Author: Marcia Elizabeth

16 shots – a testament to Musa Nxumalo’s distinctive visual vocabulary

Musa N. Nxumalo previously known for Alternative Kids is showcasing 16 Shots at Smac Gallery Johannesburg. His latest body of work consists of 16 photographic prints, a continuation of his current project The Anthology of Youth.

Nxumalo defies the stark divide between social documentary and fine arts photography with his exhibition 16 Shots. His focuses on the black youth of South Africa and their experiences, which he documents with calculated ease.

The artist plays a double role within his own practice, acting as both the author and the witness to the scenes he portrays with a perspective that cannot be matched.

When looking at Anthology of Youth you realize that Nxumalo is in fact a part of this youth he portrays. Quite masterfully he moves the viewer from his or her private home into the spaces that form a part of his world. These places are spaces where the contemporary youths, his peers, reign.

With his clever lens he shows the viewer how he perceives the contemporary youth often depicted as disinterested or youth activists. His work and process suggests an overlying of the personas etched by society.

16 Shots is a carefully curated collection of photographic prints unified as a vision of the alteration in context and concerns that the contemporary youth in South Africa is faced with.

The images selected for the exhibition include photographs captured during the recent #feesmustfall protests and are included in the body of work as Nxumalo identifies himself as mediator, carrying over the voice of young South Africans with his intimate and honest photographic observation.

The protests are something that affected young people significantly, and for that reason he felt like it spoke to him. He saw the opportunity to carry over the voice for this generation with his lens.

The images recorded during the protests do not display detachment and are definitely not for pure documentation purposes. These images are not the kind of images you would see on the cover of any South African newspaper. They are loaded with emotion and a visual vocabulary distinctive to Nxumalo’s work.

16 Shots is thus not only a photographic witness to the protest, but is joined in the same space with imagery that presents club life in Johannesburg. Unlike the party imagery you would see from places like Kitcheners, a new intimacy is at play here.

A rawness and honesty that form a part of Nxumalo’s point of reference as a Sowetan born artist engrossed in the kasi punk scene.

A rhythmic pattern is evident in the curation of the exhibited images by Tshegofatso Mabaso, curator at Smac Gallery Johannesburg. Meticulously she choreographed the combined series consisting of still life, portraiture and moving bodies to create what can only be described as a dance of imagery.

The idea of movement is further emphasized by the use of sound installation and a disco ball. The images seem to come alive as light from the disco ball playfully teases over areas of the gicleéprint.

Mabaso and Nxumalo have created a space where the images and scenes come alive with an interactive exhibition. The viewer is taken into the party scene portrayed with the use of white balloons; a universal element often found at a party. Here the artist encourages the viewer to kick his balloons and to become a part of the world he captures.

The title 16 Shots refers to a song title by the American rapper Vic Mensa that had the police brutality debate in the United States as its focal point. References from the song are used as a collage together with noises from the protest as a sound installation in this exhibition. Nxumalo makes a link between the suffering of American youths with that of his South African peers in the #feesmustfall police confrontation.

The Anthology of Youth is a showcase of imagery documenting moments in the lives of South African youths that are immensely personal and border on secluded. Nxumalo’s records open a world to his audience that they might never otherwise encounter. This ongoing project is now an online multimedia archive depicting South Africa’s contemporary youth.

8 May 2017
Studio Kim – The Shift

I interviewed Kim Van Vuuren, known for her design work, to her shift into contemporary art.

We began our discussion with her 100 Forms project, which has drawn a lot of attention to the designer turned artist. Initially she cut down her idea of 100 Forms to 50 Forms, but the popularity of the project has revealed that her original vision for the project was correct. Since expanding her project to 100 Forms again, she has currently produced 60 of the 100 artworks for the collection

Kim explained that the idea for the project was born out of the fact that she gets bored easily. As a result, she tries to diversify the mediums that she uses foe her works. Her decision to move away from her design identity with 100 Forms connects to this as she wants to experiment with and challenge her own creative abilities. She was also influenced by what other creatives were doing online, particularly the 365 projects which became a trend in 2015 where creatives were putting out a design or drawing a day. She wanted to pursue a similar concept.

Kim studied at Michaelis School of Fine Art and specialized in sculpture. Her digital knowledge was gained through her own experimentation and short courses at Friends of Design in Cape Town. As a student Kim used to map out her dreams and keep dream journals of what would unfold with her eyes shut.

She enjoyed experimenting with this space between reality and dreams. As a fine art student she would set her alarm at 3am every morning with a dream recorder application on her laptop. This application would play a specific noise or song every morning. She set hers to Stepping Stones by Felix Laband. This song would morph into her dreams during that REM state of sleep. This way Kim created her own little Surrealist reality that informed her art practice. She says that in this particular experiment she felt like space and time were warping.

