Tag: community

How To Mend a Broken Heart When It Literally Feels Impossible
It seemed like I was in a bad Hollywood romcom the other day, as rain poured from the sky and the guy I thought was the love of my life, sat across from me in my car and told me we were never actually going out. Two and a half months later, countless dates, and late-night drives only to learn that we had been what? Buddies? I was obviously devastated, and as much as I enjoyed sitting in my pyjamas, eating cake and watching reruns of Law & Order: SVU, I knew I needed to be proactive in my healing or face spiralling into a dark hole and always wondering where I had gone wrong.

There is nothing that films sell short like heartbreak, I mean, Elle Woods ( Legally Blonde, 2001) got her heart broken and applied to Harvard Law, yeah right. More realistically, heartbreak feels like an endless sea of grief that seems to go on forever. Even the smallest of things, like seeing his name on your car Bluetooth, can be a reminder of what you lost. There is no magical, cure-all way to fix a broken heart, however, these tips, courtesy of an Instagram poll can make the heartbreak feel a little less like the world is ending.
1. Grieve the Relationship
To use Elsa’s words, “Feel, don’t conceal.” Allow yourself to sit in your feelings, it’s okay to feel sad, angry, and even devastated. Travel through the stages of grief, from denial to anger, until you settle at home base in acceptance. It may take years or days, and running away from your feelings will only prolong the healing process. Allow yourself to feel sad about the love you lost, and grieve the former relationship.
1. Exercise!
Recovering from a breakup is a lot of work, and getting yourself out of bed and active is even more work. Although it may seem to all be in your head(or heart), a breakup can take a physical toll on our bodies too. Research has found that people who have recently gone through a breakup experience similar brain activity when shown pictures of their ex as they do when they are in physical pain. So those chest pains we are suffering through are not a figment of our imaginations. The best way to counteract the physical discomfort you may be feeling is to exercise. A morning stroll, lifting weights, or cardio, allows your brain to release endorphins and the other yummy hormones that reduce anxiety or depression. And what’s better than a revenge body on the gram?
1. Stay Away From Social Media
Trust me, your algorithm knows what is happening in your life- it always knows. When was the last time you didn’t tune into TikTok? Use this time to take a bit of a social media sabbatical, otherwise, your algorithm will be feeding you “Here’s how to know if he really loves you” videos or worst yet “How to know if a woman is in her feminine energy”, you’ll find yourself spiralling down the social media rabbit hole and unlike Alice, you won’t find a wonderland. Save yourself the pain and frustration, and don’t stalk their new partner- it’s never going to bring you the closure you desire.
1. Put on Some Tunes
Lucky for you and me, heartbreak is a universal pandemic that spans BC (Before Christ), and so there is a song about every sort of heartbreak imaginable. If you don’t know where to start, my girl Adele has you covered. Taylor Swift just released 1989 ( Taylor’s Version) which has a few heartbreak tear jerkers. If you’re keeping it local, what is better than the Amapiano beat of Abalele to still your broken heart? Music will always be there for us, allow it to soothe your wounds and remind you time and time again that you are not alone.

P.S. Stay away from the songs that remind you of them- we are moving onward not backwards.
1. Don’t Delete the Pictures – Yet
In all your anger and hurt you might block, delete, and try your best to forget, but don’t be so hasty. I tried it, only to find myself resaving the pictures. Healing is a journey, you don’t need to rush through anything. Whether it was a talking stage, a situationship, or even a long-term relationship, you allowed some form of love in and it did not turn out how you wanted. You don’t have to rip off the bandaid, slow and steady wins the race, and when you are ready, wipe the reminders of them from your life.
1. Lean On Your Community
My friend told me, “If you need to shout- shout at me, if you need to cry, cry to me.” And that’s what we all need through this process, a shoulder to lean on. As easy as it is to put yourself in isolation, talking about it helps, a hug goes a long way, and sharing a tub of ice cream with your mate sometimes feels better than eating it alone.
1. Dive Into Your Hobbies
Haven’t picked up your musical instrument since high school? Or baked bread since the pandemic ended? The less time you spend sitting and occupying your mind about the past relationship, the less it will get to you. Occupy your time with distractions, the more the merrier.

8. Pray It Away

This has been the most helpful tip for me, who better to heal my broken heart than the Creator of the universe? Even if you’re not religious, try talking to God about it.

9. Rebrand

As cliche as Hollywood movies have made it seem, “reinventing” yourself after a breakup can be empowering. According to psychology professor Renee Engeln, “Making a radical change in your appearance can be a way of sending the message that you’re also making a radical change to your life- or that you’d like to.” Pushing yourself to do something radical like adopting a cat (Lupita Nyong’o you did that girl!)facing your fear of heights by going bungee jumping, or moving to another country allows you the freedom to do something without needing anyone’s opinion about it first. A drastic life change is an obvious and somewhat easy way to tell the world that you are ready to start over and reclaim your newly found freedom.

In the difficult moments, remind yourself that you will recover from this. Healing is not linear, and it is absolutely okay to do everything on this list and still feel devastated. For me, missing him comes and goes in waves, but it’s in those breathless painful moments that I remind myself that human resilience is something to be marveled at and that my heart will be whole once more. Most importantly, whatever you do, do not give up on yourself. We must still go on to believe that fairytales exist, and that love will come to stay next time around.
6 November 2023
Sabelo Mlangeni’s ‘Umlindelo wamaKholwa’ // exploring faith and friendship

The exhibition Umlindelo wamaKholwa features the work of multiple prize-winning and internationally exhibited Johannesburg-based photographer Sabelo Mlangeni. The exhibition is a collaboration between Mlangeni and Dr Joel Cabrita, a historian based at the University of Cambridge, and is accompanied by a 128 page catalogue. Having shown at Cambridge, the exhibition is at WAM, curated by Kabelo Malatsie. I interviewed Mlangeni to find out more about his collaboration with Cabrita and the images selected for the show.

Could you please share more about the cover for the catalogue and the symbol that appears on it?

