acoustic music composer and sound artist from Cairo. The artist and scholar’s sonic medleys take their influence from city infrastructure and the movement of urban centres. Concerned with the history and philosophy of architecture and building she similarly investigates the connection that architecture has with the emptiness that surrounds it.
Her working method is to extract musical conversation in visual imagery. Yara is a performance and video artist integrating visual images of society into progressives for her work. She acts as a curator of multidisciplinary events, workshops, concerts and mediations in both Europe and in the Middle East.
Her project for the exhibition pursues transferring the soundscape of Johannesburg into objects of materiality – 3D printed objects. She shares with me that this project was started while she was in Switzerland and is being continued in Johannesburg.
She goes on to explain that through her research and work methodology she is attempting to record the frequency of sound waves that exist and travel through buildings and old architectural structures. This sound is placed on sound tracks that are mixed with ambient noise present within these spaces.
Yara’s interest in partaking in the residency was fuelled by a curiosity to discover the city and learn more about its inhabitants as well as to experience the sounds of the architecture in the city. For her project Yara is unpacking various sounds of the city such as the sounds of markets, the bustling streets, the sounds of different languages being spoken as well as transportation which she then translates into its final format, as a 3D sculptural object – thus making the sound of the city visible in a single identifiable object.
A hybrid artist from Mabopane and currently based in Johannesburg, Nkhensani’s chosen mediums of expression include photography, sound, sculpture and experimental film making. The Open Window Film graduate self-published his photobook, ‘Grain: Volume 1’ in 2017 as well as produced and recorded an EP, ‘23’. These projects were concerned with love, mythology, royalty, metaphysics, the intersections of immortality and the space between time and distance.
In this year, his focus has narrowed in on the anthropological studies of African rituals and Ancient tribes as well as cybernetics. His work aims to function as a stimulant for societal discourse around the afore mentioned themes and their intersection with popular culture, our bodies and space itself. Nkhensani makes use of a multitude of mediums with which he examines the nuances between the spiritual realm and the digital world and futurism’s spatial distribution within the African diaspora.
On discussing the residency, the artist states, “As an analogue photographer, it’s been interesting to explore collaboration using digital tools and thematics.”
His work for the exhibition, ‘Image of Transgression’ explores and places an inquiry into humanity’s mutation and the spaces occupied by us with images. With this conceptual backbone, he has taken note of the ways in which western culture has shaped the spaces occupied by African bodies. Exploring ways in which Africans and African philosophy can form future timelines and spaces he shares that this is motivated by the challenge posed by African cultures surrounding the notion that time and space are rudimental facets of the natural world. “African cultures see no boundaries between the physical and spiritual…”
His work for the show has taken its origin from his ongoing seascape photographic series ‘Mawatle’, delving into the aquatic beginnings of humankind with the South African coastline as its backdrop. Making use of this archival image set as well as images recently developed, he intends to expand upon and disseminate human-beings’ current stage of mutation from what he refers to as “tangible terrestrial spaces” to “intangible cybernetic spaces”.
The final elements that will come into play in his final display for the exhibition will be expired Konica emulsions placed in an 80’s Kodak analogue camera, coded data extracted from his developed imagery as well as an experimental 16mm motion picture dealing with the subject of mutation. His hope is to make use of projection mapping for the final presentation of his film.
In a single statement Nkhensani shares the sense of affinity he shares with Fak’ugesi and his reasons for applying, “…The thematic tapestry of Fak’ugesi is inseparable from cybernetics and African culture in its essence. This is one of the primary reasons I applied for this residency, it resonates immensely with my personal artistic thematics.”
In conversation, he shares what he will take away most from the residency, “The future is already here, it just needs distribution, especially to minorities.”
