Bubblegum Club

Tag: DIY

  • Bubblegum Club selected to be part of the 2018 Aperture Summer Open

    Bubblegum Club selected to be part of the 2018 Aperture Summer Open

    A picture is worth a thousand words. This idiom speaks to the premise behind the 2018 Aperture Summer Open exhibition titled The Way We Live Now. Aperture Summer Open is an annual open-submission exhibition at Aperture Foundation’s gallery in New York. It features work selected by a prominent curator or editor, with the exhibition unpacking critical themes and trends influencing international contemporary photographic practice.

    As a point of departure for this year’s exhibition, the photographs from the selected artists and photographers look at how images come to capture and become visual markers of rapid change in society, politics, beauty, and self-expression. The exhibition features 18 artists and the way in which they engage with the “currents and contradictions of life” in the 21st century. These artists and photographers reflect on how we define images and how images define our lives. This year Bubblegum Club was selected as one of the displaying artists.

    As an online magazine and content agency reporting on and contextualizing trends across creative practices in South Africa, Africa and across the world, we have developed a fluid aesthetic that responds and contributes to cultural moods. This taps into grunge, DIY approaches to styling and photographic strategies that plug into references that are reflective of the discursive and visual languages present in urban subcultures. The construction of the image becomes a condensed moment in time, a contextualized mirror of current ways of being.

    The images chosen by Bubblegum Club were drawn from different aspects of our work, including cover shoots and editorials. Makeup artists Orli Oh, Katelyn Gerke and Nuzhah Jacobs, as well as hair stylist Mimi Duma and styling assistant Lebogang Ramfete, contributed to the creation of the images on show, with styling and photography by creative director Jamal Nxedlana. Lightfarm has continued to assist with post production and with printing. A special thank you to adidas South Africa for supporting the trip to New York.

    The 2018 exhibition taking place from 27 June – 16 August is curated by Siobhán Bohnacker, senior photo editor, the New Yorker; Brendan Embser, managing editor, Aperture magazine; Marvin Orellana, photo editor, New York magazine; and Antwaun Sargent, independent writer and critic.

  • Afripedia to launch new platform to connect creatives with clients and each other

    Afripedia to launch new platform to connect creatives with clients and each other

    Africa’s representation has been exhausting – it’s typically about poverty and her friends, disease, unemployment and corruption. From the West, Africa is every NGOs wet dream or just one long sad story. Now being raised in Sweden with strong Ethiopian and Eritrean roots, Teddy Goitom and Senay Berhe knew the pitiful narrative. It all changed when they traveled to the continent in 2009 and witnessed its “hidden” glory for themselves.

    This exposure was revolutionary for Teddy and Senay. As seasoned directors, they were compelled to use the power of film to capture how fellow creatives were navigating themselves on the continent and releasing their creative expressions. Behold, the birth of Afripedia, a visual guide for African creatives.

    Created by Teddy, Senay, and fellow director of Stocktown Films, Benjamin Taft, the documentation of Afripedia’s content began on that 2009 journey to Ethiopia, Ghana and Burkina Faso. The trio are film heavy weights and have been innovating visual storytelling since the late ‘90s and Afripedia’s gripping and spirited essence is a testament to the mastery the trio have over this medium.

    The foundation of Afripedia is to develop the imagining of Africa, hence the determination to share the documented stories with Swedish television, as well as the world. The initial process to gain Swedish co-producers and sponsorship was difficult because these potential partners wanted a European voice to narrate these African stories. However, Afripedia values the voice of the storyteller and the ownership of their narrative so Teddy, Senay and Benjamin financed their own productions.

    The project of Afripedia was fuelled by a DIY mentality, with extensive research and nurturing global connections. YouTube and film festivals added to Afripedia’s reach and gained the site some funding in the end. The result being five short films being released in 2014 – Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal, and Angola. Since the launch of these films, Afripedia has been part of more than 80 film festivals, the films have been shown on SABC, BET and Afridocs. Ethiopian Airlines, KLM and Kenya Airways have included the films on their in-flight entertainment.