For a long time I’ve been interested in the other world that we access through the visions of healers, prophetesses and prophets. Some years ago a vision came to me through them about a great ancestral spirit that had something like a ‘gift’ for me. But whenever the spirit was ready to give it to me, it found me not in the right ‘place’. So the symbol on the cover of the catalogue is that gift. We also find this symbol in the entrance to the exhibition space at WAM, presented as part of iLadi (a Zionist altar cloth). This iLadi was erected as my own personal response to this vision.

The title of the exhibition and your own spiritual awakening are tied together. The people and the spaces you photograph are also well known to you. Please unpack the importance of the insider perspective you present, particularly for subject matter that has often been explored and represented by people from the outside?

Many of my bodies of work are produced through long periods of spending time with people. For example, in my work Country Girls as well as Men Only I built up really close relationships of trust, for example, living in the all-mens’ hostel of George Goch for stretches of time. And when makingCountry Girls I spent a lot of time in the town of Ermelo where many of the pictures were taken. When I would visit Ermelo for the weekend I would stay with the same people I was taking photographs of. And with UmlindelowamaKholwa, it was a very similar process. This body of work presents the intimacy that comes through a long process of building up trust with people. And an example of this kind of intimate moment is seen in photographs like Nhlapho, Mama Thebu, Mama Ndlovu, SweetmamaKwamabundu, Fernie (2009).

Some of the photographs appear to be candid shots, while others capture posed moments. Please unpack your decisions around these choices while photographing, and how you combined these in the image selection for the show?

There are many images where you get a direct and close access to the face of the person I’m photographing. And these are important in giving people a strong sense of identity, and they are the moment when the people I’m photographing engage with me directly. But there are other moment when people forget that the photographer is there, and that you’re part of them, moving among them. These are the moments when the photographer becomes invisible, you’re no longer this guy with the camera. They know that you’re there, but they’re not worried about the camera.

Viewers become aware of the camera through effects that blot out faces, etc. Why do you think it was important for you to include such images? And how do they connect to the overall vision for the show?

Many of these images weren’t deliberate, they happened by accident. I was processing in the darkroom and sometimes at the end of the process, you find you have that kind of image where the heads or faces aren’t visible like In Time. A Morning After Umlindelo and UmlindelowamaKholwa. Initially I overlooked these images, and didn’t include them in the body of work. But over time as I thought and questioned the meaning of this body of work, I felt that these photographs fitted into my whole way of thinking about the work. So the importance of them is that I didn’t choose them in an instant. And then at a later time I brought them in because I felt they spoke to these personal questions that I have, thinking around identity and loss of identity in the church.

How did you and Joel Cabrita come to find out about each other’s work? And how did the idea for this collaboration come to be?

In fact, Joel found out about me first, she’d known my work for a while (particularly my series Country Girls) and asked if we could meet. Her work focuses on the history of Zionism in South Africa and she was interested in collaborating with a photographer working on the same topic, but from their own different perspective. We had a coffee in Joburg and chatted, and she found out that I was also myself a Zionist, which she found very interesting, and also that I was from Driefontein, which was a very important place in the early history of Zionism in South Africa. She then sent me an article of some of her research on Zionism, which I found very important and interesting, and made me think about how a collaboration could emerge. When we grow up in Christian families, as I did, often we don’t question things. Going into the history of our church is something we hardly do. So the history that I knew of the Zion church didn’t go that deep, and I really found it important to hear more about this from Joel.

How has Kabelo Malatsie’s curatorial input added to the original presentation of the show which was seen in Cambridge?

I feel that there wasn’t really an ‘original’ presentation of the show in Cambridge and a ‘second’ one in Joburg, but rather that there have been two very different expressions of this body of work in two different places. Any show exhibited in a new space will be a very different exhibition. In Cambridge, the space where we showed the work was much smaller and it was in the context of a museum filled with ethnographic objects from around the world, including South Africa. So I felt there was this strong need for my images to really take up space and assert themselves. I didn’t want the images to die in that space. I wanted them to have a strong presence. And even at that stage, Kabelo was someone I spoke to a lot about the work. She was one of the first people to see this work when I started engaging with this topic, and really she has been involved in the process from the beginning. In fact, our long-term working relationship goes beyond this project, and beyond this body of work. Our discussions over a long period of time have impacted my ideas.

Why did you feel the need to rename the exhibition when bringing it to WAM?

The title of this exhibition is something that I’ve thought about and questioned over a long period of time. Initially it was going to be called ‘Born Again’, and then ‘Amakholwa’, and then ‘Kholwa’ (which it was in Cambridge), and finally ‘UmlindelowamaKholwa’, as it is in WAM. Bringing this work home to South Africa I felt I needed to emphasize the importance of landscape in the South African countryside (something which many of the images portray). And when I think about land, then I also think about the process of waiting for land, and the way in which many South Africans are still waiting for the land to return to them. So ukulinda, or umlindelo, are very important ideas here. And umlindelo, or the night vigil, is one of the most important moments for Zionist communities. During this process of waiting together throughout the night and praying together we find that new relationships and new families are created. It’s a time when community is forged through the experience of waiting together.

Why do you think that WAM offers the best space for this project to be presented?

It really fits because the work has moved from a university museum in Cambridge (The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) to a university museum in Johannesburg, at WAM. I find universities to be spaces of critical thinking and questioning, so it felt right to have this kind of work exhibited here. And Joel is an academic and works at a university, so it was quite natural for us to build contacts and get to know people here.

The exhibition will be at WAM until 28 October 2018.

10 August 2018
AFROPUNK returns to Constitution Hill

It is fitting that the first AFROPUNK Festival to be held in South Africa took place on the historically significant Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The festival, inspired by the documentary ‘Afro-Punk’, which spotlighted black punks in America, was first held in 2005 in New York City’s Brooklyn. Originally aiming to help black people build a community among the white dominated punk subcultures, it has grown to include a wider audience and a broader range of music, yet still highlights alternative black artists.