Exploring the variety of links found between social relationships, algorithms, and language, Mathilde is an interaction designer and artist with work embodying a multitude of mediums including web extensions, generative art, connected devices and mobile apps. Her overarching interest can be found in the way that technologies open up alien means of perception. After completing a graphic design and media art qualification she proceeded to her master’s degree in interaction design which was obtained through the Geneva School of Art and Design.
Her work developed during the residency explores the use of universal means of communication – emotions. Additionally, her work will attempt to unravel the way in which computers and algorithms view traditional cultures on a more global scale.
Her work is taking the shape of an “emotional radio” – a radio that can be operated through facial expressions (an indication of a person’s emotional state and or feelings). The interactive concept is based on human interaction with one person acting as a listener to the music and or radio while the other is able to control the music playing on the device by simply adjusting their facial expression through a smile or a funny face for example.
For her idea to come to life, Mathilde recorded copious amounts of music from various radio stations in Johannesburg. After this initial stage, she developed a program that identifies the various captured sounds into a wide range of emotions expressed through facial movements. “It’s a collaborative way to listen to music, and also an experience of discovering music from a ‘computational point-of-view.’”
Her project will be showcased as an interactive, collaborative installation piece displayed in the gallery and as a web platform that can be accessed from anywhere. Although the web platform iteration of the project will not have the collaborative element to it, the radio will still be controllable with facial expressions/emotions. Mathilde expresses that being a part of the residency has influenced the way in which she normally approaches work due to the sheer amount of different languages spoken in South Africa and has had a positive impact steering her focus to ways of communicating universally, transcending language barriers between people.
The artist and scholar from Mumbai has his attention nestled in the analysis of information, manifestation and ways of seeing. Experimenting with cognition, interactivity, kinetics and light-photosensitivity – his interactive artworks traverse the boundaries of art and science.
Abhiyan’s work simultaneously questions and establishes dialogue around our natural lives and the relationship we have with the planet, expressed in his projects as body hacking, using breath to control a game or making use of devices to listen to signals generated by the planet to name but a few examples. Exploring emerging technologies and platforms that are becoming increasingly relevant in a world of mediated interactions and experiences, his academic history is rooted in Engineering, Communication Arts, New Media and Information Science. A course leader of Experimental Media Arts at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Abhiyan is also the founder of Nalanda Lab in Nagpur.
Abhiyan shares that working in South Africa for the residency has been inspiring due to the technological shift currently taking place in the country, providing a space for innovators from different parts of the world to think about culture, technology and society as a whole.
For the exhibition Abhiyan is working on a collaborative project with Anoop Saxena centred around water and ways of controlling the natural element and source of life. This project seeks to find a solution to the country’s recent droughts and regular water shortages. The team is taking their inspiration from traditional thinking around water. What is its meaning, which ritualistic practices are performed using water, in which way is water interpreted, which natural forces of the wild can be controlled by human intervention as well as how natural environments grant access to the interpretation of its natural elements in culture?
“In this particular installation, we are trying to question cognition and look at it empirically as it produces electrical currents in our visual cortex.” In attending the event I am told that audiences should expect a visceral experience where thought has the ability to drive forms in this group’s interactive installation.
His interest in partaking in the residency equally weighs in on his academic interest and provides him with an opportunity to experience how technology is interpreted and how its backing science is transferred into something tangible, translating into an aesthetic experience.
“…Our natural lives have always been augmented with tools and technics- just they are advanced now…”.
Anoop is a designer and Educator practicing from Bangalore, India specialising in Science Communication and Electronics. He creates customised design solutions for non-government organisations, science galleries and educational institutes. In addition to this he hosts customised workshops on Digital Making, Design Thinking, STEAM learning, Embedded System, Coding, Robotics, Fun Science and loT for a variety of institutions. He is currently an Associate Faculty member in Digital Game Design at the National Institute of Design.
Anoop explains that for the project he is developing in collaboration with Abhiyan, they are addressing the need for science and digital literacy in modern society. His essential understanding of Science Communication and Electronics is a beneficial quality to the collaboration, assisting in the creation of an interactive experience that the duo is interested in offering to their audience. For Anoop their installation will be an “immersive experience of [the] biological and digital world.”