With her well-established interest in dreams and taking inspiration from the Surrealist movement both aesthetically and methodologically, the concept of automatic drawing informs her creative process for 100 Forms.

The colour pallet she works with is informed by what is happening in the interior design industry. Kim uses an overlay of textures in 100 Forms with pastel tones, marble textures and crystal gemstones. All of the imagery she uses in her work she takes herself and rarely relies on stock imagery.

As part of her own guidelines for this project, she intended to make work that would not be time consuming or make her feel intimidated and stressed. They needed to be created intuitively, and so all the designs came from her mind unswervingly and were transferred directly on to the paper. Creating something out of nothing is an idea she finds appealing and these works initially functioned as a form of escapism for herself.

She did not intend to sell any of the designs in 100 Forms but wanted to use it as a platform for her own creative expression. This aspect of the project changed when people started inquiring about buying prints from the collection. The project has grown beyond simply being a personal project.

Her goal with 100 Forms is to conceptualize a fun interactive exhibition combining sound and video. 100 Forms is also being conceptualized into an Instagram project. Kim wants to bring her forms to life with motion graphics and sound design. The end product will be looping motion picture films.

All of Kim’s work from brand identity to 100 Forms and her most recent paintings, influence each other.

Kim’s paintings can be described as flat and vector. She refers to it as “shapey and landscapey”. Her painting pallet consists of yellows, greens and her signature blue. She has always desired to paint but was fearful of going into that direction. She finally broke through this fear and is working in another medium she enjoys. As an artist she feels the need to get dirty and work with her hands. Painting is a therapeutic escape for her in which again follows the method of minimal planning. Her focus with her paintings is on form. She is drawn to landscape compositions and explains her process as transforming her surroundings into flat versions of itself. Matisse influences Kim’s painting style. She expresses a desire to explore female shapes as well as to work on a self-portrait series.

She will be showcasing her paintings at the Turbine Art Fair this year with No End Contemporary Art Space and is hoping to have a possible painting exhibition with the gallery in August of this year.

Check out her website to keep up with her work.

3 May 2017
Not Seen Store – where functionality and style meet

Luke Maritz is the creator of Not Seen Store, the Cape Town based brand, locally hand crafted and inspired by counter culture, youth culture, streetwear and graffiti. On edge and not on hype.

Not Seen has recently launched its online store that is designed exceedingly well. Navigation is easy, the typography selected for the overall feel is wonderful and so is the logo design. Of course what mostly drew my attention was the actual design of the products and their superb lookbooks.

In conversation I had with the creator and owner of the brand he mentioned that his branding concept was created initially as an idea to provide an online platform to buy and resell products like analogue cameras. Maritz continues by saying that due to continuous positive reaction his brand quickly developed into what it is today.

What I find so undeniably intriguing about Not Seen is the fact that Maritz not only designs the products which consists of roadmap bags, fanny packs and rain ponchos, he also does all the styling and photography of the lookbooks himself. His label is a personally directed branding concept. Maritz is an incredibly talented individual with not only the gift of a photographer’s eye but a key sense of design and color combinations. He is bringing out an extremely vivid edginess in his brand that has become his signature. Maritz is not just an entrepreneur. He is an artist.

Not Seen focuses predominantly on the roadmap bag and fanny pack, which has been making its way back onto the streets and the runways of the fashion world since 2015 as a unique way of carrying essentials.

What all Not Seen’s products have in common is their minimalist design using primary colors and black. The products are durable and well constructed. These designs can be used to customize quite a number of different ensembles as can be seen when looking at how Maritz styles his lookbooks. What is striking about this branding concept is how Maritz keeps it proudly South African by using Cape Town’s natural environments as well as cityscape as the backdrop for his lookbooks.

His choice of models subtly reminds me of the type of models American Apparel often steered towards; they fit the “street brand” image incredibly well and have an edgy, rebel teen look to them that is setting the tone for this off beat brand.

The most important thing to recognize about Maritz’ brainchild is that it is intended to add value to the consumers daily experience. In Luke’s own words, his brand is not hype and is here to stay. Not Seen Store is already making waves and I look forward to seeing the vision grow.

17 April 2017
The Lesser-known Girls of Jozi

You meet interesting people everywhere. Some of the most intriguing womxn I have come across come from Johannesburg. It is with them, through taking their images, that I found raw beauty and authenticity. Here is a look at three lesser-known females.

Tash Brown

My first interactions with Tash were over social media after she had commented on some photography I did with her friends. I loved how sassy, witty and original her thoughts were. As we progressed to PM messaging she asked me to start a Burn Book with her over a cup of tea. I enjoyed this sassy film reference to the 00’s teen film Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters.

