Bubblegum Club

Author: Marcia Elizabeth

  • Tyler Mitchell’s Candid Lens and Raw Depictions of Youth sets him apart as a young creative

    Tyler Mitchell’s Candid Lens and Raw Depictions of Youth sets him apart as a young creative

    A photographic and filmic dexterity finding its nucleus in real life experience. Candid portraits that remain in cognitive thought. A stylistic virtue that comes across as haphazard play.

    Tyler Mitchell is a filmmaker and photographer from Atlanta currently based in Brooklyn, New York. A recent film graduate from NYU, his venture into photography was prompted by a skater friend’s introduction to a Canon 7D.

    With his work coming full circle his lens has been graced by the presence of Jaden Smith and Kevin Abstract. Collaborating with Abstract has quickly set him apart as a filmmaker to watch. Filming the rapper with pink hair in a brooding gaze, Tyler used an underground club as the backdrop for ‘Hell/Heroina‘ released in 2014 and made a satirical music video titled ‘Dirt‘ for Brockhampton that was led by Abstract.

    A career-defining moment in the young creative’s life was the release of his photography book, El Paquete (his first self-published book). In Havana, Cuba, Tyler aimed to remove himself from that which is familiar to him. The end product of the 30 rolls of film used and developed is an arresting body of work taking the shape of a publication. Within its pages is reflected the raw energy and youth of an area on the verge of digital advancement. El Paquete gained traction from publications such as Dazed and i-D and quickly skyrocketed the young talent’s photographic work, cementing him as a prominent creative within the photographic landscape. Since then, Tyler has exhibited at the 2018 Aperture Summer Open in New York.

    Tyler’s work reflects rawness and honesty. His practice cannot be boxed into a specific set of aesthetic values as he plays with both shadow and shadow-less representations, saturated and desaturated stylings. What remains true in his work is its candid, easy-going nature that wraps around your mind as you see individuals depicted in intimate gazes and pensive thought. The young creative’s craft is advanced and his career is soaring at a considerably young age and seeing where his work takes him next will be a blast I’m sure.

    For more of his work visit his website.

     

  • Dana Scruggs – Photography celebrating the black body and increasing visibility

    Dana Scruggs – Photography celebrating the black body and increasing visibility

    Rawness used as a tool of empowerment. A shutter that constructs a narrative around the individuals captured. A constant return to documenting the movement of the human form and the beauty of the black body. A visual activism. A visual voice.

    Dana Scruggs is a photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her string of victories in the photography profession include capturing Tori Bowie (Olympic gold-medalist and the fastest woman in the world) for ESPN’s 10th edition of their Body Issue. With this editorial Dana broke barriers by being the first black female photographer to have contributed to this issue.

    A raw approach becomes a voice for a community and acts to represent and celebrate the black body in all its infinite beauty. The realness in her work showcases individuals in a perspective that is hardly seen but mostly felt. By this I mean that her work translates as an emotion – as an embodiment of the people she photographs.

    In an interview with DAILY RITUAL Dana expresses her view on the industry, “Representation matters not just in front of the camera but behind it as well. Brands, mags, & galleries need to look at how they may be feeding into a culture that’s not inclusive of Black women and not inclusive of women of color. It’s not enough to have Black women in your magazine, ad campaign or grace the walls of your gallery. As artists, our voices have been underrepresented and underemployed for far too long. Make the effort to seek us out… MAKE THE EFFORT TO BE INTERSECTIONAL.”

    To check out more of her work visit her website.

     

  • Delphine Diallo’s ‘Women of New York’ – empowering women

    Delphine Diallo’s ‘Women of New York’ – empowering women

    Delphine Diallo, currently based in Brooklyn, New York, is a French Senegalese photographer and visual artist. Completing her studies at the Académie Charpentier School of Visual Art in Paris she worked in the music industry as a graphic designer, special effect motion artist and video editor before moving to New York to explore her own practice.

    Combining her artistry with activism Delphine momentums various possibilities for the empowerment of women, cultural minorities and youth forward. The mediums in which she practices include both analogue and digital photography, illustration and collage, virtual reality and 3D printing.