With their project, they are exploring a variety of different forms and materials. Making use of an EEG machine they are unpacking ways of understanding the functioning of the prefrontal cortex of the human brain.
The exhibition will take place from the 4th – 9th September 2018 at the Point of Order in Braamfontein. Visit the Fak’ugesi website for more details.
The Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival is generated around collaboration, conversation and projects – for Africans by Africans. An “African celebration of digital technology, art and culture”. Taking place in Johannesburg, the festival is gaged towards encouraging not only people in the city but inhabitants of the continent, to embrace their innovative thoughts and creativity and to gear them towards the digital, African visualizations of their city and future imaginaries. This year’s theme, ‘Afro Source Code’ was introduced by the open call for entries to illustrate the 2018 poster, prompting creatives to “tap [their] Afro Source Code” for inventive Afro futurist, tech and African aesthetics inspired illustration concepts. “Ungaphthelwa Innovation Yako” / “Own Your Innovation”.
The winner of this year’s illustration competition, Sonwabo Valashiya‘s design took its influence from the popular Marvel Afro futurist release, Black Panther. Connecting the vision of the film with that of the festival, Sonwabo explains that both act to spotlight Africa as an innovation hub and thought leader. African creativity, ingenuity and innovation are articulated in illustration.
The “Wakanda forever!” salute from the film was the driving force for the visual actualization of Sonwabo’s design, taking this symbol as a means of expressing the theme of the festival this year.
“This poster also speaks to how Africa is rich in all these “sources” of wealth and how the world feeds off these resources, this notion is also found on Black Panther as they use Vibranium as a “source” to create their weapons and all their innovations but they have to fight to keep their Afro Source Code – (the vibranium) a secret from the world.” Sonwabo expresses.
Illustration by Sonwabo Valashiya
Growing up in Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape, Sonwabo is a Graphic Designer by profession with a passion for illustration. He completed his studies in Visual Communication at the Tshwane University of Technology. Influenced by his cultural heritage and identity, Sonwabo’s work is a celebration of African aesthetics, Afro Futurism and the diversity of African cultures.
Sonwabo’s participation in the competition was motivated by the interactivity of the festival and the amalgamation of various disciplines under a single umbrella. He further articulates that collaboration with the intent of sparking innovation and critical thinking around solutions to existing socio-economic issues on the continent, a focus of the festival, is of importance to him.
Seeing the competition announcement ignited his interest to participate in the challenge. “…the three key words that caught my eye were Futuristic, African aesthetics and illustration.”
With the already existing direction provided by the brief, such as, “add hands and the traditional lightning bolt icon”– identifiers of the Fak’ugesi brand, Sonwabo set out to create an Afro Futuristic poster design. “I wanted to create something that is relatable and that is a true representation of African beauty and power.” Sonwabo shares.
With a given colour palette stipulated in the brief, Sonwabo added dark brown outlines to his illustration, representative of the rich melanin skin tone of Africans as well as to provide contrast to his completed design. Iconography inspired by technology. The iconic Fak’ugesi lightning bolt, a symbol of power and light are met with shapes mimicking a circuit board. It is visually expressed as African body art patterns in Sonwabo’s design.
On his illustrative use of the circuit board and body art markings Sonwabo states that, “I drew inspiration from the armour of Black Panther and added some of the line and dot patterns that I think can be traced from a couple of African Tribes like Mursi Tribe of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia and the Igbo tribe of Nigeria. However, the whole design of the patterns was meant to be like the lines on a circuit board to represent the pathway of energy and to play on the technology and futuristic concept for Fak’ugesi.”
Illustration by Shayne Capazorio
Runner-up in this year’s competition, Shayne Capazorio‘s design took its inspiration from science fiction, comic books as well as intricate African patterns – “combining elements from the past and remixing them to move forward into the digital future.”