I met up with Tash on a Sunday morning at her home to photograph her. As I entered the door her mother offered me a cup of tea while she was busy preparing food in the green colored kitchen.

After my warm cup of tea was prepared, Tash and I moved to her room to select outfits for our shoot. We started working in her room and moved to the garden where I photographed her blending in with the greenery. We progressed to the spare room of the house where Tash pushed herself up against the window and hid behind the side curtain. Tash changed from her vintage floral shirt to a bralette and panties. It was amazing for me to see how comfortable Tash is with her body.

Tash is the kind of girl who can send you a perfectly articulated voice note while brushing her teeth. She changes her hair color sporadically this is done during bonding sessions with her boyfriend. She calls it “messing with her identity”. Her personality can only be described as vibrant. Everything about Tash is fascinating, from the way that she dresses in pale yellow thrift store dresses to the way that she speaks and the way that she paints. Tash even tap dances. She is currently a third year Fine Arts student at the University of the Witwatersrand and is inspired by artists like Tracey Rose, Dineo Bopape and Ryan Trecartin. Growing up with a mother who is an artist, Tash found her love for art as a child.

Tash describes her work as slipping between fantasy and tragedy. Her practice brings that which is hidden to the surface. The aesthetic value of her work is pink and over-stimulating which brings out the grotesqueness of her style. She relies on kitsch to symbolize the bad taste underlying in pop culture and the imagination. Her created fantasy becomes overbearing at times.

Her work strokes childhood innocence that is tainted. She relies on a balance of intimacy and isolation, depicting violence in a beautiful scene. Her work does not have a single message but holds on to a suggestive idea. Tash says in her artist’s statement that “A face doesn’t want to look like a face”. Have a look at her creations online.

Karen Du Bois

I first met Karen towards the end of last year when she started dating my best friend John. Initially I didn’t know what to make of her, as she was not very talkative. As time passed I got to know her, and her openness revealed itself. She can often be caught walking around singing to herself, as if she is creating a sound track to her day-to-day life. This is what I enjoy most about her.

I spent an evening at John’s place and the next morning I spontaneously decided to shoot Karen because I had my camera on me from a shoot the previous day. I applied some M.A.C Retro Matte lip colour on her full-formed lips and asked her to get into the tub with a white Adidas tee shirt.

As soon as Karen got into the water she immediately went into model mode and transformed from the quiet, pretty girl I had got to know. She was alive, embracing her womanhood and beauty. She was on fire, in her element and comfortable in her surroundings. Looking over my images the magnetism of her eyes is what grabbed me.

Karen has a beautifully raw yet soft childlike voice that echoes pure talent. She has recently completed her BCom Accounting at the University of Johannesburg. Her main focus right now is on making music, taking inspiration comes from Rihanna, A$APRocky, The Pixies and Amy Winehouse. She describes herself as experimenting with her limitations and has recently formed a band called The Black Panties with musician John Shepherd. She found her calling as a vocalist at church and was a part of the school choir growing up. The Black Panties’ musical style can be defined as edgy, and sometimes eerie, and falls within the death trap genre.

Give them a listen on soundcloud.

Rosa Elk

I met Rosa for the first time at a picnic in the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens when she was about 16 years old. From my first interaction with her, I was intrigued by how academically sound she was. Her knowledge on world history surpassed her age.

Meeting up with Rosa again years later was everything I thought it would be. As she walked up to my car to greet me she had a little dust on her because she had been working with archival material from the Wits Art Museum. Entering her room I saw a beautiful collection of artworks, and in her closet carefully hand-picked designer items that were minimal, striking and beautiful. While Rosa was selecting her wardrobe for our shoot I perused the titles of her books. All in mint condition, with titles such as On Photography by Susan Sontag.

Photographing Rosa was an interesting experience. We moved from her bedroom, that I felt said so much about her personality and attention to detail, to her garden that looks like a miniature version of the botanical garden where we first met. I was confronted the wildness of her garden and, as per usual not dressed for the occasion. I was climbing rocks in sandals in order to get the right angles for the shots.

Rosa has a spunkiness about her that I find refreshing. We brushed over many topics while shooting but the one that stuck out for me was our conversation about how children perceive the world. She mentioned that her younger cousin calls her garden “the jungle”. We indulged ourselves all afternoon with interesting conversations, an amazing collection of books and a cat called Madeline, flying up and down the scene of the shoot trying to catch tiny insects only she took notice of.

Rosa has a passion for art and although she can’t be considered a Fine Artist, she sure knows how to write about it. She has a BA degree in English and History of Art from the University of the Witwatersrand. Rosa can be found drinking cups of tea, reading books or crocheting. Her favorite artist is Lady Skollie. She loves collecting South African jewelry and is building an art collection that consists of student artist pieces.

7 April 2017