Tag: contemporary art

TMRW Gallery // An Encoded Creation Merging Pixels and Paintbrushes

In an ever-increasing digital age where modes of technology seep into everyday use, TMRW Gallery operates as a platform at the frontier of innovation. Rooted in the desire to extend knowledge and experience – the objectives of the space are to produce world-class work and promote South Africa as a thought leader. Its core focus is invested is the integration of contemporary art and technology.

Director Ann Roberts describes the space as, “platform agnostic” emphasizing that TMRW Gallery is open to engaging with artists of all disciplines. The contemporary art space pairs both emerging and established artists with technologists who collaborate in actualizing a creative vision. Based on the premise that art guides and dictates the process by pushing the technology, creating a context in which “innovation is exponential.”

The gallery provides artists with access to new technologies including virtual reality, 3D printing, performance and augmented reality. This allows them to explore the medium and incorporate it as an extension of their practice – “tech is just another paintbrush”. Ann notes that “the outcomes need to be flexible” in order to allow for the plasticity of the process.

The not-for-profit space also presents an alternate gallery model, whereby the creation of exceptional work and not salability is the primary focus. However, the space is dependent on sponsorship and brand association. TMRW Gallery also poses an alternative to the ‘White Cube’ space – opting for a far more engaging and immersive environment.

The space promotes an audience-driven experience in which viewers are captivated and engulfed in an imagined reality. This model operates as an opportunity to develop the visual and digital vocabulary of its audience members – making the work intergenerationally accessible. The gallery’s upcoming show exhibits in September, featuring Lady Skollie and Wayne Barker. In the future, the space will also engage with extensive public programming, residencies, as well as group and solo shows.

14 August 2018
1.1 – create platforms over galleries

A few days ago American art critic and recent-Pulitzer Prize Winner Jerry Saltz published an article criticising the current art fair structure, the domination of mega-galleries, and highlighting the necessity for emerging, more “edgy” galleries. (So basically everything wrong with the art world). It’s good to know that these issues are being addressed on that level, but this isn’t a new critique. Having now introduced this debate, I’m not going to launch into a lengthy criticism ending with a passionate plea for change, but rather look at but one example of an arts platform doing things a little differently.

1.1 not only occupies a dynamic and category-evading space within the art world, but its inception was unconventional as well. Starting out of Deborah Joyce Holman’s studio, 1.1 began as an exhibition by Roberto Ronzani in October 2015. When asked about what inspired its conception, Deborah stated, “In the beginning, we were very interested in offering the space for very young artists, who in some way or another seemed to work with Social Media, or who we came across through Instagram, and who don’t necessarily situate themselves in the context of contemporary art, for example: a residency we did with Soto. Gang, a tattoo artist, or the Launch of three new Zines published by Popup Press. We always also put a strong emphasis on the space’s fluidity. It is important to define ourselves through the activities rather than formulating a very restrictive concept.”

‘Trust’ (2018) by Gala Vincensini, installation view. Photography by Gina Folly

1.1 is different from a typical gallery structure as all their funding comes through grants and public institutions. This flexibility according to Deborah is counted as one of the space’s strengths, “as with 1.1 not depending on the art market and funding through sales, we have more liberty in our choice of artists, and in the media we show.” The idea that 1.1 functions more as a platform helps “to distance ourselves from the idea that all our activities happen in the exhibition space in Basel. The exhibitions are one very present part of our output, but it is not the only one. We also engage in the field of music, and organise concerts and other events in collaboration with venues across Switzerland and a few throughout Europe.”

As a platform, 1.1 places an emphasis on engaging young people in the arts, making it accessible to a broad public who may not have much knowledge of the arts. Deborah claims, “This can be very challenging, as it forces us to really look at how and where we promote events, shows, and where we aim for visibility of the space as itself. We use Instagram very heavily, as a sort of alternative exhibition space. This means, prior to exhibitions, the artists are free to use them as a residency, and it obviously allows to reach a whole other audience than those that are based in Basel and surroundings.” Funding is always another challenge that requires year by year evaluation.

‘Baby Bar’ by Claire van Lubeek, installation view. Photography by James Bantone

As a platform with a passion for engaging new voices, Deborah and Tuula Rasmussen (who joined 1.1 recently) are always looking out for emerging artists with it being “a very intuitive process. It’s about keeping our eyes open, on Instagram and in more traditional ways, like through blogs, openings, our surroundings, etc. It has also happened a couple times that we were sent a portfolio or a recommendation and everything worked out to offer them a platform to show.”