    These insightful films took about five years to complete and with the burning desire to continue the work they have started, Teddy and Senay have begun extending their documentaries into an actual database where the creatives can be found. This idea expands Afripedia into a platform on which African creatives can be recruited by clients and connect with each other in order to build their team.

    The platform focuses on African creatives talented in production, so photographers, stylists, art directors, film directors, illustrators, graphic designers and animators. Before the platform is released in May 2018, Teddy and Senay are currently inviting prominent and emerging creative talent from Africa and the diaspora to join. When it is available to the public, the curated platform will be a virtual booking system, way to connect creatives and clients, and a digital portfolio.

    To keep up with the innovative ways Afripedia is elevating the exposure of African creativity, subscribe to their site here.

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

    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 3rd 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

  • Photographer Hana Jayne Sho’s series Boys in Light // The Intimate Moments of Collaboration

    Photographer Hana Jayne Sho’s series Boys in Light // The Intimate Moments of Collaboration

    Forms of flesh awash with pale pink hues, steeped in the sounds Lana Del Rey’s youthful lullabies. Tendrils of smoke twist and turn off the tips of cigarettes, held gently between tentative fingers. Nostalgic desire captured by the grain of film. Intimacy found in those moments of home.

    It was a Tuesday night. Photographer, Hana Sho, ventured over to a friend’s apartment in the Cape Town city bowl. Armed with only a studio light, a desk lamp, DIY gels and a few rolls of film she adopted her usual modus operandi of spontaneity and experimentation. “We’re all friends, and during the shoot it kind’ve felt like what they would usually do before going to a party, except I was documenting it. Have a few drinks, smoke cigarettes and try on each other’s clothes…It almost felt like a mini production team. Adam turns out to be a hella good Art Director. Alex popped in for some Art Direction, and Mziyanda pulled through with some bomb styling.”

    Hana’s photographic work spans the space of portraiture, editorials, fashion and documentary style images. “When I shoot it’s always a collaboration.” She often goes for a walk with the model before the shoot – as a means to put them at ease. “I find that walking around and getting to know somebody makes them more comfortable, and whatever mood their feeling in that moment reflects in the photographs.” Hana also values collaboration as a space of learning, “from my experience, collaborative work is always better and has other layers of meaning that I wouldn’t have thought of… I’ve learned so much from the collaborators I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”

    After discovering her mother’s old Nikon from the 90s, she bought some film and started taking photographs of her friends. “I realized film gave a more three-dimensional affect. I can’t describe it, but it’s so much more textured and alive.”

    For Boys in Light, Hana took the opportunity to play with light and explore expressions of youth on film. “My concepts are always based on people and how they portray themselves – everyone’s just trying to figure themselves out; experimenting, having fun, making mistakes and learning from them. I think I’ve managed to capture those sweet in between moments where everyone kind of forgets.” She described a shift in the atmosphere when the lights used in her images were turned on, “It felt like we stepped into another realm where everyone could express their alter egos.”

    “I think collaboration is definitely an important part of learning and developing as a young artist, whatever the medium may be.”

    Credits:

    Models: Alex Paterimos, Jeremy, Adam Lennox, Mziyanda 

  • AFROPUNK Joburg as the showground for outfits as declarations of self-love and self-expression

    The first AFROPUNK festival in Africa took place over the weekend of the 30 and 31 December. Fashion, art and music was shared in a collective embrace with all attendees. As with every AFROPUNK festival, the outfits worn by those in attendance can attract as much attention and celebration as the artists on the lineup. With all the people I interviewed at AFROPUNK, they shared with me descriptions their outfits and reasons for wearing particular items. With this they all unconsciously shared with me short, punchy phrases or words in their descriptions which can be viewed collectively as the beginnings of a manifesto or mottos to live by.