    Her arresting imagery acts to challenge societal norms and champion women with mythological, anthropological, sexuality, identity and race explorations.

    Delphine’s project Women of New York makes use of classic portraiture to create visibility. For this project, she photographed women and girls of New York which was compiled into a book format and featured 111 females (a symbol of oneness).

    For this project, the artist used the method of blind casting via Instagram posts and having her assistant handle the model calls in order to rule out discrimination and limiting women and girls who want to participate from forming a part of the project.

    “I feel like if I select women, then I’m discriminating against other women who want to participate. I’m not going to do that. So, my assistant handles the model calls I post on Instagram, and 30 women might reply, and because they’ve expressed interest, they are part of this project.

    I want to give each woman who has felt defeated, unprotected, ignored or degraded, a new light to shine on her brilliance and beauty. And, for the women who have always felt empowered, despite society dismissing her in the workplace, educational institutions, media outlets, and even in her home, I want Women of New York to illuminate her strength in ways she may never have imagined.” she expressed in an interview with 99u.

    Delphine’s images are strong and show these women and girls in a confident, powerful light. Her project has created visibility and a face that speaks to what it means to be a female in New York today. Her work holds power in that it celebrates beauty and is a clear indication that womanhood cannot be seen as an embodiment of one way of being.

  • The starry-eyed fashion depictions of photographer Annie Lai

    The starry-eyed fashion depictions of photographer Annie Lai

    Soft romantic lighting. Colours saturated. Models often captured as if in deep contemplation. Images that display as a fictitious 70s idealism. Near shadow-less representations. A warm arresting memory made clear.

    Annie Lai is a London based photographer best known for her romantically styled editorials for independent, cult magazines such as Teeth, OE and Sicky. Having grown up in a small costal town in China, Annie decided to move to London to study fashion photography at the London Collage of Fashion.

    Annie’s photography has developed to show a clear signature. Whether she photographs her models on location (both inside and outside) or in studio, one is able to identify her creative input in an image effortlessly. An element that makes up her style is the use of very natural and soft lighting choices – when employing coloured filters or gels she uses it as a highlight to merely kiss her model’s features. Another element is models sharing similar features that aid in building this signature style as well as fashion that remains within the same style through various bodies of work. The last elements that builds the foundation of her style are that of shooting frequently from high or low angles as well as abidance by the rule of thirds.

    Annie’s work presents as clean, untampered with and natural romantic fashion depictions that climb straight into your heart.

    As her practice and lived experience in London has grown she has become a cultural traveller effortlessly navigating between the contexts and cultures that form her identity. While Annie currently resides in London and travels to China she has found where her heart lies – behind her lens.

  • ‘Trembling Thought’ – a solo exhibition in Katharien de Villiers’ studio

    ‘Trembling Thought’ – a solo exhibition in Katharien de Villiers’ studio

    An amalgamation of colour, image, sound and installation. An artist’s studio showcases a new body of work Trembling Thought presented by SMITH Studio. The meeting of traditional and non-traditional media. A world built from Katharien de Villiers’ memory and curated by her hand. As if walking on to an 80’s sci-fi film set. Small animals glare through luminous eye slits. The viewer is asked to engage with work through various entry points.

    The expansive new body of work takes interest in uncertainty and virtual reality. The nucleus of Trembling Thought is that of the instability of memory. The show itself is described by the artist as “A recorded library of warped memory”.

    Creating from her own memory, the unreliable nature of one’s own recollections is celebrated. In uncertainty, she finds multiplicity and potential. In Trembling Thought De Villiers acts in order to materialise both the desires and power structures prevalent in the reproduction of memory.

    I spoke to the artist to reveal more about her process and thought behind the new body of work:

    Process and the audience’s engagement/dissection of process is of prevalence in this body of work. Why is it so important?