Shayne is a Graphic Designer by profession taking on the city of Joburg and its inhabitants as his muse. He completed his studies at TUKS and shares that, “I’m inspired by South African pop culture and I like to incorporate Jozi’s eclectic flavours in my work – bold, colourful, loud, dangerous & strange.”
Holding the belief that Africa is the future, Shayne has become captivated by Afrofuturism in recent times, inspired by the genre to create his own series of robotic characters that take influence from African aesthetics drawn from a future imagining of Mzansi. Shayne’s motivation to participate in the illustration competition was prompted by the concept of African innovation that he feels aligns with his own Afro futuristic vision.
A digital line illustration of a robotic rocket hand blasting into the future. A representation of progress and ingenuity. Robotics used as a signifier of the tech festival. Execution implemented with Afrocentric sensibilities. The African continent becomes a background element in the design, shaped through the use of binary code and speaks to the festival theme, Afro Source Code. With the use of overlapping vector layers, Shayne was able to construct a digital imitation (his illustration) of dynamic movement evocative of the early millennium digital wireframe aesthetic of computing.
Illustration by Lwazi Gwijane
Runner-up Lwazi Gwijane considers himself to be a Creative Designer and completed his studies at Vega in Durban. Becoming interested in the festival identity and the overall activities of the festival in 2017, he decided to enter the illustration competition this year to take part in an experience and an aesthetic that appealed to his sensibilities.
Inspired by Africa he looked to the past of the continent in order to shape an illustrative design of a technological future. “I looked into the past e.g ancient Kemetic which was ruled by Africans which is currently called Egypt today because of years of invasions from Rome, Greece, Arabia. I then placed myself in current day South Africa so to tap into my Afro source which allowed me to be able to imagine a creative Afro future.”
Lwazi’s design takes yellow as it’s overarching colour and he explains that though the colour pallet was provided by the competition brief, he chose to bring yellow to the fore as it is his favourite colour. Unpacking his design, Lwazi states that the hand in his design takes precedence because humans use their hands every day. The heru (horus) eye located on the tip of the third finger is symbolic to the gesture of opening yourself to the use of your Third Eye. Music comes into play with his illustration of a microphone suspended mid-air in the back of the digital illustration. He expresses that the arrow is representative of the Afro pathway which Africans must follow. Lastly, the South African flag is combined with the afore mentioned elements to round off his illustration – a visual marker of where the event is taking place.
Clean, minimalist, eye-catching digital illustrations were created by all three of these creatives bringing African innovation, African aesthetics and the voice of the festival to the fore.
Natural beauty accentuated with minimal makeup and loose-fitting silhouettes. Nostalgia evoked through analogue photography. Traditional framing and spontaneous emotion. Free collaboration.
Four creatives shared a mutual goal – to collaborate on a shoot during their time spent in Cape Town. A per chance meeting with Makeup and Hairstylist Patricia Piatke led the stylist for this shoot, Shukrie Joel to get in touch with her while hunting for a good photographer to put heads together with. And so, a collaboration was formed between photographer, hair and makeup artist, stylist and model. Their amalgamated team includes Detlef Honigstein, Shukrie Joel, Lolita Kupper and Patricia Piatke.
The project was approached using analogue photography as the medium to speak through given Detlef’s affinity to the format. Colour and black and white film are employed evoking both a classical feeling and becoming more modern as colour is gradually introduced.
For the team, this shoot was about a spontaneous get together before each of them set out to different countries. An opportunity for collaboration done with more impulse and spontaneity than vigorous planning. Their images come across as raw, beautiful and an impromptu moment captured on the emulsion of a film roll, breathed life into in its positive final form.
Speaking to stylist Shukrie, he explains that his idea was for the clothing to look comfortable on the model’s frame, effortless and easy. Despite there being minimal planning the team made stylistic choices for which thought was given.