    Maga Moura

    Blogger and influencer Maga Moura has been attending all the AFROPUNK festivals held in 2017, and felt it necessary to come to the final one in Johannesburg. “I am also in love with see-through fabrics,” she expressed to me when asked about her outfit. Her full body overthrow is a clear demonstration of this as the fabric looks like a hybrid between chiffon and fishnet. She also shared her love for shiny objects, and so added elements of sparkle into her outfit with sequence and accessories. In Brazil she is affectionately known as the queen of braids because of her colourful and out-of-the-box designs she chooses for her braids. This has led her to inspiring young girls in her home country to feel free to express themselves more freely and creatively through their hair. Maga took the opportunity to make her outfit a physical manifestation of her blog; a liberated expression of black culture and black hair. Making sure not to leave without sharing the connection between her style, her blog and AFROPUNK, Maga stated that, “AFROPUNK is more than the lineup. It is culture, inspiration, force. Be yourself. Be free in your own personality or outfit.”

    Khaya Ngubane

    Taking my hand with confidence, Khaya Ngubane was ready to be in front of the camera. Moving from one power pose to another, it was as if he was in communication with the spirit of the cultures that inspired his look. “My outfit is inspired by an Ndebele/Egyptian look,” he explained. A gold neckpiece is paired with a small bullring septum piercing, and an open shirt to let the melanin glow. The combination of fabrics and accessories was all connected to Khaya’s grounding concept that drives his style. “Unapologetically gay and free-spirited. African all the way.”

    Amonge Sinxoto

    Amonge Sinxoto, while not consciously trying to make a statement with her outfit, she wanted to make sure that she wore all South African artists and designers. With her hair done by well-known hair stylist Mimi (@urban_mimz) to her pants and shirt being made by well-established fashion label House Of Ole. “Carefree, local and just being me. Being comfortable.” This was the motto that guided Amonge. By wearing all local she has made herself a walking everyday model for the talent that South African creatives from across the fashion and design spectrum have to offer.

    Loyiso Ntwanambi and Likhaya Hanise

    Loyiso Ntwanambi and Likhaya Hanise carried the spirit of Loyiso’s mother with them to AFROPUNK as they were wearing creations that her mother put together. “Bright. Free. Young. Happy.” These are the four word that Loyiso shared with me as the statement she was trying to make with her outfit. A recipe for a joyful living that has been shared through fabric and her mother’s labour. “Free. Hip. Not scared to be different. All of that,” Likhaya expressed, almost as a confirmation of Loyiso’s words.

    Kim Barendse

    Dressed by the designer for the label Jigga en Vogue and applying her own makeup. Kim Barendse become the South African version of Janet Jackson from the early 90s. When asked about the statement she was trying to make with her outfit, she expressed that she wanted to look as if she landed from another planet. The blue makeup over her eyes, coupled with thin, yellow lenses from her glasses created a green colour where the makeup and glasses met on her face. Drawing attention with her bundles of curly hair on her head and the jewels travelling down her forehead, she could be described as a celestial queen. “Life inspires my style. I am an artist as well so I draw inspiration from everything around me.”

    Laverne Maart

    As one of the many travelers from Cape Town to Johannesburg for AFROPUNK, Laverne Maart came to share her hair dye and laidback sense of style at the festival. With her bright green hair freshly applied by one of the other people displaying their work at the market stalls, Laverne let her hair play with the wind, mimicking the movement on her colourful dress. “Normally I wear a headwrap with my curls and dreads sticking out. That’s my look,” she explained. Her dress by Gordon House of Six was made specifically for her attendance at the festival. “I just wanted to be colourful,” Laverne expressed about the statement she was making with her  look. “Colourful energy. I like colour especially green so there are  a lot of greens in what I am wearing.”

    Mariah Matthews

    Coupling bargain thrift store buys with her favourite items, sprinkled with African elements – that is the look that Mariah Matthews was serving at AFROPUNK Joburg. Wearing two gold bracelets on top of each other, Mariah created a hair accessory that makes her hair tower above her head. “I wanted to see how high my hair can go today. There are a lot of times when I just want to see how far I can go. I realize even coming to South Africa from New Jersey that I can go wherever I want to go, as far as I want to go, as long as I just want to,” she exclaimed, “I just wanted to be my own art today.” I noticed she had the badge from Very Black pinned to her chest, and asked what this meant to her. “I follow Very Black. I was them at a talk curated by AFROPUNK. I love this pin because I feel like it really describes how I am as well. I like to be unapologetically Black, and unapologetically art.”