It’s exciting that new art spaces are (seemingly) always opening up, but unfortunately it’s the case that while they begin as a challenge to existing institutions, inevitably they become institutions themselves. And so it was encouraging to hear from Deborah, as we ended off our email interview correspondence, that, “1.1 is in steady movement, and always changing, so we’re continuously re-evaluating everything and hoping to constantly adjust our values to the needs and demands of the artists, musicians and the public.”

‘Money Cyant Fool Them Again’ (2017) by Ashley Holmes, installation view. Photography by James Bantone

8 May 2018
The JAG under conceptual (re)construction: A review of Ângela Ferreira’s South Facing exhibition.
Buildings mark the moments in our history where a people thrived. Ângela Ferreira’s “South Facing” is the exhibition that marks an important moment in the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s (JAG) evolution. For the artist “buildings can be read as political texts” and this location has its own fair share of history.

She examines the relationship between people and their use of building and public space. The “JAG building is a perfect example for me to reference …It’s controversial history tells the story of the role of art in South Africa and reflects on the incredibly dynamic past and present history of the Johannesburg city-center .”

1912 saw the completion of the Museum building with its North facing extension, completed in the 1980s.This new addition was intended to be a place of leisure, a home within the occupied territories. The exhibition’s curator Amy Watson discusses how “the original building built by a British architect, Edwin Lutyens, [who] built a grand entrance that is South facing, being from the Northern hemisphere he applied this logic. A fence was erected between the park and the Gallery some time ago, with the intention of protecting the collection and ensuring the safety of the gallery visitors and staff.” With the end of apartheid the park would become a leisurely space for all.

Ângela Ferreira, Sites and Services, (1991-1992), Installation view South Facing, Johannesburg Art Gallery, 2017

Ferreira’s works “traces the resonance and impact of colonialism and post colonialism in contemporary societies” (JAG. 2017) through her use of stark lines that create her forms. On the walls of the exhibition feature drawings of buildings and their structural outlines, presenting the viewer with deconstructed images of buildings to their simplest forms. Her installations are made from wooden poles, concrete and plastic tubes used for plumbing. Miniature concrete foundations are connected to cement brick and corrugated steel. The viewer is left to figure out whether Ferreira is in the process of creating the structure or has begun dismantling the final product.

Her works reflect the moment of tension that comes with the destabilization caused by change. Colonialism has ended yet its fragments remain. There is a beauty to these structures but they came at a cost to our very own collective humanity.

Yet the very issue also applies to the conceptual gaps between the body of work and those understood as being its ‘maker’. We see human form in her photographs of the construction of the JAG. Bodies are depicted as shadows amongst buildings. She features photographs of the building during the museum’s recent renovations. The builders are distant figures in the background in a spectral haze.

What Ferreira seeks to challenge seems to be perpetuated in these very works. The black body remains separate from the works. Only the names of the architects is revealed and the labor of those who built the walls go unrecognized. We see a woman building a hut yet we do not see the faces of those who made the concrete walls.
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Ângela Ferreira, Maison Tropicale (footprints), (2007), Installation view South Facing, Johannesburg Art Gallery, 2017 (1)
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The challenge to this history will be one that critiques the very relationship where black bodies are reduced to viewers or consumers and not the actual producers. We remember the names of the architects and salute their work yet no attention is given to the other forms of labor.

The very line fenced between the JAG and the Joubert Park continues in her works as we are not made aware of who actually made the buildings and their labor made a non-factor. We need to begin to reimagine how we speak about our current buildings in South Africa. Questions need to be asked over whose names get associated with the buildings.

Yet for the artists we are called upon engage with such a past through our consumption of its works. “Buildings contain history… But mostly for me they are also sculptural. They are designed for a function but architects also have an aesthetic program in mind. So I see them as public sculptural interventions. We all judge them all the time. They inhabit our daily lives and we are entitled to comment on them.”

Watson discusses how “ there is an interesting parallel between the structural failures and the intellectual limitations of museums, South Facing represents a response …. on these urgent questions”. Through these works the viewer has the opportunity to question how we go about filling the gaps. As consumers of public art we are forced us to engage with ideas over who gets chosen to represent the ‘achievement’ of a civilization.
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Ângela Ferreira, Double Sided, (1996-2003), Installation view South Facing, Johannesburg Art Gallery, 2017
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Ângela Ferreira, Werdmuller Centre, (2010), Installation view South Facing, Johannesburg Art Gallery, 2017
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Ângela Ferreira, Remining (Mine building), (2017) Installation view South Facing, Johannesburg Art Gallery, 2017
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24 July 2017
Studio Kim – The Shift

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Check out her website to keep up with her work.