With this shift away from pure punk culture towards celebrating blackness in its many forms, the festival has grown. Events are being held in Atlanta, Paris, London, and Johannesburg, with a total of more than 90 000 attendees. Utilising their platform for entertainment as well as change, the mantra of AFROPUNK is: “No Sexism, No Racism, No Ableism, No Ageism, No Homophobia, No Fatphobia, No Transphobia and No Hatefulness”. A free space for black and other bodies that do not fit into the moulds presented by mainstream media.

Judging by the expressions and attitudes of those who attended South Africa’s first instalment of the festival, it is clear that this approach is highly welcomed in the country. For many this is a cathartic experience, beyond just the amazing music that is on offer from local and international musicians.

And it is this fact, that the festival both provides a high standard of music along with a safe environment to enjoy it in, that has led to its success. Returning to Constitution Hill, this year’s AFROPUNK line-up is no different, with a strong balance between forward-thinking local and international artists. From the likes of Los Angeles’ future R&B superstars, The Internet and Thundercat. To experimental electronic music from Flying Lotus, who is debuting his 3D show on the African continent for the first time, to the superb dance grooves from producer Kaytranada. The legendary hip hop group Public Enemy and the queen of New Orleans bounce, Big Freedia. The international acts are a highly diverse showcase of black creativity.

Similarly, the local acts on the line-up have all carved out niches for themselves in South Africa’s competitive music industry. They have stood out as artist that not only make a difference, but sound different. Local hip hop in its many guises is represented by Mozambique’s Azagaia and Cape Town’s YoungstaCPT, and Dope Saint Jude. Each of which are incomparable with their unique take on the art of emceeing.

Other acts on the line-up include Joburg’s performance duo FAKA with their sound that is familiarly South African, yet utterly futuristic. As well as the sex-positive performer Moonchild Sanelly with her leanings towards Gqom and alternative pop. Joburg’s Thandiswa brings her revolutionary fusion of modern and traditional African sounds, while Nomisupasta brings a unique take on locally inspired music. Rounding off the local acts is Soweto’s BCUC, AKA Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness, with their highly energetic and emotionally charged rhythms.

Themed THE PEOPLE RESIST, this year’s AFROPUNK is a call to action against racism, patriarchy and any form of hate. With 20 000 people descending on Constitution Hill for the first instalment of AFROPUNK Johannesburg, this year’s event promises to be even better and bring people closer together. Aside from music, the festival also encompasses Bites & Beats, Activism Row and the SPINTHRIFT Market as well as the chance to earn tickets via the Earn a Ticket programme. In the build-up to the event, the Battle of the Bands Joburg competition is held that seeks to unearth new musical talent.

To buy your ticket click here, and keep your eyes on AFROPUNK’s social pages to find out which other acts are announced and for more details about the event.

9 August 2018
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)’

6 June 2018
(BUT) WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY? // an exhibition and programme reflecting on racial tension, representation and the Black experience

London-based, multidisciplinary art collective sorryyoufeeluncomfortable in collaboration with The Gallow Gate present the exhibition and programme (BUT) WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY? as part of the Glasgow International 2018 Supported Programme. For the exhibition collective members Christopher Kirubi, Halima Haruna, Rabz Lansiquot, Mayfly Mutyambizi, Imani Robinson and Jacob V Joyce respond to the programme title. The exhibition will be surrounded by talks, workshops, performances and a film screening, with the intention of inviting audiences to engage with questions related to racial tensions, representation, translation and the experiences of people of colour. I interviewed Imani and Rabz to find out more about sorryyoufeeluncomfortable and the programme they have curated.

Please share more about the Baldwin’s Nigger Reloaded project and how it led to the formation of sorryyoufeeluncomfortable.

The Baldwin’s Nigger Reloaded project was started by Barby Asante [London-based artist, curator and educator] and Teresa Cisneros [cultural producer who has worked as arts manager, curator and arts educator] in 2014. They did a call out for young artists and thinkers to respond to Horace Ové’s 1968 film Baldwin’s Nigger; a documentary in which James Baldwin gives a speech and answers a series of questions from a London audience. Over 10 weeks we came together to respond to Horace Ove’s 1968 film Baldwin’s Nigger, focusing on the contemporary relevance of the themes that emerge in the film, and James Baldwin’s thought more generally. We produced artworks, performances and workshops which were showcased in a one-day event at Rivington Place [visual arts centre in London]. It was this project that brought the collective together and kick started our journey. Baldwin’s Nigger Reloaded was developed into a performance created by Barby Asante which has been shown at Nottingham Contemporary, Art Rotterdam, Tate Liverpool & The James Baldwin Conference, Paris, and will also be shown as part of Glasgow International Festival in May.

Please share more about the name for the collective, and the thinking behind making this the collective name?

During our residency at Iniva [Institute of International Visual Arts in London] in 2014, we knew we wanted to take the collective beyond the BNReloaded project and our initial reasons for coming together as a group. sorryyoufeeluncomfortable was a brilliant fit for us. It articulated what we couldn’t always vocalise in art spaces, which are so often spaces of privilege, exploitation and palatable politics. As a majority non-white, non-heterosexual group of artists and thinkers we were often made to feel unwelcome in art spaces, with both our politics and our being-in-the-space always seeming to make other people flinch. sorryyoufeeluncomfortable is a flipping of the script. The name operates with multiplicity, it’s shady and sarcastic and on-the-nose and also an act of care and recognition for each other.

How has the collective evolved over the years?

The collective began with the BNReloaded project, with 16 members who were between 18 and 25 and artist Barby Asante & curator Teresa Cisneros as our mentors and primary producers. The collective actually works more like a network or community of artists now, who are working around similar themes and having concurrent conversations, so members appear and disappear on a project by project basis. At the moment the collective is being led by 4 people, with Rabz Lansiquot and Imani Robinson producing, programming and curating the work and Jacob V Joyce and Zviki Mutyambizi in supportive roles. We also have a fluid group of contributors and mentors, including Barby and Teresa who have remained close collaborators. The work shifts according to people’s primary interests but the central thread is always radical & liberatory politics and what it means to be living and working in the current climate.