    As an artist, I have always been acutely aware of my disengagement from work by the time it is put on show for viewers. In this awareness I try to create spaces within which viewers can find their own entrance points in the work, allowing them to build a personal relationship with the work independent of my artistic intention, but within the spatial elements of my truth and curation.

    In your artist bio it is stated that thinking is broader than the work itself. How do works and concepts correlate? Do they not carry the same amount of weight? Are artworks then a tool to access the thought conveyed?

    Saying thinking is broader than the work itself is just another jab at the overwhelming process of creating works which can live beyond a singular intention. I wouldn’t call the work “tools”, since somehow that in itself designates purpose and outcome. The artworks serve as elements which can be placed in different relations to one another, form new combinations of thought and generate a multitude of rational conclusions. The works become to thought what letters are to words; when placed in new combinations meaning can be altered in the blink of an eye.

    Is Virtual Reality employed as a way to speak about uncertainty?

    The new understanding of virtual reality speaks of an artificiality which is not applicable to this body of work. This is a more personal version of virtual reality. Personal memories and first-hand experiences make up the content of “Trembling Thought”. It is the forced nature of the elements’ relationship in the works, the surreal scale and shifting perspectives that initiate the sense of uncertainty which ultimately guides the viewer through a trembling world of forced relations.

    What is this potential that is found in uncertainty and warped memory?

    Potential in as much as the outcome of thought in relation to the work is not designated or pre-destined. The viewers find themselves confronted with my memories, memories which have already started cross-breeding and hybridizing with other experiences and memories of my own. The potential and uncertainty exists in the very nature of these memories and memory’s natural inclination to bend, break and form new truths.

    The new body of work has a self-reflexive quality. How do you think audience members will be able to identify with this personal project?

    “Trembling Thought” expects a huge amount of engaging energy from the viewer. Through the process of curation, I wanted to amplify the feeling of a labyrinth, or that the viewer is in fact strolling through my mind. As an artist, I have never quite been able to create beyond personal experience. It would seem arbitrary to speak in a voice that isn’t my own. The viewers greatest power lies in their ability to respond to visual stimulus and relate from an individual perspective and personal archive of memory.

    Please unpack what is meant by “…to materialise the desires and power structures at play while we reproduce memory.”? What are these power structures and desires and why and how would memory be reproduced?

    Memory, in my opinion, has a morphing hierarchy, which is informed by desire. Desire is ultimately what drives memory to discard or accumulate. In a way memory’s ability to organically grow, shrink and generally change shape makes it its own reproductive system – I was simply the catalyst in the physical rendering of these thoughts.

    Dualities seem to be of much importance. Could you please elaborate on this?

    The doubling of elements (such as fat cops or snarling dogs) is a mental process of visualization. Repeating elements becomes a way of engaging with the hierarchy of memory and the potential of repeating elements in new combinations. Duality could of course also refer to both physical and emotive contrast in the works.

    Does the work Kinetic Window attempt to make a commentary on the physicality of modern art and where it is found spatially?

    ‘Kinetic Window’ is an exploration of the Post-modern obsession with meaning and understanding in art. I often feel that viewers expect a conclusive emotional or intellectual understanding of art and the accompanying sound piece elaborates on this concern. It is problematic for viewers to expect understanding if they refuse to engage with works from their personal archive of knowledge.

     

    Trembling Thought was presented as a one-night art event in the Artist’s studio showcasing an elaborate body of work. The show included new paintings and a number of moving installations as seen earlier this year at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair. The event took place on the 14th of June, however, the artist is available for studio visits in the month after the show to discuss her process and take collectors through her work.

     

  • Rosanna Jones’ Ripped Up Portraiture explores visual identity and embodiment

    Rosanna Jones’ Ripped Up Portraiture explores visual identity and embodiment

    The act of obscuring faces and bodies. Faces hidden beneath colour smudges. Or ripped out of works entirely. Rosanna Jones’ tactile work is of a personal nature and is aimed at examining visual identity and notions of embodiment.