    Lamlela Plaatjie

    Interrogating what being African means for an African person living in Africa, Lamlela Plaatjie used her outfit to unpack that for herself. “Essentially, everything we do do is punk just by the virtue of being an African person,” she expressed. Wanting to keep everything close to home, all of the items she wore, beside her Dr. Martins, were handed to her by the women in her family and represent her Xhosa heritage. “My inspiration was using things that have been used before. The fact that it makes a statement and looks the way that it does is a bonus. But I obviously wanted to celebrate my South African heritage, trying to upstage all the other people from previous AFROPUNK festivals and show them what we are working with in South Africa!”

    Zandile Makombe

    A simple black dress with denim vintage pants that were ripped and turned into a jacket. Zandile Makombe fully embraced the punk, DIY element at AFROPUNK. “I guess [with my outfit] I was just trying to be me, because I am a fashion design student.” Her rope braids are a staple for her style, this time choosing to rock the turquoise-green colour. “I usually just wear what I want,” she expressed. Taking inspiration from Japanese designers and the anime scene, she construcs looks that connect these with comfort and being a woman of colour on the continent.

    Toby and Adrian DGA

    As two of the many international visitors who came to Johannesburg specifically for the festival Toby and Adrian DGA flew all the way from London. When asked about her outfit Toby explained that she is half Ghanaian and half Nigerian. “I was looking for something that was similar to kente cloth,” she explained. This was in the hopes of being able to echo her heritage through fabric and being part of the first AFROPUNK to be held in Africa. Adrian was on a similar wave length, and chose to wear a traditional Nigerian piece of clothing which he received from his brother-in-law. “This is me connecting,” he expressed while showing me the fabric the shirt is made from. “I think I just wanted something quite colourful, with my hair and my nails and everything. I just wanted to be really vibrant to kind of match being in Johannesburg,” Toby shared. “I like feeling opulent. I like feeling gold. So this is my Sunday best.”

    Kabelo

    Friends with the guys from TCYF, Kabelo came to show his friends some support. However, he did not forget the fire that continues to burn in his heart. He has been part of the protests at UCT calling for free, decolonised education (Fees Must Fall protests), and feels that this approach to education needs to be filtered into his style and the other situations he finds himself in. “The general look [of my outfit] comes from the cross-punk scene. Very politically and ideologically charged subgenre from street punk. This is more intersectional which goes with the Fallist politics.” The back of his jacket is adorned with the Fallist logo and the gun symbol is an expression of the three pillars of Fallism – Pan-Africanism, Black Radical Feminism and Black Consciousness. Black Radical Feminism is so crucial to this as this is where the terms positionality and intersectionality were coined from.

    Abongwe Qokela

    Sporting the design of a young designer named Afro Grunge, Abongwe Qokela oozed all the confidence that makes people stare out of admiration and celebration. “I am a low-key, but high-key show pony. That means I don’t just go to events in jeans and a t-shirt. No. People must know I am here. During the week I have a 9-5. So when I am out, I unleash.” When asked about the statement she wanted to make with her outfit she expressed that she wanted to be, “unapologetically loud. The whole aesthetic of AFROPUNK where you are like ‘I am here!’.”

    Miles Greenburg

    Embracing the foundations of a minimalist aesthetic, and elevating it with his blonde cornrows and badass boots, Miles Greenburg brought a Canadian spice all the way to Johannesburg. “This is my comfort,” he shared with me while discussing his style choices. “I don’t think this [his outfit] is about a statement. I think it is about a silhouette that makes me feel good in my body. Something I really like about the AFROPUNK vibe is this celebration of the black body.” As a way to pay tribute to this, Miles went straight to his comfort zone, and allowed himself to show as much or as little as he wanted to.