Where did the title for the programme come from?

If you’ve ever asked a white person (be they a friend or a stranger) what they are doing about white supremacy, you’ll probably have an anecdote about a slow descent into an array of exaggerated emotions ranging from anger, to tears, to shouting and storming out. If you’ve never asked this question, brace yourself. The title (BUT) WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY? acts both as a refusal (you come here expecting me to tell you what to do, but I only show you my art and make you see what you already know) and an acknowledgement that we are forced to share our lives with white supremacy. The question is all of ours… The question looms and it persists… the question is tiresome… the question is discomforting. The 6 Black artists in the show respond in loose or direct ways to the title question, for example, they may invert the question in order to ask: “What is white supremacy doing to you?”, or they may suggest that as Black artists, to make work of any subject matter, or of none at all, is to resist, to survive and to “do something”.

Share with our readers the visual choices for the title (including the word ‘but’ in brackets and writing the title in capital letters)

We knew that the audience for GI, and many art festivals, is mainly white and largely made up of arts professionals. As Black artists we wanted to speak to the consumption of the work of artists of colour, which is often at our own expense. The title is as much an address to our audience as it is a provocation for the artists – who cannot help but be faced with the question. Audiences are engaging with our work, which is variably about Black pain and Black death, but what are they doing to address their complicity in that, or to amplify the voices of those already fighting for liberation? What are the art-world audiences doing about sustainable living and working conditions for Black artists? And how are they engaged in material transformation within the institution?

The capital letters signify the affect and the urgency embedded in the articulation of this question, the heaviness of the question and the way it feels somewhat impenetrable to exist or escape as a Black person in this world. Sometimes a shout reaches further than a whisper…. or sometimes a shout is the only way you will be heard. And the brackets are there as a preconceived comeback to a series of tired, self-preserving responses that do not answer the question.

Why do you think it is important to combine making and writing for the interrogation of the title?

The artists in this show Halima Haruna, Jacob V Joyce, Christopher Kirubi, Rabz Lansiquot, Mayfly Mutyambizi and Imani Robinson all have varying practices. sorryyoufeeluncomfortable is a multi-discplinary collective; a community who make things and who write poetry, songs and prose to activate their practice. (BUT) WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY? is a personal and a political question and we wanted to be able to respond however we liked, or however we could. Sometimes our responses can be vocalised, or put into words, and other times different modes of expression are better able to articulate an answer.

Why do you think it is important for the exhibition to be surrounded by conversations, workshops and performances?

A core part of sorryyoufeeluncomfortable’s work is public programming – creating intentional spaces for radical study and dialogue; it’s very much ingrained in what we do. We wanted the chance to engage with the range of topics and ideas that are present in the work, and to be in dialogue with our audiences who we believe offer as much to us as we can to them.

It’s important to have multiple entry points to the work; to make the work and the ideas surrounding it as accessible as possible for those who it concerns directly, which is all of us in our distinct ways. We also exist within a wide community of artists, filmmakers and writers who have a lot to say; our programming provides a non-hierarchical space within which to engage with multiple perspectives and draw connections.

Please share more about your thinking when putting the structure of the programme together?

We wanted to give our GI audience a taster of each of the kinds of activations we programme. We facilitate workshops & seminars, radical study reading groups, and we also curate film screenings and exhibitions. When we are programming we always aim to create a space for popular education, that is, a democratic space for knowledge sharing in all directions, rather than a one-way street to educate our audiences. In that sense, the structure of the programming also invites audiences to engage in conversation and to participate in the work, rather than solely to consume it.

Please share more about Black British Shorts and why you felt you wanted to have the screening be a part of the programme?

Whilst we were ICA Young Associates in 2017, we curated a programme of shorts films by and concerning the lives and experiences of Black British people. It was a really wonderful event for us personally, as the submissions we received reflected what we already knew from experience, but also showed us new and varying perspectives. The films were of such a fantastic standard; we were really proud to be able to share them. The audience at GI is pretty international so we just wanted to share some of the films again and showcase our extended community of talented Black brits.

Who do you imagine as your audience? And how do you think they will react to or process the exhibition and the programme you have put together?

We definitely hope that our work appeals to Black & POC folk, particularly queer folk, who are also interested in art and radical politics. Those are the people that we make the work for and put events on for and that tends to be the majority of our audience for our work based in London because there’s a pretty strong Queer POC creative community there. We hope that the kind of work we do resonates with the POC community in Glasgow too.

However, we are totally aware of the demographics of UK arts & culture audiences. They are overwhelmingly white and middle-class for a number of reasons and this means that a significant amount of events and exhibitions which deal directly with race politics have a markedly white audience-base. It’s always difficult to balance the desire to create work and share that work with audiences, and the oftentimes disheartening feeling you get when that audience doesn’t reflect your community. This also mixes with uncertainty around what exactly those audiences are taking away, is it simply that they attended this ‘cool’ thing about Black art, or do they actually leave with a changed perspective and a plan for active allyship? – Many people will come to the exhibition expecting it to give them answers to the title question. That’s not the purpose of this show, and that’s part of the gag.

How will the exhibition be constructed and how have you planned to have the various artworks speak to each other?

The process of constructing the exhibition had several parts to it. It began with commissioning the artists: we put together a concept that was broad enough for multiple interpretations but that had a single thread that would tie everything together. As curators we wanted to work with artists whose work and practice we knew well, as this gives us the kind of trust you need to build an artist led curatorial model where all involved are committed to the process of working collectively. Knowing our artists well, and being in conversation with them already, meant we could leave them to their devices and allow the show to come together organically. The magic really happened during the install. When we entered the space we didn’t know what it was going to look like when we finished, and that allowed us the freedom to make it look however we wanted. It was a collective process of trial and error, and of trusting the process and each other implicitly.