    For the photographer, her process has become therapeutic. Her ripped up portraiture reflects on her own life, this can be seen in series such as Destroy. “…I guess you could say it’s a little sadistic to enjoy bleaching, tearing, scouring, and outright burning away the subject’s eyes, face, or other body parts, but there is definitely a close connection between Destroy and my relationship to my own body and mind,” she expresses in an interview with Format.

    The hereditary duality (photography both immortalizes and acts violently) that Rosanna addresses in her work is photography and by extension the photograph’s ability to either immortalize their subject or to behave as an act of violence toward that subject. The exploitation of the female form in fashion photography is one of the clearest examples of this duality and/or contradiction. Rosanna’s deliberate intervention in the images of her beautiful models obscures them. Her method of ripping, bleaching, burning and blotching out her models is an aggressive act and mimics the potentiality the camera has to create violence.

    To check out more of Jones’ work visit her website.

  • Ricardo Simal – Photographing an idyllic state of being

    Ricardo Simal – Photographing an idyllic state of being

    A moment of time captured in a permanent state. Intimate portrayals of fresh-faced youths. Flecks of haziness. A perfect balance of slightly saturated tones is met with vibrancy. Images of nostalgia.

    Ricardo Simal is a Cape Town based photographer who refined his craft by studying at the Ruth Prowse School of Art. Moving to London he assisted highly regarded photographers such as David Sims, Patrick Demarchelier and Mert & Marcus working on titles that include ID, Dazed and Confused, W Magazine, Vogue and Tank Magazine.

    Ricardo’s portrayal of his models translates as near documentary fiction and his viewer experiences a sense that he knows these people intimately. Looking through his body of work is like looking at the documentation and dissection of youth and youth culture with a raw unbevelled edge.

    Engaging with any one of the images crafted with his lens is to become mesmerised and to experience a sense that you yourself know these models. The feeling can be described as looking at portraits of friends from a previous lifetime. His images ooze with emotion even in his editorial stylings.

    Analysing the expanse of his work, it is clear that Ricardo is a classically trained photographer abiding by principles such as the rule of thirds. This choice in itself renders his depictions as natural due to his models appearing within a focus area that is preferred by the human eye. Another technique that he employs is the elimination of distracting objects adding to the captivating quality of his work. Images that appear near shadow-less results in an uplifting mood.

    The aesthetic of his practice can be summarized as raw, honest, sensual and intuitive. Since his return to Cape Town Ricardo has built up an impressive client list consisting of Hugo Boss Eyewear, Woolworths, Esquire, Meso and Russh to list just a few.

    In short, Ricardo’s work can be seen as an idealism. Photographing young beauties within light tonal values and the rules outlined in various photographic principles makes his aesthetic become pronounced. The world he creates is real and unreal simultaneously. The rawness he photographs with adds to the element of a sort of documentary that his work visually displays.

  • Daria Kobayashi Ritch – The photographer creating intimate romantic fashion depictions

    Daria Kobayashi Ritch – The photographer creating intimate romantic fashion depictions

    A moment is frozen in time. The beauty of youth captured. A soft approach with a tender touch. An unquestionable femme gaze. Flowers, low angle shots. Images close to nostalgia reminiscent of the MySpace era. Vibrancy. Colour tones of yellow, blues and pinks. A blown-out kiss.

    Daria Kobayashi Ritch has become well known in photography, fashion and pop culture circles for her documentation of L.A.’s coolest. With more shoots and editorials of young celebrities being crafted by her lens her creative portfolio is blossoming to include names such as Willow Smith, Solange and Garage Magazine.

    In an interview with INDIE Daria expresses that her photographic inclination was inspired during her adolescence when she and her friends got dressed up and took profile pictures for their MySpace accounts. Later in her life, she went on to study Fine Art at UCLA which she rounded off by attending art college.

    Her mission with her work is to combine an intimate take on the people she photographs with the romantic mood of fashion. Daria is inspired by youth culture and subcultural movements that relate to the indie music scene. Taking this as a point of departure she sees an unexplored depth in these individuals that she visually unravels in her arresting imagery.