Patricia and the team aimed to break away from the high-end street styles that Shukrie is known for with their makeup and hair styling decisions. With an artistic haute couture hairstyle giving off a sense of ease and natural makeup, the team did not want these elements to over shadow the colours of the clothing that Lolita wears. A fun selection of images resulted from their creative collaboration.
An intuitive touch. Natural. Raw. Harnessing natural light. Embracing colour. Mirror and fabric come into play. Verging on surreal. Inspired by the sun and the ways in which light manifests itself.
Alix-Rose Cowie majored in Art Direction during her Visual Communication studies at the AAA School of Advertising in Cape Town. A frustration with the hunt for royalty-free stock images to ideate her concepts resulted in her taking imagery into her own hands. From this point, she began to style and shoot her own images whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Image from La Loba campaign for Selfi x Rharha (2017)
Sharing her history with the medium of photography, Alix states that her respect and enjoyment of photography originated in early childhood. Her father would occasionally allow her to take a picture on his camera and to change the spool of the device. These moments became a rather special occasion for her. Practice of the art of image creation as she approaches it today, made its way into her life when she was a bit older and started photographing dress-up sessions in the garden of her house. “It feels the same when I’m shooting fashion stories now: playful and explorative…”.
Alix attributes her photographic skills predominantly to experimentation and play though, she completed some short courses in the beginning, to kick-start her understanding of manual camera settings. “I have a great friend who had aspirations of being a stylist and we’d partner up to bring our off-beat fashion concepts to life – this was where most of my learning took place. The sensation of having a burning idea that needs to be realised.”
She describes her passion as one of image creation, with photography being an accessible avenue through which to explore. In image creation, Alix finds delight in other photographic outlets outside of fashion such as food styling and still lifes. A choice to solely work with natural light shows her appreciation of the challenges that light can present as well as a fondness of the play of light itself.
Alix’s photography translates into work created for fashion labels and culture focussed publications. Journeying into the world of photography as a fashion photographer, Alix’s interests have grown to encompass photographs of a variety of subjects and material that can be summed up as “Food. Fashion. Flowers. Faces. Things.” as her website articulates.
Image from FW18 Talisman for Rain campaign for Pichulik
Inspired by looking through publications such as Gather Journal and The Gourmand, Alix began to examine the possibilities of food photography. With an artistic approach her aim was to turn the genre of food photography “on its head” – a task that she has certainly been successful in. This success can be followed on platforms such as Chips!, a food and culture magazine for which Alix does not only photograph the conceptual editorials but edits content for as well.
With a keen focus in the world of magazines stemming from her background in independent publishing, Alix shares her aspirations of working with more indie publications in the future. “I love the alchemy of great imagery combined with words,” she states. Branded content is another subject in which Alix finds interest expressing that she would like to work with “forward-thinking brands who are open to creative expression and visual experimentation.”
Her photographic work is something to marvel at rather than to critique as it takes a rather unique individual to be so multi-versed in various genres of photography. What can be said, however, is that she has a distinguishable visual language that is drawn through all of her images. Traditional composition and intuitive play meet with a harnessing of available light, creating soft images with the appearance of being gently, and more often than not, evenly kissed by sunbeams. Beautiful, dreamy, inviting and an embrace of colour.
Alix’s recent bodies of work include: A La Loba campaign for Selfi x Rharha done at the end of last year, FW18 Talisman for Rain campaign for Pichulik, colour-blocked still lifes for adicolour x Between 10and5, the openers for womenswear, menswear and homeware for the latest Superbalist magazine and the photographs of flowers for the next issue of The Carnation zine released at the end of June 2018.
To keep up with Alix’s work (not just her photography) visit her website.