3 May 2017
Jake Singer // RGB Sky and the Fourth Revolution

The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel

– The Neuromancer by William Gibson

A preamble of creaking wooden stairs. Navigating historical remnants – a building reclaimed. Ascending the landing. Within the antique walls of The Cosmopolitan the contemporary Hazard Gallery is housed. Pressed ceilings peeled back, open and exposed. Reveling structural inner-workings. The underbelly of corrugated iron and intersecting beams. A visual extension of Jake Singer’s sculpture, Gibson’s Point. A conceptual link to the 1984 cyberpunk text and introduction to a multi-media exhibition, RGB Sky. An ambiguous dystopia embedded in the Johannesburg landscape.

“Space is digital

Body is landscape

Architecture is algorithm

Monuments are megabytes”

– Jake Singer

Promises of the City, Dive

The five rooms of the old hotel culminate in a constructed narrative of the fourth Industrial Revolution: The Internet of Things. Jake describes the role of artists as, “dealing with ideas more than anything else”. Throughout the exhibition, he explores the making of objects – vessels of ideas and ideology. Using the future as a point of departure. He describes “how people create ideology to deal with technology.”

Pastel dreams contained in layered lines articulate a juxtaposition of planes. Disconnected and monumental. Urban relics. Steel exoskeletons encase prickly plastic forms. “Creating objects that exist ambiguously, like glitches.”. Establishing a linear progression – a climactic moment ruptures at the end of the hallway in a series of dystopian Neoclassical Epics entitled, Promises of the City. The five photographic prints explore a narrative sequence nested in visual illusion. Chroma Key figures engage on a set of entropy. The collaborative effort constructed on the rooftop of August House references Modernist architecture characteristic of the city.

The injection of human form is key in generating silhouettes that, “hold up the [visual] lie.”. Glitter erupts forth from a potato gun. A composition of industrial grade tubing, drop-sheets, purple camouflage, tape and chance. “Happenings and mistranslations” had an integral function in creating the work and capturing the ‘photographic moment’. The set of found and obscure objects create a “sculpture built around the lens” in this post-digital landscape.

Channel series

Channel series

8 March 2017
Portraying greatness – Visual artist Kasen Midichi

Ghanaian-born Kasen Midichi has always found art as the easiest way to express himself. Initially discouraged by understandings of art as work for “lazy people” within his community, he re-discovered his love for creating visual magic when a friend asked him to create a piece for a store.

His paintings portray celebrities, public figures and well-known artists – people he thinks made it to the top within their specific field. In his painting one can identify who he is portraying, but the red skin and big eyes make the work recognizably Midichi, creating a sense of the familiar yet unfamiliar. In explaining to me his obsession with reading and watching biographies about those he considers the best in their fields, he also confessed that he has always wanted to be associated with that greatness. As a way to do this he inserts Midichi at the end names of the figures that he paints in the titles of this works.

As a man who enjoys literary indulgences, he is currently working on a painting inspired by the line “I’m like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good” from the book This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. In the same way that readers create images of characters in their minds, Midichi is trying to transfer these words into a visual language. “When I read a line that intrigues me, I want to paint that scene of how I see it in my head regardless of what the author had in mind,” Midichi explains.

Go to Midichi’s Instagram page to check out more of his work and to keep an eye out for his website.

Pollock Midichi

Basquiat Midichi

3 March 2017
Artist Jody Paulsen’s solo exhibition ‘Pushing Thirty’

Artist Jody Paulsen is currently showing his new solo exhibition Pushing Thirty at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town.

Everything from the fuzzy texture of his felt collages, to his floor installations are a point of entry into a mix of bright colours and cheeky slogans; curious eyes are invited to look a little closer. Felt as a playful medium, creates a sense of nostalgia with the fabric associated with arts and crafts during childhood. Jody puts a twist on this association by dealing with adult themes in his work. His work offers a critical eye on identity construction and queer politics, as well as on consumer culture, often addressing more than one of these themes in an artwork. Jody provides commentary on the discriminatory laws against LGBT communities in countries such as Uganda, and offers pieces in celebration of sexual diversity. The layering of images in his collage work leaves no empty space. However, his work is crowded in a way that does not leave one feeling claustrophobic. Instead your eye is darting across the surface of the work, trying to take it all in. His use of fonts which mimic graffiti and branding typography, as well as other popular culture iconography draw attention to consumer culture, with slogans that highlight the realness of approaching adulthood. His exhibition also includes a series of photographs where he presents himself as the subject.