As a collective what are some of the texts you use as a foundation for how you think about Blackness, the Black existence, white supremacy, representation and translation? Why do these texts appeal to you?

Because of our origins as a collective James Baldwin is one of our central inspirations because of his employment of loving rage in all of his writings. – There are a lot of readers in our collective and we often read texts together as a collective and as part of public programming. We’ve held events around the work of Sylvia Wynter, Frank B Wilderson III, Fred Moten, Stuart Hall, Audre Lorde, Christina Sharpe, Katherine McKittrick, Black Quantum Futurism, Octavia Butler and CLR James. Our collective conversations around Blackness are always evolving, the more we read and speak to each other, depending on who we are collaborating with, and with each project we work on, wherever we are in the world.

Is there anything else about the collective, the exhibition or the programme that you would like to mention?

We don’t get paid enough to do the work we do and nor does any individual or arts collective of colour we know. It’s a real problem in the art world, never mind the rest of the ‘worlds’. Ultimately, we work because we have to and because we love what we do – but this shit is unsustainable.

(BUT) WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY will be on from 19 April – 20 May.

20 April 2018
WE ARE ONE Music Festival // connecting people through music

WE ARE ONE Music Festival is framed as an experience of “heritage, music and inevitably oneness”. Founders Tokoloho Booysen and Tshepang Mabizela explain that basing the festival on this idea came through reflecting on the fact that there are so many barriers in Johannesburg that divide people. Their intention was to create a platform that will allow people to engage with one another through music and other cultural experiences. “…the only way for us to [be] progressive and create the future we want is to band together, we need to develop a strong sense of community and we believe that comes by unity through diversity,” Tokoloho explains. He goes on to say that, “We [the festival] use music as a connecter because regardless of who you are, the music you like makes you feel a certain emotion and those emotions transcend genre.”

WE ARE ONE also intends to provide a space where emerging artists can share the stage with well-known musicians. “We represent a bubbling underground, so this festival needs to showcase an unknown industry made of blood, sweat and tears,” Tshepang explains. By doing this they are hoping to contribute to the expansion of the South African music industry and introduce audiences to new faces and new sounds. With the aim of giving artists the recognition they deserve, the festival presents opportunities for future headliners and shifts in the music scene while still appreciating artists who have been in the game for a while. Artists included in the lineup are FAKA, DJ Doowap, Gyre, Langa Mavuso, Nonku Phiri and Rhea Blek, just to name a few.

Outside of the music, there will also be food stalls, clothing stalls and a pop-up photographic exhibition to give attendees a well-rounded cultural experience. “We resonate with music but we know that music is not the only impactful art form, so fashion, visual artistry and food are art forms that can also help progressively push the artistic culture forward,” Tshepang states.

WE ARE ONE will be taking place at 1 Fox on 31 March 2018. To find out more about who will be performing and how to buy tickets visit their Facebook page.

20 March 2018
Autodidacts & Associates Introduces a new Headwear Capsule ‘kaas’, sharing their perspective on the untold narratives of Mitchell’s Plein

Muted tones. Desaturated colours. The word kaas on caps and cricket hats. Washing lines carefully coated with white articles of clothing. A youthful face navigating different spaces within Mitchell’s Plein. We are introduced to the setting of a new fashion capsule editorial, zine style.

From the creators of ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ a new project is given form by Aa (Autodidacts & Associates). A headwear capsule created under the brand, kaas is digitally manifested as a zine that seeks to define a space where many narratives go untold “because not many people have a lens into it,” I am told by group member, Keenan Oliver.

Contrived by the apartheid government as a “model township” Mitchell’s Plein was constructed during the 1970s as housing for Coloured people who were forcibly removed as a result of the Group Areas Act. Today the area is largely associated with gangsterism and methamphetamine abuse, which is why the creators of the capsule felt strongly about telling untold narratives within this space.

“I was born and raised in Mitchell’s Plein, which forms a large part of the cape flats. The only time you hear/read about these spaces is on the news. Stories of violence, gangs and drugs but never of the people who live within all of that. All I want to do is tell a different story with the space/resources and access I have.”The capsule lookbook which acts as a photographic essay articulates the current narrative of growing up in Mitchell’s Plein where both Keenan and Thorne, his younger cousin, grew up in the same house. The lookbook then can be regarded as a nuanced expression of a childhood gone by and reflected in Keenan’s younger cousin. The documentation of a space within a specific time forever monumentalises it by means of the physical object – the photograph.

The unconventionality of the fashion zine format was chosen by the group due to the DIY nature and mentality that it carries. “This ties in with the thought behind streetwear itself, which is expressing your thoughts and ideas through the resources available to you.”The headwear capsule is inspired by a childhood growing up playing cricket in the surrounding streets and field, as well as the community that stems from that connection.

“…This is not so much about changing the narrative coming out of Mitchell’s Plein and more so about contributing to it by defining my own narrative.”

The zine had its launch on the 3^rd of March in Observatory and was met with positive public review.

*Aa is a collaboration studio focused on democratizing knowledge & education in various fields of art and design. We aim to create art, product & spaces that endorse an open source mentality and encourage the trading of philosophies, ideas, and thought systems, for the greater good of civilization.

Practitioners: Keenan Oliver, Mzonke Maloney, Lubabalo Nkobo & Thorne Oliver.

Photography: Keenan Oliver

Art Direction: Keenan Oliver & Mzonke Maloney

Design: Keenan Oliver

Styling: Lubabalo Nkobo, Assistant; Kaylynne Damonze

Model: Thorne Oliver

9 March 2018
Faggotry (Embodied) // activating queer spaces with multidisciplinary artist Elijah Ndoumbé

Summing up everything that Elijah Ndoumbé encompasses is no easy task. The magnitude of their brilliance is enthralling and their approach is delicately interrogatory and essentially decolonial. Calling Elijah an artist is a fitting label but really Elijah is gifted & accountable to the need of expressing themselves and members of their community through various channels.