Image from La Loba campaign for Selfi x Rharha (2017)
An activation of materiality. A display of careful calculation. Grids and lines are followed in a non-conforming rhythm. Architecture is used as a curatorial device. An installation masterpiece. A photograph as a test. A photograph as a material object. A photograph as a sculptural object. Images untouched by digital manipulation. Welcome to two decades of Wolfgang Tillmans embodied under the title Fragile. Fragility apparent in both subject and material artefact.
Patient, yet enthusiastic spectators gather to consume the address by JAG’s curator-in-chief, Khwezi Gule, at the press opening of Fragile. As Gule leaves, Tillmans begins to guide his audience, manoeuvring eager bodies through the expanse of his show. Stepping into the first space you are frozen in your tracks by one of his most well-known works, Lutz & Alex sitting in the trees (1992) – a large-scale photograph of two figures, naked torsos exposed, finding minimal cover with their vinyl jackets loosely styled on their frames. But the amazement, appreciation and emotion that his works instil are yet to be explored by us, his immediate audience.
Tillmans invites his audience to interact with Sendeschluss/End of Broadcast by asking us to step closer to the black and white pixel image. Just close enough to prevent your face from touching the surface. And it is then revealed to the naked eye that this image is constructed of colour. This opening to the show, comprised of over 200 works spanning from 1986 – 2018, invites a word of caution from the artist, warning against first impressions, and encouraging a second look.
‘Lutz, Alex, Suzanne & Christopher on beach’
With work that holds an eminent position in the world of contemporary art, the artist is known for his perpetual redefining of the photographic medium as an artefact of materiality and as an image constructed by light. Led by an unquenchable curiosity, Tillmans navigates the world and reproduces that which he observes with his eye by occasionally placing a camera in front of it. His abstract works and more sculptural pieces include Paper Drop, the Lighter series (one of Tillmans’ very view series of work) and Freischwimmer / Greifbar. Through his experimental approach, Tillmans has developed the photographic medium, both the technical and aesthetic potentialities of the practice further.
Intimacy, compassion and familiarity translate in image form creating a tangible emotion. An observational modus operandi characterised by a humanist approach to the complexities of the world. Tillmans’ oeuvre comprises of his club culture photographs from the 1990s, abstract works that find their footing in extreme formal reductionism, images narrowing in on the beauty of the everyday, and depictions that display a rigorous perception containing a grounded socio-political awareness.
‘Freischwimmer / Greifbar’
In discussion with the German photographer he elaborates on his interest in objects of the everyday and the narrative of his work by explaining that for him these objects are not necessarily banal objects. His train of thought continues to the value of such objects, “I’m very aware of the values potentially attributed to the things that I photograph, but want to leave the absolute values also quite open.” Explaining this statement through various examples of images in the exhibition, he ends off with the following trajectory, “I choose not to influence. I choose things to settle. It’s the narratives that are usually non-linear objects, and people and places in the pictures and installations. The narratives and associations are definitely more driven by challenging value systems.”
Reflecting on his work, Tillmans expresses that he does not see himself as a deconstructivist but rather leans towards what he refers to as a nostalgic modernist. “My way of installation at first glance is sort of not modernist but maybe actually it is because there is a certain purity and vigor and a trust in a linear development. Not just in atomization. It looks so super multi varied but actually there are, rhythms, there are recurring themes…”.
Contrary to tradition, Tillmans does not often work within the frame of series. After the act of taking his photograph, the need to recreate a similar image is worn. “Because I like to make work that is coming from an actual engagement with a subject matter in the here and now and not just from the idea that I should make another one like this.” Tillmans here refers to a feeling of intensity – an instinct to create. Over 30 years of photographing he now has “families of pictures”.
‘Deer Hirsch’
Connecting the works on display to fragility, Tillmans explains that Fragile fulfills the purpose of working as a title and is not a defining label in itself. There are however moments of fragility captured in an expression, in an emotion felt or in the medium of photography. Then there is the fragility of appropriating the world as can be seen in the work Truth Study Centre. Attracted to the economic nature of the photographic medium, Tillmans equally enjoys the ability it has to facilitate conversations around physically concrete and sculptural issues.