    Daria acknowledges the difficulty of being a photographer, one that is not articulated enough. As a photographer, one has to establish an intimate relationship with your model in a matter of minutes. More frequent than not, people you don’t know and only just met on the day of the shoot.

    The artist’s balancing act at present is between her artistic visualizations for herself and the fast world of fashion. Keep yourself up to date with new developments in her work here.

  • Dancer and Choreographer Jeremy Nedd shapes multidisciplinary performative pieces

    Dancer and Choreographer Jeremy Nedd shapes multidisciplinary performative pieces

    Choreographer and classically trained dancer Jeremy Nedd lives and practices in Brooklyn, NY. Studying dance from a very young age (8 years old), Jeremy gradually stepped into creating original choreographed pieces after many years of performing the choreography of others.

    As a dancer he studied in New York and relied on his own intuition to train himself in choreography. “Choreography for me was always just a continuation or fulfilling of my ideas as a dancer, so I didn’t think to go to program.” In 2016 Jeremy left a position he kept in a theater and began a Masters in ‘Expanded Theater’ at the Hochschule der Künste Bern.

    With ‘Expanded Theater’ Jeremy created a stage for himself to experiment. This experimentation is put into action by what Jeremy describes as composing images per-formatively through music, art and dramatic theatre techniques.

    In discussion with the multi form artist he unpacks his work and approach to creating.

    What is Communal Solo about and can you please unpack the title? How was this work approached and who are the people that are participating in this performance?

    It was quite the journey to get it to the point that it is now, at least a years worth of work, if not more. In the very early stages of the work I was very caught up on the idea that theater was considered a communal experience. This ritual that we as a spectating pubic go and watch, while a someone performs.

    I always wondered where in this constellation was the communal connection. Was it shared between the members of the public… or was it between the public and the performer(s)? Somehow I felt there was a disconnect, so I wanted to see if there was another way to achieve a sense of community in the theatre space.

    After many attempts at creating, majority participatory based, communal acts in the theater, I found the most natural way for me to access a feeling of community was looking to how actual community is built around issues that deeply concern me. So in the end Communal Solo was inspired by experiences of mourning, celebration and protest, and how these collective experiences or communal gatherings correlate and coalesce in connection to a specific narrative – the recurrent violence in the form of Police brutality against the African-American community in the United States. This work made significant developments in this direction with Deborah Hollman.

    ‘An Homage’ photographed by Ayka Lux and Erwan Schmidt

    Can you tell me more about your creative process?

    I suppose this is where I could come back to the message in my work, Even though I come from a classical ballet education and history of performing contemporary ballets professionally my practice has had a focus on utilizing movement modes that are not based in codified dance techniques or not associated with the institution size theater idea of trained dance.

    I find the constant themes that have informed my work revolve around; utilizing online resources, the process of dissection, demystification and re-contextualization and confronting definitions of validity and contemporaneity specifically in western spaces for art and theater. I am hoping to introduce new ideas of ‘virtuosity’ and where these perceptions land on ideas and narratives around race, gender and economic status (mine own as black male in particular). And in doing so attempting to inject validity into certain narratives and aesthetics.

    ‘An Homage’

    What is the significance of space to your practice?

    Space is integral, my girlfriend is an Architect. Through her I’ve really accessed a whole other understanding of the idea of “a body in space”. Especially considering how in a lot of contemporary practices the idea of space, be it physical or virtual is a very present topic.

    How does the moving human form relate to space in your work?

    As I mentioned before, now that I’m actively incorporating other disciplines in my practice, sculpture and installation for example, these operate very differently when presented in different contexts. Museum, Theater or Public Space/ Site Specific are all very different contexts  and influence an audience reception to a work in different ways.

    At present Jeremy is developing his next project exploring Sad Boy Rap. The project which is due to premiere at the end of this month is being created in collaboration with Maximilian Hanisch and Laurel Knüsel. The piece titled, ‘Sad Boy Culture’ will be premiering at the Festival Belluard Bollwerk International in Fribourg, Switzerland.