Born to a French father with Cameroonian roots, Elijah’s father was considered métis in the country where Elijah was born and initially racialised, Paris, France. The term métis suggests “racial impurity” due to being part European and part African, Africa being considered inferior. There was no conversation about Elijah’s father’s Blackness. The only time Elijah would indulge in their ancestry would be through the traditional meals their Cameroonian grandmother prepared. Elijah later moved to the West coast of America, where Elijah’s white mother is from.

PXSSY PALACE ST. GEORG [Munroe and Nadine] (Point n Shoot | Berlin, Germany | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé
Elijah’s ballet classes in suburban America subtly posed questions about their race and gender. Ballet class was filled with slender, white girls with perfectly arched feet and Elijah had a more prominent ass, darker skin and flat feet.

“The thing about ballet is that it is a form of dance that relies on a particular and biased body type…this experience of art was very fucking gendered and very racialised and I didn’t realise it at the time because of the context of the space that I was raised in…I don’t want to be the only weirdo in the room, I want to feel seen. When you feel desperately isolated and alone because you know something is different about you and there is shame attached to that, like throughout my childhood, there was shame attached to the desire I have and the ways in which it would show up in my life or the ways I would respond.”

U DON’T EVEN KNOW ME, captures of @zengaking & @ma_tayo (1) from larger series (120mm | Berlin, Germany | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

Elijah’s becoming was profoundly jolted during their time at Stanford University where they were “severely politicised.” Studying “Power” and “History” within the context of their bachelors in African & African American Studies and Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies intensely informed Elijah about the dynamics of the violent histories that riddle their body, their family’s bodies, and the bodies of members of their community. Subsequently, this questioning of embodiment has nuanced Elijah’s work. “It’s actually quite a decolonial way of thinking – to burst out of the frameworks and to imagine what it looks like for us to build our own while simultaneously infiltrating the ones that exist…I’m a non-binary trans person, who has body dysphoria, also regardless of my complexion, I’m also Black, I’m a person of colour, I’m of African decent; I carry these things in the end. I carry a multitude of things and those things are going to show up in all spaces.”

Untitled [A Kween, Ascends] (120mm | Cape Town, South Africa | 2017) | Credits: Shot by Thandie Gula-Ndebele and Nazlee Arbee
Creative Direction and Styling by Elijah Ndoumbé, Nazlee Arbee, and Thandie Gula-Ndebele
Makeup by Thandie Gula-Ndebele
Assist by Tandee Mkize
Initially through the pen, Elijah struggled with this questioning in the form of written pieces that require prolonged simmering in love and care. Elijah was then captivated by expressing themselves through a camera lens and with inspiration and guidance from BBZ London based cultural consultant and video artist, Nadine Davis, Elijah began poetically capturing themselves and members of their community through photography and videography in various personal and global contexts.

Now based in Cape Town, South Africa, Elijah has captured the emotionally intense experiences of Trans womxn who experience a lot of casual violence, through their work with the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) in a video called SISTAAZHOOD: Conversations on Violence. There are also a couple of photoseries’ accessible on Elijah’s website. The prominence of visual work attributes to the attention paid to this creative outlet but there are infinite ways for Elijah to exist.

Danyele, a muse (120mm | Palo Alto, California, USA | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

More recently, Elijah has had the privilege of “doing the work of making space to think”, this time has been an incubation period, in which Elijah has played with other mediums. For example humbly picking up a pen to doodle with some Miles Davis in the background and a “fuck it” mentality. Elijah’s exploration of themselves as an illustrator stems from their desire to be free from operating in fear, especially through a medium that will potentially fuel their other creative expressions. Furthermore, Elijah wishes to deconstruct the notion that only formal training like “art school” certifies one as an “artist” and the labelling of their creation’s as “art”.

Elijah has also been gravitating to the creative medium they first formally explored, dance. Complimentary to these embodied movements that resemble freedom and release are Elijah’s well versed music mixes, which could blare through the speakers of events like the Queer Salon. Created by Elijah and facilitated with a Black & Brown Queer DJ duo, Nodiggity, the Queer Salon makes space for Queer, Trans and non-binary Black, Brown and indigenous people of colour to be prioritised through art. While lamenting with me over experiences on dancefloors in Berlin and public restroom lines in Johannesburg, Elijah accentuated their urgency to continue building and facilitating safe and sustainable community spaces.

Elijah’s current phase of rest has revealed a beauty of the unknown to them and reinforced that despite daily negotiation of their textured identity, their artistry will always be an unyielding, irrefutable and indispensable embodiment of them and theirs.

Catherine, portrait of (120mm | Palo Alto, California, USA | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

Express. (Point n Shoot | Cape Town, South Africa | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

Habibiatch (Point n Shoot | Berlin, Germany | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

Portrait of the Artist in Their Home Studio (120mm b&w | Cape Town, South Africa | 2018) by Thandie Gula-Ndebele

Eli Ndoumbé live at Yours Truly (Digital | Cape Town, South Africa | 2018) by Thandie Gula-Ndebele

19 February 2018
Visualizing Privilege in the Wake of Woke // With Rebone Masemola

I am heterosexual

I have never been a victim of violence because of my sexuality

I still identify as the gender I was born in.

I never had to “come out.”

I am a cis man.

I have never been catcalled.

I am white

I was raised by both my parents

I have never been discriminated against because of my race

I have never gone to bed hungry.

I have never felt poor.

I have never had to worry about making rent.*

Statements annunciated. Bellowed throughout the crowd. If affirmed, a step is taken forward. An articulated advantage. The starting line of life clearly left uneven – individuals pinned to peppered points of privilege. These are but a few of the points raised by Pro-Black Feminst Rebone Masemola at the last Woke Saturday as part of a ‘privilege checklist’. She used the list to visually highlight the extent and position of privilege beyond just a buzz-word.