Tillmans sees the art as something that allows him to speak about the physical world and simultaneously penetrate something that is more psychological. “It’s so able to record emotions and relations and it can manipulate a lot and pretend a lot but used sensitively it is an incredibly psychological medium.”
What draws one to a Wolfgang Tillmans show is more than the images displayed, in part you are pulled by his curatorial method that becomes an artwork in itself. Looking back on his journey with curation, Tillmans explains that his current mode of display was not something which he had planned to be a recurring part of his practice. He states, “I didn’t plan to come up with a way of making art that would leave ultimately only myself to install the exhibitions and it ended up this way.” It was with his first exhibition in 1993 that he first employed this method of display resulting in curators asking him to bring forth his particular grammars and syntaxes in shows. “…it really is to try to represent the way how I look at the world. Which is not just ordered in sections and it’s not all in a line. It’s allowing different attitudes.”
‘Paper Drop’
An agreement to the fragility that defines us as individuals and that influences our relations to one another is viewed as strength. Since his adolescence, Tillmans has been acutely aware of this interplay which is marked throughout the expanse of his artistic practice. Fragile has been used by Tillmans before, as an early artist name as well as the title of a music project he was involved in. Teasing out new ways of making with frailty, failure and rifts, these make reference to the imperfection of life and open up diverse perspectives on the materiality of the above.
Subjectivity with the potential to transform. Providing an extensive overview of his complex work this exhibition is a showcase of the various shapes of artistic expression of Wolfgang Tillmans. The show includes photography from large scale installations taking up an entire room, to small post card images and even smaller polaroids of 90’s party culture, publications, sculptural objects, video content and the installation practice particular to the artist. Activating discourse, an exchange of reaction takes place when presented with new scenarios. Space is given for mystery, deep emotion and speculation.
A sculptural practice wrapped around economy. An absolute awareness of the materiality of, not only his medium, but life itself. The deeply psychological nature of his portraits ingrained. To see as never seen before. Attending this show is a perception warp itself and a realization of fragility, a realization of your own inevitable fallibility and life span. If you enjoy walking out of your comfort it is definitely where you should be.
Wolfgang Tillmans: Fragile will run to the 30 September 2018 at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. I promise there is no regretting it.
‘Headlight (f)’‘Anders pulling splinter from his foot’‘astro crusto’
“Intimacy is too often confined with matters of love; yet the word belongs more to trust, to faith. It denotes an act of revelation found in the simple gesture of sharing; bringing that which was previously hidden out from the shadows and into the light. In this exhibition, the artworks chosen explore intimacy in both their content and their form. They touch on universal themes – like birth and love and death – but also on other more singular intimacies; personal histories, dreams and desires. The works reflect on self- intimacy, experienced in solitude, and the intimacy shared between us, be it romantic or platonic, familial or fleeting. There is, too, intimacy of familiar spaces, spaces we inhabit in both the world and in our minds. And then, there is the intimacy of objects, and our relationships to them; a cherished photograph, clothes left lying on the floor, a coffee half drunk, now gone cold, a letter hidden in a bottom drawer. And always an implied subject, who has held and touched these objects, so that each becomes a metonym for something, or someone, else.” – reads the introductory paragraph of the essay on the group show titled The Art of Intimacy by Lucienne Bestall.
Curated by SMITH’s own Jana Terblanche, Close Encounters, “…encompasses many intimacies. Intimacy between friends, family and even yourself. An ‘encounter’ extends beyond romantic love, and opens the show up to a certain type of multiplicity…” she tells me in response to the exhibition title.
Terblanche explains further that, “The curatorial strategy seeks to make connections, and guide the audience to experience many versions of intimacy, but not to be too definitive in fixing its meaning.”