    In August the performer will be in Johannesburg for a few months working on a new project with the Pantsula’s of Impilo Mapantsula.

    ‘An Homage’
    ‘re(mains)’
    ‘re(mains)’
  • Kusheda Mensah’s Debut Collection ‘Mutual’ Inspires Empathy

    Kusheda Mensah’s Debut Collection ‘Mutual’ Inspires Empathy

    Furniture designer and LCC Surface Design graduate Kusheda Mensah‘s bold debut collection Mutual enunciates a maverick approach to both design and human interaction. This concept was originally that of Verner Pathon one of the designer’s strong influences amid 70s design sensibilities.

    During her studies at LCC, she became mesmerized by the designs of Pathon and the interactive spaces he created during the 1970s which made her question why people don’t sit like they used to anymore. Using her craft as a means of channelling her unfiltered emotional discontent with the way in which people interact socially as well as empathy, the young designer has created furniture to improve human relationships.

    As someone who has had experience with depression, Kusheda is of the opinion that creating designs to encourage intimacy could be critical to bettering everyday encounters that affect our mental health. “I really do want my furniture to be for everyone. When I first made the product I was thinking about how we can all better socialise. When we’re kids we’re told to play with toy blocks – it helps us develop socially and mentally – but why aren’t we doing that now?” she expresses in an interview with Another.

    Mutual is a collection that is still in its progress stages. The aim of the collection is to diversify the ways in which space is used at work and at home. The fluid designs can be easily arranged, swapped around and added to. Visually the collection presents an aesthetic evoked by Jenny Saville’s exploration of form, the use of colour for the collection is inspired by Ellsworth Kelly and composition choices are driven by Joan Miró. This collection characterized by its unconventionality stands to challenge our acceptance of impersonal design creations.

    Kusheda has designed her debut collection to mimic the human shape with its curves as she believes that this is more of an accurate definition of modular design as opposed to rectangular and circular shapes.

  • Photographer and Journalist Rahima Gambo’s ‘Education is Forbidden’ makes a social commentary on the post-colonial education system in north-eastern Nigeria

    Photographer and Journalist Rahima Gambo’s ‘Education is Forbidden’ makes a social commentary on the post-colonial education system in north-eastern Nigeria

    Rahima Gambo studied Development at the University of Manchester and thereafter completed a Masters in Gender and Social Policy at the London School of Economics. This was followed with her Masters in Journalism at Columbia Graduate School in 2014. Her interdisciplinary practice looks at Nigerian identity, gender, socio-political issues and history. Her series Education Is Forbidden makes use of photography, illustration, text and film to articulate a troubling narrative that remains without end.

    With her photo essay, Education is Forbidden, the photographer and journalist challenges the Boko Haram insurrection, the condition of the post-colonial education system in north-eastern Nigeria as well as the status of women in society. Showcased as a part of the curated projects at ART X Lagos art fair, it has been in development since 2015.

    The project has been built on and grown due to support given by the International Women’s Media Foundation, propelled forward by “a curiosity to understand what it means to be a student on the front lines.” Rahima, who is from the region and currently residing in Abuja, travelled to schools and universities in various states to meet activists, pupils and teachers. This acted as an entry point for her documentation of the lasting trauma and infrastructural deterioration, beginning decades before and is currently destabilised by conflict.

    To create this body of work Rahima’s approach was to show girls from a stylised, prolific point of view. Employing traditional portraiture techniques, the photographer aimed to focus on points of familiarity and visual signifiers that remind her audience of how carefree school days should be. These signifiers include a girl blowing a bubble with chewing gum and other girls calmly look into her lens. The works take a frontal approach created collaboratively with the girls that she photographed.

    Rahima tells these girls’ stories as their youth is poisoned by these events of trauma. It is important to note that she does not intend to label them by these circumstances or define them as victims. “The project is not based on trauma because you can find that in any condition, no matter how comfortable…” she expresses in an interview with Nataal. Her series has the twofold effect of being both a visual documentation and captured moments of collective memory. Her work is then a visual narrative speaking of the cruelties of conflict and its effect on the educational framework of the region.