His show continues at SMAC Gallery until the 25th of March.

17 February 2017
Self-discovery through imagery – ‘Plastic Crowns’ exhibition by photographer Phumzile Khanyile

Young photographer Phumzile Khanyile is showing her first solo exhibition titled Plastic Crowns at the Market Photo Workshop gallery in Johannesburg.

“Plastic Crowns is a journey of self-discovery,” Phumzile explained, “As a photographer I think the vision is more important than the equipment. I believe that when making a body of work there is nothing more important than honesty”. This guided her decision to include herself in her images. Using her personal experiences as a backdrop for larger conversations, the self-portraits in her exhibition try to unpack the expectations she carried from her grandmother around what it means to be a woman. This was the entry point for her to address the ways in which women’s bodies are closely monitored with regards to how we choose to present ourselves. “I wanted to figure out for myself what being female is,” Phumzile explained.

© Phumzile Khanyile, Plastic Crowns, 2016

Choosing sexuality as the focal point, she uses symbols to talk back to these expectations. Balloons scattered on the gallery floor and featured in her photographs represent different sexual partners. Through this she speaks back to ideas around promiscuity, stating that she views having multiple partners as a choice and not a reflection on lack of morals. Given that these expectations and teachings come from how she grew up, her images play with understandings of family photographs by turning the idea of the family photo album on its head through telling the story of what happens after the idealized family photograph has been taken, and producing images that are not often seen in albums because they highlight flaws within the familial structure. During our conversation Phumzile pointed to a photograph of her standing next to a black coat hanging from the handles of a cupboard door. In the image she links arms with the coat, as if she was linking arms with another person. She explains that this particular photograph refers to the absence of her father. “It was really important for me to create this because I have lost all of my family albums at home. I wanted to create the feeling of something that is familiar.”.

© Phumzile Khanyile, Plastic Crowns, 2016

To create the feeling of old family photographs and worn down photo albums, Phumzile covered her digital camera with a cloth. “I didn’t want them [the images] to have this clean sense or this technically correct thing about it,” Phumzile explained. Certain images come across as blurred, slightly out of focus and grainy, working hand-in-hand with her inversion of the family photo album.

Having been awarded the Gisele Wulfsohn Mentorship in Photography in 2015, Phumzile was mentored by photographer and filmmaker Ayana V. Jackson. Her exhibition will be up until the 19th of March.

Check out more of her work visit her website or follow her on Instagram

© Phumzile Khanyile, Plastic Crowns, 2016

© Phumzile Khanyile, Plastic Crowns, 2016

15 February 2017
Visual artist Ke Neil We: combining art and biology

Visual artists Ke Neil We creates mesmerizing artworks by exploring the similarities between organic and inorganic microscopic patterns.

Ke Neil We draws inspiration for her work from nature, specifically the relationship between order and chaos. “I find the chaotic nature of existence to be very profound,” she expresses, “Order and chaos will always prevail.”. She looks at the way in which order and chaos presents themselves visually in patterns that form in organic and inorganic matter. This fascination with the relationship between the organic and inorganic stems from looking at the structural similarities between the two when examined under a microscope. She explores “the way that things grow and the way they look in the body, in plants, in everything that exists.”. Her work resembles studies of the structures of nerves cells in the brain, plants seen under a microscope, as well as what she describes as “geometric patterns of order and chaos”.

‘Chaotic Stem’. 2015. Pen on paper.

She was recently part of the group exhibition Untitled 3.99 where she put up a series of 3 works titled ‘Order’. These abstract pieces portray the waves and structures of water using lines. “In my work I use dots and lines as my basic mark-making [techniques]. I try to keep it to the simplest building blocks of form. So start with a dot and then the trail of that dot becomes a line,” Ke Neil We explains. This mirrors her exploration of the building blocks of life.

‘Untitled’. 2014. Pen on paper.

Ke Neil We’s recent body of work is about creating a self-portrait from samples of bacteria and fungus found on different parts of her body. “[I am] trying to see the parts of myself that I otherwise would not see,” Ke Neil We explains, “I am fascinated by microbes because they are an intrinsic part of life and they go unseen.”. From these swabs she has been experimenting with growing the bacteria in Petri dishes, with each forming part of her self-portrait. “The whole idea is that bacteria is organic, so it lives. So over time the work also changes as the bacteria grows, thrives and eventually dies”. This is the direction Ke Neil We is going with her work; the direction of sci-art, combining art and biology.

