Bubblegum Club

Tag: African continent

  • African Space Travellers Organisation: MaXhosa SS23/24 Collection at Zeitz

    For a while now, MaXhosa Africa has been a beacon of luxury that showcases the beauty and versatility of the African continent. The brand’s mission seeks to reposition culture as a prominent and influential thought leader in society, not just for the present, but for generations to come. Of course, as these values align with BubblegumClub’s own, we have kept our eye firmly focused on the inspiring trajectory of this homegrown brand. 

    A South African knitwear brand founded by Laduma Ngxokolo in 2012, it all started as a thesis project at Nelson Mandela University. Inspired by his Xhosa heritage and the traditional male initiation ceremony, Amakrwala, Ngxokolo’s signature aesthetic is a contemporary interpretation of traditional Xhosa beadwork patterns, symbols, and colours. His collections are known for their geometric patterns and vibrant hues.

    Over the years, the brand has expanded to include not only fashion but also accessories and home decor. It has gained worldwide recognition, with Ngxokolo winning prestigious awards such as the Vogue Italia Scouting for Africa prize in 2014. His designs have been worn by celebrities like Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, and John Kani, and a MaXhosa cable-knit sweater was featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s Is Fashion Modern? (2018) exhibition in New York City.

    MaXhosa

    MaXhosa Africa recently launched its SS23/24 collection at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. The choice of venue was strategic and marked the start of a significant partnership between the fashion brand and the museum, with MaXhosa’s distinctive homeware incorporated into the Zeitz MOCAA member’s lounge. This show was MaXhosa’s debut solo show in Cape Town. Held so close to their V&A Waterfront store, it was bolstered by the museum’s unwavering support for contemporary African creativity and its unique architectural design.

    The futuristic extravaganza was nothing short of stunning as models descended the museum’s central glass elevators, which served as a cosmic gateway. Drawing inspiration from African folklore, astrology and spirituality, the collection, aptly named A.S.T.O. (African Space Travellers Organisation), featured an impressive line-up of 80 looks. One of the most notable aspects of the show was the diverse range of models, representing various body types and gender identities found across the African continent. 

    The show introduced several standout pieces poised to become timeless classics for the brand. Among these were panelled knits and patchwork accents on dresses and suits. The range merged tradition with innovation, introducing new additions such as summer-ready printed t-shirts and swimwear pieces, cutouts and coverups featuring MaXhosa’s signature monogram patterns. By taking the collection to the poolside and oceanside, MaXhosa demonstrated the versatility of its design aesthetic.

    MaXhosa

    At a press conference held ahead of the show, its Founder and Creative Director Ngxokolo said, “MaXhosa Africa is at once a heritage brand and a brand that reflects the Zeitgeist in Africa, bringing the stories of the continent to an international community … We are in the business of pushing boundaries while continuing to honour our African heritage and style. We are part of the group demystifying the aesthetic that African designers cannot compete with the big players in the luxury space.”

    The event was a smash hit and saw a snazzy guest list, including media professionals and a whos who of Cape Town’s fashion, design, and art scene. Well conceived and efficiently organised, it was an undeniable testament to MaXhosa Africa’s unstoppable influence and significance within the fashion industry. With such a stellar track record of innovation and excellence, this iconic African fashion house promises a future brimming with even more transformative and neoteric undertakings. We can’t help but be left thirsting for more!

    MaXhosa

    MaXhosa

    MaXhosa

    MaXhosa

  • CANINE WISDOM FOR THE BARKING DOG – THE DOG DONE GONE DEAF // Exploring the Sonic Cosmologies of Halim El-Dabh with Artistic Intervention at the Dakar Biennial

    CANINE WISDOM FOR THE BARKING DOG – THE DOG DONE GONE DEAF // Exploring the Sonic Cosmologies of Halim El-Dabh with Artistic Intervention at the Dakar Biennial

    Sonically transformed. Haunting vibrations converging in crescendo. Signifying colourways correlating corresponding frequencies as musical notation. Perforating paper-thin eardrums. Beating through a spectrum of sounds. Tones sculpted, mixed and mastered. The music of modernity finds its tonal traces in histories of the past.

    The recently deceased Halim El-Dabh, was an Egyptian American composer. His six-decade experimental music career positioned him as a pioneer of electronic music. In 2007 he performed his album The Dog Done Gone Deaf  for the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival in Montreal, Quebec. The musical piece is a fable of the Navajo indigenous American people – the relationship between man and hound. The narrative explores how the dog saves the man’s life, only to be treated with brutality. In response to the violence, the dog covers its ears and goes deaf. However, it eventually forgives the man, in realising that they are both creatures of the earth.

    It was in the middle of the session of The Dog Done Gone Deaf, that El-Dabh invited the audience to close their eyes and breathe together – creating a collective participatory performative moment, one that he hoped would elicit an experience of colour frequencies. A notion that was central to the process and notion of his work.

    CANINE WISDOM FOR THE BARKING DOG/THE DOG DONE GONE DEAF is described as a “spin-off” by the projects curator, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. He goes on to say that it, “seems an appropriate entry point into a venture of reflecting on and paying tribute to one of the greatest composers from the African continent and worldwide, Halim El-Dabh, in the framework of Africa’s most important and most consistent art manifestation, the Dakar biennial.”

    El-Dabh appropriates and invents mythologies in his compositions while disseminating sonic and aural epistemologies. “The exhibition project will also serve as a platform for deliberations on, and experimentations as to what is and where is sound art in contemporary African art, putting a spotlight on transdisciplinary artistic practices between the visual, performative, installative and sonic mediums.”

    Bonaventure highlights the importance of narrating and actively claiming one’s own histories within a framework of Pan-Africanist ideology. “Our intention is also to re-establish a genealogy of modern arts and sound arts in Africa and beyond, and contemporary sound artists, painters, video and installation artists are hereby invited to relate, extrapolate from, get inspired by El-Dabh’s practice – his compositions, installations, theories and research.”

    Younes Baba Ali, Leo Asemota, Satch Hoyt, Tegene Kunbi, Memory Biwa and Robert Machiri, Ibrahim Mahama, Nyakallo Maleke, Elsa M’bala, Yara Mekawei, Emeka Ogboh, Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom & Ima-Abasi Okon, Lorenzo Sandoval and Sunette Viljoen are artists who span the continent. CANINE WISDOM FOR THE BARKING DOG/THE DOG DONE GONE DEAF invited them to engage with El-Dabh’s seminal text, using it as a point of departure to explore sonic modalities and create an artistic response of their own.

    “For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible.”

    • Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music, 1977.