‘Looking in’ by Banele Khoza
Interpretation, voyeuristic in its nature, peeks into private scenes in the works of Olivié Keck, Daniel Nel and Banele Khoza. As the viewer uncovers that which is hidden, they are confronted with the image of a sleeping woman with a bloodstain forming between her legs; with figures in a bedroom – dressing or undressing. A nude man cradles his foot in another work. As Bestall points out, the human shapes portrayed on these canvases appear to be unaware of their viewer, unaware of being watched. They are “…absorbed in their own worlds and insensible to ours. From this vantage, we become privileged viewers; seeing yet unseen.”
Boy in Pool and Creepy Noodle by Strauss Louw presents as photographic montages reflecting on ideas surrounding sensuality and sexuality. The images’ quality can be compared to a fever dream, confused, stripped down. A recurring element in both frames is that of water. Water which is fluid and evokes connotations around spiritual cleanliness, the metaphorical washing away of sin; a baptism that promises new life, a new beginning. The images that reflect one another and in turn speak to one another show an intimacy that extends beyond photographic paper. The signifier, pool noodles and topless male torsos, signify more than the visual cues the artist brings to the fore. Bestall writes, “For him, the gesture of photographing is itself an act of intimacy; the silent communion between the subject and artist shared for only the briefest moment.”
‘Creepy Noodle’ by Strauss Louw
Moments of grave intimacy equally take hold in this group show appearing as recollections of space lost, contemplations on censorship, erasure and that which is muffled. A weapon uncovered from the quite recesses of a grandmother’s bed.
Returning to the intimacy of childhood, Thandiwe Msebenzi, Sitaara Stodel and Morné Visagie use film, collage and photographs to convey their meaning. Loss, longing and distance oozing from each pigment.
‘Unoma xabela ngezembe’ by Thanidwe Msebenzi
Tapping into the darker avenues of the twisted mind, Michaela Younge and Stephen Allwright craft peculiar scenes of nightmarish fantasy. Younge’s work made from merino wool and felt, bring together eroticism, violence, sensuality and abjection. In this world of felt imagination nude figures, skulls, a doll’s head, the American Gothic and a lawnmower coexist on the same material plane.
The intimacy of banal objects is considered by artists Gitte Möller and Fanie Buys. Buys’ Unknown Couple at their Wedding (muriel you’re terrible) is a painting of a found image depicting a bride and groom about to cut into their wedding cake. The familiarity of the scene is nostalgic as it is found as such in endless family photo albums.
‘Leda and the Handsome Glück’ by Michaela Younge
Pairing the personal with the universal Amy Lester uses a monotype of a faceless woman that draws parallels with the Venus of Willendorf and other objects and images of fertility. Alongside hangs a photograph of the artist’s birth. This iteration of familial intimacy explores birth and the archetypal Mother figure.
The viewer is moved from private bedroom scenes to depictions of violence, from a clear subject to an underlying layer of meaning, invited to engage with the scale of works, the theme of intimacy follows distinct threads. “Yet the works exhibited all share the same vulnerability. Something previously hidden is revealed; a secret spoken aloud, a memory described, a dark dream recalled. Such is intimacy, a word bound not to love, nor to the erotic. But rather, a word that denotes a certain knowledge, a privileged insight into the private life of another – another figure, another object, another place. Where some intimacies are lasting, others are only momentary; where some are apparent, others are not.” Bestall ends off.
‘Unknown Couple at their Wedding (muriel you’re terrible)’ by Fanie Buys
The interdisciplinary group show Close Encounters will run from the 4 July – 28 July 2018.
Join SMITH Gallery on a walkabout of the show on Saturday the 21st July at 11h00.
‘The Birth’ by Amy Lester‘she looks at you as if looking for herself’ by Jess Holdengarde‘Tonal Tears’ by Jess Holdengarde‘But if it doesn’t have a garden we can’t keep the dog?’ by Sitaara Stodel