To keep up with her work check her out on Instagram

Bacteria from belly button grown in nutrient agar

9 February 2017
Art as the reflections of our times and the collector the preserver of our history: In discussion with Gallery MOMO creative director

Art is more than just about the business that generates it. Gallery Momo is more than just a conduit for the sale of art but also the creation of works that seeks to challenge the ideas of those who enter her walls. Set in the leafy suburbs of Parktown North this gallery offers both collectors and art enthusiasts the opportunity to engage with works that:

… keep pushing the boundaries of local and international markets. The gallery continues to support local and international young-and-upcoming talent through its renowned residency program. This program allows artists to exchange ideas and engage with the new environment (Gallery Momo, 2016).

I got to meet up and interview the creative director Odysseus Shirindza of Gallery Momo.

Motlatsi Khosi (MK): Please explain how Gallery MOMO started and how you (Odysseus) became a part of its creative team?

Odysseus Shirindza (OS): The gallery was founded in 2003 by Monna Mokoena to fill the gap in the market for a contemporary African art. I joined the gallery late 2015 as the operations manager.

MK: What have been some of the major hurdles and blessings in running the gallery and what advice would you give to black creatives and entrepreneurs when engaging the business aspect of the arts.

OS: At the end of the day a business is business regardless of your background, the challenges are the same however that is not to say that overcoming those challenges is equally easy for everyone. I’m fairly new with the gallery so the impact of my contribution only time will tell. But the in the time I’ve been with the gallery, working with the artists that we represent has been a great blessing and the challenge is also managing the very same artist that make my work enjoyable.

MK: What role do you see black collectors playing in the art word? Is it all business or do they also have some sort responsibility to the creative arts within South Africa and the continent.

OS: The role of the black collector is very important especially at this point in our civilization. To quote Nina Simone, “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times”. Then in that case the collector’s duty is to preserve what the artists produce. The more black collectors buy in to what the artists produce, the more we can be secure as a people that that our place in history is safe and that our stories will be told with integrity because our is in the custodianship of people who have vested interest. It is our job as black people to collect and preserve our own history and/ through art.

MK: Art and creatives from this continent are making waves and gaining a new thrust in popularity, both locally and internationally. What role does Gallery MOMO play in fueling this next wave in the consumption and appreciation of the arts?

OS: Africa and African art and artists have become very recognizable on the international art scene. Our main duty as a gallery still remains to break down barriers and expose the artists that we represent at best light and at the right platforms.

Readers can learn more about the Gallery Momo and keep up to date with their upcoming exhibitions on their website, Facebook page and on Instagram.

24 January 2017
Space Space Gallery: Challenging institutionalized art spaces and curatorial practices

Practicing artists Ella Krivanek and Dorothy Siemens are the founders of the moving gallery Space Space. They met in Toyko in 2014. At the time Ella was thinking about how to create a space that could blend what she had learned and enjoyed as a practicing artists at home in Melbourne with the different scene that she had experienced in Japan. She eventually found an old rundown warehouse which needed a lot of work to set up. Friends and friends of friends who were interested in the same idea helped her to reconstruct the space. This is where she met Space Space partner Dorothy. Aware of the limited spaces that artists had available to create art for art’s sake, as well as what they identified as the hyper-commercialization of the art scene in Toyko, they felt that they could add another layer to the grassroots operation of art spaces in the city. “We had similar ideas about what the Tokyo art scene was like and what we could add to it,” Dorothy explained, “And I think we just work really well together, We have similar aesthetics.”. They started off doing smaller, quite specific shows which culminated into a larger project in The Bathhouse show February 2016. “It was this big, free show that was going to be accessible to young people, bring in dozens of international artists and also have them working with local artists to create those networks,” Ella explained. It included a sculptural and installation art experience which could not necessarily be conveyed on an online medium, which is how most exhibitions are absorbed these days. They started to discuss the idea of the gallery being a moving art space, and the warehouse getting torn down was a big catalyst in making that decision.

