Bubblegum Club

Tag: collective memory

  • 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.

  • Athi-Patra Ruga // An Inclusive History with ‘Queens in Exile’

    Athi-Patra Ruga is an artist who hardly requires an introduction. Partaking in exhibitions and performances at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, The Film Will Always Be You: ‘South African Artists on Screen’ at the Tate Modern in London and the 55th Venice Biennale to name a few; the reasons behind him being considered a ground breaking South African artist is clear. Athi returns to Cape Town with a new body of work ‘Queens in Exile’ currently showing at the WHAT- IFTHEWORLD/GALLERY.

    Assuming the tropology of myth as a neoteric retort to the era of post-apartheid; Athi is a designer of non-conforming identities. Using his built-up avatars as both satire and critique on the current social and political social status quo. Alternative realities and myths are constructed in an effort to look at the traumas of colonial history over the last 200 years from a detached outlook. From this removed distance wounds of the past that still remain, can be reflected upon outside of personalized grief and defensiveness.

    Central to his practice is the philosophical magnetism and allegoric value of utopia. This mythical metaverse ensuing from his practice, has been constructed with both ease and poise. The creation and depiction of characters inhabiting Athi’s mystical realm create a space of self-reflectivity within a political, social and cultural context in which criticism and parody can be expressed. Utopia acts as an optic through which to view and process colonial history in order to provide critique on the present and pose a humanist vision for the future.

    Film still from ‘Over the Rainbow’ 2017

    ‘Queens in Exile’ came about from a desire to tell more accurate stories. Not intended as an exercise of alteration to paint over gaping holes in history; Athi unearths exclusionary national myth and collective memory. In this act, he moulds a world in which the exiled reign. A land that belongs to queens that have been lost and forgotten from our memories.

    The lives of anti-apartheid and gay rights activist Simon Nkoli, Senegalese dancer Feral Benga and Sylvia Rivera, a US transgender activist are the icons that Athi chooses to highlight. Asking his audience to question the canon with fresh eyes. His exhibition acts as a reminder of the need to enforce more accurate accounts of history inclusive of womxn and queer icons.

    A project spanning over three years comes together in ‘Queens of Exile’ and functions simultaneously as a continuation on the critically acclaimed exhibition ‘The Future White woman of Azania Saga’ in 2014. Athi’s viewer is imbedded in an immersive exhibition. A large-scale projection of ‘Over the Rainbow’ leaves you mesmerized, electrified.

    ‘The Elder’ 2015

    Hand embroidered tapestries completed with meticulous precision, elaborate foliage sets built up of flowers, flowers on flowers, golden leaves. These are the visual signifiers of an artist painstakingly unafraid of his boldness. Many of Athi’s works are works that live on past physical existence and traverse into mental existence.

    After Athi’s return from the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris, local audiences have the opportunity to engage with the work of this internationally acclaimed artist who can only be deemed a master of his medium.

    Film still from ‘Over the Rainbow’ 2017

  • Marcia Elizabeth // Capturing Moments of Collective Memory and ’90s Nostalgia

    A saturated mustard yellow surface glistens, punctuated by gleaming circles of a similar shade. A jar brimming with nostalgic gelatinous forms lies at a half-tilt, threatening to spill over.  Memorabilia from a bygone era. Fuchsia lips and the wide-eyes of a direct gaze are adorned by these scattered semi-transparent shapes. Each one slightly different, exuding an individual character. One acts as a cheeky jawbreaker, caught in the midst of porcelain teeth. Tendrils of long dark hair are tussled around shoulders of a rekindled playful innocence. A collected history of childhood captured in the face of adolescence.

    Johannesburg based photographer, Marcia Elizabeth, recounts how the translucent creatures were formative icons of her childhood. Jojo’s initially emerged on the scene in the year 1999. “It was a big competition between all the kids in my school to collect these plastic blobs in either neon or transparent colors. Finding these toys were a game in themselves because they weren’t available everywhere and came in blind bags.” A similar strategy was applied to their distant, slightly more archaic cousins, marbles: “The objective of the game was for one participant to toss out his Jojo and for the other players to hit it when throwing theirs. The player who succeeded would then win the Jojo he or she successfully hit.” These tactics made for hours of competitive fun.

    “As a little girl I was a part of an all girl’s scooter gang who would race up and down the streets of Nieuw Muckleneuk always on the hunt for Jojo’s and general mischief. We traded in Jojo’s and had a massive collection. Reflecting on it now, perhaps we had a syndicate running. Jojo’s though playful in nature, gave us a sense of power and credibility among the other kids in the neighborhood. It was what our street cred was measured by.” Marcia draws on this collective and personal iconography – employing visual signifiers of late-90s nostalgia to create points of accessibility in this body of photographic work.

     

    Credits:

    Makeup artist and stylist – Anny Botha

    Model – Nicole Sen represented by My Friend Ned