This gathering was one of the inaugural public events she has hosted – intentionally fostering a safe space in which people are invited to explore ideas and issues pertinent to notions of race, privilege, sexuality, masculinity and intersectional feminism. Woke entered public discourse on a tide political consciousness. As founder of the platform, Woke Project – Rebone notes a differentiation between woke and staying woke. In a sense she believes that the popular colloquialism has been tempered down from its original embodiment of social awareness and intersectionality. Staying Woke, extends from political awakening into action and activation.

Creating constructive discourse seems to be an important step in enacting social change. Rebone holds the policy of “open invite, open mind” and utilizes the platform to, “showcase the works of emerging thinkers, activists and creatives who address a diversity of social issues.” The programme also strives to incorporate artistic endeavors like photography and poetry to address political consciousness in an inclusive way.

Rebone’s experience in the space of academia, advertising and activism has inspired a desire of integrating these seemingly siloed disciplines. The utilization of critical thinking as a transferable skill has allowed her to engage across this spectrum of careers. The culmination of which has manifested through Woke Project – activating space both on and offline. The platform was created as a resource to share information and personal experiences, rooted in community.

*An extract of the Privilege Checklist by Rebone Masemola 2018

13 February 2018
Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action // generative archiving and LGBTIQ activism

Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA), situated at Wits University, is a centre for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning/queer (LGBTIQ) culture and education in southern Africa. “Our mission is to act as a catalyst for the production, preservation and dissemination of knowledge on the history, culture and contemporary experiences of LGBTIQ people,” states Keval Harie, GALA’s director. The reason for the inception of GALA in1997 stems from their original name, ‘Gay and Lesbian Archives’. The purpose of GALA was to address the erasure of the stories and experiences of LGBTIQ people from official archives and other spaces. Since then the scope of their work has expanded to include a multitude of activities that focus on dialogue around sexuality and gender identity with the purpose of educating the public, building a community among LGBTIQ people, and to inspire action.

Image from ‘Out the Box: A Glimpse into 20 Years of Queer Archiving’

“In 2007 we changed our name to Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (while retaining the acronym GALA) to better reflect this development. However, the archival programme remains the heart of GALA.”

As a working archive that reclaims a place in the regional history and culture for LGBTIQ people, GALA does not collate information and host events in an attempt to state that LGBTIQ people are homogenous. Instead their direction is towards heterogeneous experiences but within shared structural, institutionalised marginalisation which is filtered into everyday discrimination.

“Today, we are the custodian of a large number of individual and organisational archival collections that document the history, culture and contemporary experiences of LGBTIQ people in Africa. Our archives and accompanying resources are freely available via our website and to visitors to our office.”

Youth forum member Wenzile photographed by Genevieve Louw

“Homosexuality is un-African”. This is one of the many statements that GALA is hoping to wipe away. “We aim to re-insert queer voices into Africa’s history. During our two decades of working we have played a unique role – affirming LGBTIQ communities, shaping public opinion and enhancing perceptions of queer African identities, in South Africa and across the southern African region,” Keval explains. The information they store and preserve have been used to create other ways of sharing knowledge, including plays, and theses. This points to the fact that their archive is generative.

Enforcing self- and collective empowerment, over the past 10 years GALA has created youth programmes, including a weekly Youth Forum and monthly Queer Realness publications. These offer physical and political safe zones of representation and forms of support for young queer-identifying people.

GALA 20 poster designed by Cameron Anzio Jacobs

In addition to this GALA curates an exhibition every two years. By translating their messages into a visual language, they are able to engage with another audience and present another avenue for dialogue through a different medium. “Our latest exhibition (2017), held at the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, was a retrospective exhibition focused on the archive collections, and formed part of our 20th anniversary celebrations. It was called ‘Out the Box: A Glimpse into 20 Years of Queer Archiving‘.”

At the moment GALA is working on an education programme that will be facilitated by various university spaces. GALA will also curate exhibitions titled “Out the Box: 20 years of Queer Archiving” and “Kewpie” this year along with launching their GALA 20 book that commemorates 20 years of GALA’s work since 1997. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for more details.

Photography by Keval Harie

Photography by Keval Harie

7 February 2018
The Wanderer – Stability through Movement

In search of a meaningful way to stay intellectually charged and creatively engaged, Jason Storey said goodbye to his corporate law position in New York and followed his dream of becoming a full-time designer in South Africa. He now explores fashion creatively in its various conceptual forms with the label he started with his sister – Unknown Union.

When the label was launched in 2010, it took root in a retail store on Kloof Street in Cape Town, and it housed a collection of international brands alongside their own small capsule collection. 2014 saw the siblings open a design studio in Salt River. The same year also saw the inception of a larger collection that reflected upon the art, history and culture they encountered on the African continent. And in 2015 their brother Oscar left his job in the US to join the team. In their newest location on Bloem Street in Cape Town’s CBD, Unknown Union blends art, fashion, literature and music as a way to stay a “community of people that dig the arts.”

Their latest offering is a collaboration with photographer Cathrin Schulz titled The Wanderer – Stability through Movement. This body of work is a crisp exhibition of Unknown Union’s garments and Cathrin’s extraordinary command of lighting. An additional layer to this visual treat comes in the form of a short fashion film shot by Anna Schulz. With a behind-the-scenes feel, the film opens with the model getting camera ready accompanied by the soothing tone of James Blake’s voice breaking free as the music starts, bringing one into the Wanderer’s journey. I had an interview with Jason to find out more about the project.

Tell us a bit about The Wanderer – Stability through Movement and how it came into being?

The Wanderer can be seen as a pilot for an upcoming series and a fruitful collaboration between Unknown Union and Cathrin Schulz. A team of creatives sat down and brought in their expertise as a form of creative exchange. The cultural diversity of the creators brought up a colourful mix of ideas, leading to the story of The Wanderer. The result is the art directed and photographed edition by Cathrin Schulz and a complementary film by Anna Schulz.

What was the inspiration behind it?

The source of the collaboration is to merge the creative languages into a synergy. Unknown Union weaves ancestral knowledge into fashion, while Cathrin Schulz infuses spirituality into her visual medium of photography. The red thread is to connect the respective visions and create an effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

The series found inspiration in conveying the concept of Human Design, a science of differentiation. The Wanderer is a primal aspect found on both of the artists’ work, to convey a deeper message – a message of interpreting experience, emotions and stories – into a stimulating form of expression.