In thinking about where to go next to continue the conversations they were having about how networks are created, they both were excited about the political and art scene in Johannesburg. Seeing their gallery as speaking back to institutionalized art space and interrogating how and who views art, by taking the art outside of institutions they are working towards flattening out some the hierarchies that are inherent in institutions. Their exhibition ‘Fluxus Now’ in Johannesburg expands on this. “[The exhibition] tries to make concrete the sense that because now our social circles are so politicized our art institutions need to adapt to reflect that, not only the way artists interact with art, but the way that the public interact with art also,” Ella explained. The soul of their project puts into practice the breaking down of barriers between institutionalized art and the public. However, it is not only about presenting art in more fluid ways, but also calling into question what makes an object an artwork. “We need to understand it [artworks] within a sociopolitical context,” Ella expressed.

This filters into the way that they think about the spaces that they select for their exhibitions and their treatment of these spaces. The Johannesburg exhibition included work by Amber Wright, Aaron Carter, Spencer Lai from Australia; Tshepo Moloi, Roberta Joy Rich and Blazing Empress from South Africa; and OH!BLOOD from Japan. Their work is displayed in various spots around the CBD. Several artworks are displayed at street level in commercial areas, others displayed in parks and street corners with greenery. As you move through the exhibition it becomes more elevated. Even though these works are displayed on the second story of buildings and other higher spaces, they are still connected to the streets by being displayed near windows or over a ledge looking over the city.

Central to the flow of the exhibition was the conversations Ella and Dorothy had with the artists involved. Space Space is trying to approach curating from a more collaborative stance, emphasizing the dialogue with artists as an important part of the final exhibition.

From their experience in Johannesburg they have added a clothing line aspect to their project. “I think on leaving Johannesburg we started to consider gallery space as moving more towards something of like a curatorial project which involves us making our own objects as the gallery as well as continuing to curate shows with others,” Ella explained. Taking objects that they gathered from their time in Johannesburg, including clothing, receipts, shopping lists, they created a clothing collection which they showed at their recent show in Toyko. These are also for sale on their online shop. “For us we have always wondered how we can convey the value that we see in the art that we curate when we put it into spaces that don’t automatically assign those objects value in and of themselves the way that a white cube gallery does,” Ella explained when asked about their clothing collection. By taking objects which would otherwise be considered trash, modifying them and reappropriating them into the gallery space, these items question systems of value. These wearable, semi-practical items make a commentary not only on whether objects have value or not, but also on the hierarchies within those values.

Check out their website to see past exhibitions and to check out their online store. Like them on Facebook to keep up to date with where they will be next.

13 January 2017
Illustrator Nokwanda Themba creates whimsical reflections of self and women of colour

I caught up with young, up-and-coming illustrator Nokwanda Themba to chat about her work and her vision for the future.

“I’m studying a BSc in Human Physiology. But I have been drawing since I was a child,” Nokwanda explained when asked about how her journey as a freelance illustrator began. Having always had an interest in art and not having any formal training in any kind of visual discipline, she took it upon herself to allow her enthusiasm for drawing to blossom by teaching herself various techniques and experimenting with different mediums. Working consistently at trying to refine her skills, the evolution of her work took off when she started working with fine point pens. From this point she could see herself growing into her illustrator boots and developing her own style.

Nokwanda draws inspiration from a wide range of illustrators and artists. Itumeleng Kunene whose fine liner work and focus on women has had a large influence on the way Nokwanda depicts the focal subjects in most her work; women. Nokwanda describes herself as a Womanist, “[meaning embracing] all kinds of femininity and just loving women,” she explained. Nokwanda has also gained the confidence to expand the range of her work by looking at the watercolour work of Ojo, the heroine within her pool of illustrators and artists from whom she draws inspiration. Nokwanda’s recent experimentation with watercolours combined with her fine liner work has added texture and depth to her illustrations. This is not the first time she has tried to include a different dimension to her work. Nokwanda has also experimented with creating collages, taking direction from illustrators who have tried collage work in their own practices.

Nokwanda describes her illustrations as a reflection of her personality. “My work is whimsical, quirky. It’s got a lotta life!” she exclaimed. The similarities between her and her work became quite clear when her giggles and cute comments during our conversation reminded me of the squiggles and playful style of her illustrations. These fun doodles often surround the protagonists of her work; women of colour who wear their hair as crowns.

Being a young illustrator who has stepped in from outside of creative circles as well as being a woman of colour, Nokwanda has found that not being taken seriously at times and being overlooked has been a challenge she has had to face. However, she continues to carve out a space for herself through her commission work, growing her online following and being part of exhibitions such as The Roof Top Exhibition hosted by SA Creatives last year.

Nokwanda dreams of getting into design and one day creating what she described as “a Typo for brown girls”. Keep up-to-date with her work by checking out her on Behance and Instagram.

11 January 2017