  • Chris Soal’s First Solo Exhibition – ‘Orbits of Relating’ Opens at NO END Contemporary

    Chris Soal’s First Solo Exhibition – ‘Orbits of Relating’ Opens at NO END Contemporary

    “We think we are liberated by individualism, but in reality we’ve given up so much power. People are so caught up in the nuances of their own personal realm that they’ve lost real civic relationships with one another. We’ve lost that collective power.”  – Andrea Zittel

    Recent PPC Imaginarium winner Chris Soal is back from his residency and presents to Johannesburg art lovers his latest body of work in the form of a solo exhibition. Orbits of Relating is Chris’s first solo exhibition as well as his first participation in a show since graduating with an Honours degree in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand.

    ‘Climb into someone else’s skin and walk around in it’

    His journey with NO END Contemporary began early in 2017 when the gallery invited him to be a part of the group show, What’s In It For You. Since this initial opportunity Chris has exhibited in three other group shows by the gallery and was one of their featured artist at the 2017 Turbine Art Fair.

    Orbits of Relating has been in stages of development for over a year and a half, the artist shares with me. The show’s artworks which consists in its near entirety of thousands of toothpicks strategically packed to morph into shape, texture and sculptural works were all born from an initial idea that was formulated in a restaurant.

    ‘To know that one is dreaming is to be no longer perfectly asleep’

    “I was sitting at a restaurant with some friends and picked up the toothpick container at the end of the meal, and the pattern in which the toothpicks had arranged themselves, fascinated me and I took a photo.”  Albeit his initial fascination by the pattern the toothpicks fell into that day in the restaurant, Chris dismissed toothpicks as a material to create art with. This early dismissal stemmed from the disposable life of a toothpick, usually serving one purpose in our society and thereafter immediately discarded – “…that little voice said, “no one cares about toothpicks.”

    Using the group show 2K with NO END, as a platform for early experimentation with the medium he created two small toothpick based works. Impressed by what the medium had to offer, Chris continued creating with toothpicks.

    “It’s ironic because my initial intention was to replicate the specific pattern which I saw that day in the restaurant, however I failed. I couldn’t get the toothpicks to sit the way I wanted and in that failure something spectacular emerged.”

    The works in the exhibition were created during Chris’ recent residency hosted by the Southern African Foundation For Contemporary Art (SAFFCA) held in Knysna.

    ‘If only we could suspend disbelief’

    Chris’ words to eager art supporters wanting to attend the exhibition is that they should not come with expectations because “If they come expecting grandeur they’ll leave disappointed. My work utilises debris and objects on the margins of our society, and it hinges on the fact that these objects have become invisible to our eyes once they serve their purpose.”

    Chris’ work relies on audience engagements, conceptual and methodological cornerstones to his practise. In a world of much superficiality and impersonal interaction he saw an opportunity to create work that was visceral, engaging and acts to affirm his viewer’s presence and existence.

    On the topic of the titles for his artworks Chris explains that his aim was to give the abstract or formal work that he creates a relatable nature. He regards his titles as windows and/or entry points into his work. It acts as an opening for his viewer into something more than what the eye can perceive.

    ‘Awkward moments in a potentially romantic encounter’

    Chris’ work which has been called political in nature can be regarded as such as it addresses “polis” derived from politics and meaning citizenry. His work acts as an affirmation to his viewers that they exist and have value. This is communicated through the use of materials and titles in particular, that they exist in relation to others. Chris explains this as being a part of a complex system of aesthetic producers and consumers.

    Aesthetic and political value for the works are derived from Chris’ deliberate use of capitalism driven debris. The point of relation that is encouraged with his work exists between his viewers and themselves to the work of art, and through material transcendence that goes beyond its singular shape. “These are simply inroads for further critical contemplation, not a message which can be written down in literary form…”.

     

    Orbits of Relating will be on display at NO END Contemporary from 24 May – 23 June 2018.

    Have a look at the Facebook event for more info.

    ‘The Viscosity of Light’