What is the message you wanted to convey with this film?

The medium of film visualizes and highlights the project’s aspect of ‘Stability through Movement’. Its purpose was to portray the creative flow of the shoot, as well as giving access to the different angles of the scenes. The intended message is simple: the beauty of creative collaboration.

What sparked the collaboration with Anna-Marie Schulz?

The collaboration was sparked by Unknown Union’s openness to provide Anna Schulz with a creative platform of expression within ‘The Wanderer – Stability through Movement’. It is rooted in creative exchange.

What can we expect to see from Unknown Union in the future?

We are going to dig further into current themes as well as unveil some new themes at this year’s runway show on February 10, at SAMW (AW18). In March, we’ll open our newest location in Johannesburg – in Maboneng.

With The Wanderer – Stability through Movement as the pilot, Unknown Union’s partnership with Cathrin Schulz promises to bring about sheer viewing pleasure. To watch the film go to their Instagram.

The Team:

Clothing: Unknown Union

Photographer: Cathrin Schulz

Stylist: Kshitij Kankaria

Hair & Make-Up: Richard Wilikson

Model: Cristiano Palmerini

Filmmaker: Anna Schulz

1 February 2018
The Evolution of The Sartists

The Sartists – One of the first collective’s whose name imprinted onto my young mind when I situated myself within the man-made concrete mounds of the bitter-sweet creative city of Johannesburg. A very organic process considering that this group stood out as one of inimitable expression characterized by disruptive, radical thought and one of a kind fashion apparel. The multidisciplinary collective made up of Andile Buka, Kabelo Kungwane, Wanda Lephoto and Xzavier Zulu seek to challenge insular notions about blackness with a documentary approach to style and identity. Now four years since the inception of their creative brotherhood the auteurs of the ‘Sport Series’, the ‘Our Tribe’ Stüssy editorial and the Levi’s Customization project are in the midst of a transition.

As time has passed so have the dynamics of creative production for The Sartists who are working more towards honing their practices individually outside of the collective. What is anticipated by the group for this year is a number of international exhibitions and a keener focus toward personal projects for the group as a whole.

Individually Wanda’s fashion label, ‘Wanda Lephoto’, a ready-to-wear brand taking its inspiration from under-celebrated black culture, has a new collection in the works. With his focus marked on the new collection, Wanda will partake in his first South African Fashion Week. One of the goals he shares with us in conversation is to employ people for his label and to share skills, grow and participate in more events as an individual, and as a collective.

The collective’s transition is one of singular focus looking inward as can be seen with a renewed focus on the Customization of denim project. A collaborative project between Wanda, Kabelo and a retail partner will bring forth a new denim capsule. Wanda explains that the design focus on denim can be attributed to their collective attempt at channelling earlier DIY forms of denim production for the group that took place in their homes.

“I think there is a strong cultural significance about denim within our spaces. Jeans can last you 5-10 seasons depending on how well you treat them and how good the quality is. I like to make classic products that will outlive me and my time on earth. Denim is one of the key items I love to design because it embodies that,” Wanda explains.

Wanda shares that he would like to use his first fashion show as a stepping stone to have his models’ opinions voiced beyond their aesthetic appeal. “I like to use people with substance that are giving back to the culture.”

Kabelo has been working on projects in honour of his late father and launched a casual football brand in this year that speaks to South African culture. Football is of integral importance to him as it was one of the first sports that he played and the idea for the brand acts as a way of creating a football lifestyle.

In October of last year Xzavier celebrated two years at adidas and expresses that “I am in a different space, the corporate guy in the group. I’m trying to balance that with who I was even outside of the collective.” He hopes to release two collections this year. As the collective works towards individual growth, he expresses that it will facilitate collective efforts and pinpoints it as an internal, mental and cultural shift.

He elaborates on their current way of working by stating that the group assists one another in personal projects and makes time in their schedules to work towards projects for the collective. An example of this can be found in the 5OS (Five-O-Sartists) Levi’s project by Xzavier Zulu. Some might say that this mode of cultural production is the future of collaborative practice.

Being a part of a collective is an incomparable support network within itself built on trust and respect, Xzavier expresses. He looks to his collective not only for advice and support but for truthfulness in his practice – to tell him when his work needs more, less or something different.

“There is more of a community, a family. A respect and understanding of each other’s possible success. There is a very clear understanding that your efforts are as great as the next person’s and can only help the collective as a whole.”

His advice for getting your first “in” with a brand is to be patient, work hard and surround yourself with others who share the same work ethic as you. He identifies the collective’s success as one that came about from years of customizing, thrifting and working hard. “Understand that you need to work even if you think you’ve made it. If you want that brief from that brand you need to think like that and be really mature.”

Andile has been working in Japan frequently over the last 3 years and expresses that the city stimulates his personal projects. He explains that his constant return can be attributed to his interest in publishing and creating photo books in a city where publishing is more affordable.

“I think I’ve done more that side than this side in terms of my personal work. It’s humbling to have that presence and support in a city that you are not from.”

When probed as to why he remains a member of the collective he states, “You come to the realization that you can do things by yourself but when you do them as a collective it’s better, it’s bigger, it’s stronger.”

With labels such as “Johannesburg’s best dressed crew” and perhaps a subculture within itself, The Sartists embody at present everything they set out to be; to be storytellers who celebrate black culture and subvert narrow minded views on blackness in modern society. The collective has left their imprint on South African youth culture and fashion resulting in other young people becoming stylists by thrifting and customization. As the brand has grown over time so has its members. The choice to focus on their practices individually has not resulted in a negative impact and instead they look to one another as family and as a support network to grow the collective through individualized growth and focus. What is of importance is “a greater consciousness” and advocating for change. As their website states, “IT’S NOT ABOUT US”.

31 January 2018