    Lara Fischer 

    Lara Fischer saw the two days of AFROPUNK as an opportunity to unpack what it means to be punk on the first day PUNK. “I see a lot of things on Instagram but I do not necessarily like to follow trends. A lot of clothes get given to me from family and friends so I like to take that and use that as a challenge to style myself,” she expressed. Upcycling and pushing what feels right is what influences the way she chooses to present herself to the world, and everything about her AFROPUNK outfit is a demonstration of this. “I have noticed the people are really scared to explore their fashion sense…but I never feel like that about anything.”

  • Inandawood- Grassroots Horror

    Inanda is a sprawling township outside Durban, which at different points in its history was the home of both Mathama Ghandi and John Dube, the first president of the ANC.  And, as the new short film Inandawood documents, it is now a home for independent filmmaking.  A network of amateur directors and actors, centred around Vukani Ndebele, have been building a pulp library of low-budget productions which feature stories of rampant Satanists, shape-shifting serial killers and brazen gangsters.

    When a young Ndebele was confronted by the lack of film-making opportunities around him, he decided to do it for himself. As shown in the documentary, his first major project was Thomas is Back, centred on a zombie returning to the township to wreak havoc. The film blew up through word of mouth, with copies being circulated throughout the country. The success propelled him into even more projects. And rather than copying Hollywood horror tropes, the films take their lurid inspiration from local mythology and urban legends.  His artistic example has encouraged others in Inanda and surrounding townships like Umlazi and Kwa Mashu  to release their own work, inspired by his no-budget approach of using amateur crews and available resources.

    But this no frills approach doesn’t indicate that Inanda filmmakers are just out to make a quick buck. As Inandawood clearly demonstrates, these works are inspired by a pure passion to entertain, put together by creative people with no direct access to the infrastructure of movie production.  The short film is reminiscent of acclaimed feature documentary American Movie, which focuses on aspiring horror director Mark Borchardt.  Both works are tributes to the power of film, as they highlight artists making their work in the face of difficulties and restrictions.  Along with documenting a regional scene, Inandawood is an innovative work in its own right, edited with floating text and distorted sound effects.  This playful style conveys the gritty enthusiasm of its source material perfectly.  Despite considerable resources, there are far too many SA movies which reflect a dour, social realist perspective which seems uninterested in the possibilities of film as a medium. Unsurprisingly, they have failed to connect with either local or international audiences.  By showing what can be done with little resources, these  films reveal that it’s not about money. It’s about imagination.  At the same time, the KZN  scene has an authenticity which can’t be replicated by bigger budget works, revealing both the realties and the nightmares of the people who watch it with stark clarity.

  • Alphabet Zoo is inviting cultural practitioners to participate in a zine making residency

    Alphabet Zoo, the Johannesburg based collective founded by printmakers Minenkulu Ngoyi and Isaac Zavale is hosting zine making nights at the Bubblegum Club project space in Newtown.

    Ngoyi and Zavale have extended an open invitation to cultural practitioners interested in collaborating on the development of a zine over a three “zine nights” residency in March. All the nights will take place on Wednesdays, the first being on the 16th, the second on the 23rd and the third on the 30th of the month. The zines produced during the residency will then be presented on the 7th of April 2016 at Bubblegum Club as part of the April edition of Newtown’s first Thursdays.

    flyer

    After discovering a lonely printing press in the Johannesburg Art Gallery Ngoyi and Zavale started meeting twice a week to use the press and create collaborative work under the name Alphabet Zoo. As a way to expand their printmaking practice and to apply it in a more accessible way the duo started zines focused on “street culture” in Johannesburg.

    Alphabet Zoo’s zines are often produced in collaboration with artists, illustrators and publishers within the collectives network. Their desire now, to develop self-publishing practices and to grow zine culture in Johannesburg is what has inspired them to initiate zine nights, a project which they hope will take off in the city.

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