Tag: fine art

Daria Kobayashi Ritch – The photographer creating intimate romantic fashion depictions

A moment is frozen in time. The beauty of youth captured. A soft approach with a tender touch. An unquestionable femme gaze. Flowers, low angle shots. Images close to nostalgia reminiscent of the MySpace era. Vibrancy. Colour tones of yellow, blues and pinks. A blown-out kiss.

Daria Kobayashi Ritch has become well known in photography, fashion and pop culture circles for her documentation of L.A.’s coolest. With more shoots and editorials of young celebrities being crafted by her lens her creative portfolio is blossoming to include names such as Willow Smith, Solange and Garage Magazine.

In an interview with INDIE Daria expresses that her photographic inclination was inspired during her adolescence when she and her friends got dressed up and took profile pictures for their MySpace accounts. Later in her life, she went on to study Fine Art at UCLA which she rounded off by attending art college.

Her mission with her work is to combine an intimate take on the people she photographs with the romantic mood of fashion. Daria is inspired by youth culture and subcultural movements that relate to the indie music scene. Taking this as a point of departure she sees an unexplored depth in these individuals that she visually unravels in her arresting imagery.

Daria acknowledges the difficulty of being a photographer, one that is not articulated enough. As a photographer, one has to establish an intimate relationship with your model in a matter of minutes. More frequent than not, people you don’t know and only just met on the day of the shoot.

The artist’s balancing act at present is between her artistic visualizations for herself and the fast world of fashion. Keep yourself up to date with new developments in her work here.

11 June 2018
Dreaming of the Flood // Singer-songwriter Msaki and artist Francois Knoetze collaborate for ‘Dreams’ video

Sometimes it pays to wait. Singer-songwriter Msaki and artist Francois Knoetze have been planning to collaborate for years, ever since their time studying Fine Art at Rhodes University. In particular, they wanted to make a video for ‘Dreams’, a beautifully haunting song of memory and regret. After a previous attempt didn’t work due to bad timing, they have finally unveiled their ambitious project. The video takes place on the streets of Yeoville, with Msaki’s subtly heartbreaking vocals paired with surreal images of performers in animal masks, creatures made from garbage and the singer floating down the road on a cardboard boat.

The striking film promotes her 2016 debut album Zaneliza: How the Water Moves. The release is a culmination of a long artistic journey for Msaki. She says that after years of running away from her true calling as a musician she confronted a personal situation where “everything fell away and all I had left was the music”. She played “in a brass heavy jazz band, an alt rock collective and alone in places that smelt like weed, unripe wokeness and confusion. In 2013 I recorded my first EP in a room with a boat hanging from the ceiling and called it Nal’ithemba.”

‘Dreams’ was one of her earliest works, initially inspired by the rawness of first heartbreak. But as the years have passed, it has taken on new layers of meaning. For Msaki the video shifted the song’s lyrics from the explicitly personal to broader questions of ” who can dream? who can follow their dreams? Whose dreams can become real?”.

Working with no budget, but vast creativity, Francois set out to realise images themed around ancient myths of the Great Flood. Shot over three days, the video incorporated interested passers-by into the shoot and features additional performances by Dennis Webster, Mthwakazi, Akhona Zenande Namba and Nomthawelanga Ndoyko. The result is a beautiful and evocative meeting of sound and image.

28 March 2018
Taking embroidery seriously as an artistic medium

Women and femmes perform multiple forms of labour which are not always recognized as such due to the fact that there is not monetary remuneration for this. This includes emotional labour and household tasks which are seen as the responsibility of femme beings. It seems fitting to write about two women who are taking a form of labour historically associated with women’s labour in the home and making artwork that highlights its significance.

London-based artist Hannah Hill creates embroidery works through which she addresses issues related to mental illness, racism and feminist activism. Her love for embroidery came from watching her mother knitting and sewing throughout her childhood. Hannah’s following grew dramatically when she posted one of her artworks in which combined the Arthur meme with text that expressed her frustration around the fact that embroidery and textiles have not been taken seriously as a form of labour and a medium in art history due to its historical association with “women’s work”.

Hannah’s hand-sewn pieces provide a reflection on the ways in which femme bodies have been stereotyped, the importance of embracing multiple genders and sexual orientations as well as affirmative self-talk when it comes to femme beings. These are communicated with emojis and other symbols associated with internet aesthetics.

The second artist we are looking at is Danielle Clough. Based in Cape Town, she is not only as an embroiderer but also VJs and is a photographer. Danielle’s embroidery work breaks the mold of traditional embroidery firstly as it is not made to fulfill any household need, she is not embroidering linens. No, Danielle embroiders tennis rackets, sneakers (she did this for Gucci in 2016) and she’s worked on the cover of Queer Africa 2. The subject matters she chooses to portray are also not traditional. Her subject matter consists of portraits of strong female characters (Mia Wallis in Pulp Fiction) and skulls. Her work also ties in with modern culture with her embroidered works of the poop emoji.

Danielle’s work shows that embroidery has made a shift from being assumed to be a menial household task that women were expected to be able to perform to one of note, to a craft that is museum worthy and that few people still possess the skills to do. Embroidery forms a part of Danielle’s job and she has received commissions from people like Drew Barrymore. Can this really be considered to be a menial household task? No I think not, what is more is that it has elevated to fine arts status.

What is significant is that the act of hand embroidery, commonly practiced by most women as a measurement of their feminine domesticity, has been revalued as a museum-deserving discipline in the realm of the art world that has historically been male dominated (Barre 2008: 79). But more still needs to be done to acknowledge the significance of this practice, and other forms of labour that women perform.

14 August 2017
ZIBAYO – capturing transient moments

I interviewed Valentino Zondi and Lilli Bagradyans who make up the creative duo ZIBAYO.

Durban-born Valentino solidified his call for creative expression when he attended film school, which has contributed to his current work as a photographer and art director. Through trial and error he now finds himself in possession of a CV with work for some of the coolest brands and a few awards. Lilli has found her creative expression within the triangle of architecture, art and music. Having grown up in Germany and being of Armenian origin, she described South Africa as providing a turning point in her creative journey. Having found each other while Lilli was working on an urban project in South Africa, she describes their joint artistic endeavors as reminders of who she is.

Valentino explained that the name ZIBAYO stands for transience. “Everything is transient,” he adds, “moments, encounters, experiences. Everything is transient besides the art we create.”. Through their work they try to conserve the momentary occurrences they experience and witness around them.

Exhibition in Munich

Together they intend to create a new space for art by combining their differences. “We come from nations which have been divided by differences in religion and race. We feel it is our responsibility to usher in a new way of looking at our differences as human beings, the idea of a black man and a white woman working together as a duo is foreign to some minds. It is in that space that we want to create, in a space that confronts and questions our basic frame of thinking,” Valentino explains.

Their joint art practice involves Lilli transforming an element of photographs taken by Valentino into a painting. “We go back [to where the photograph was taken] with the painted element to reframe it into a situation that is identical to the original captured image. In the reframing, the painting is given new life in a newly shot photograph,” Valentino explains. This is all done without the use of post production editing platforms.

Their first series of exhibitions titled HIDDEN IDENTITIES looks at the aftermath of gentrification in parts of Johannesburg. Exploring the lives of the people who once occupied the streets where they are no longer welcome, the first chapter of this series of exhibitions took place in Maboneng where the streets were used as an exhibition space. “This gave the individuals [who were photographed] a chance to see themselves…In our conversations with them when we were creating this body of work, most of them expressed feelings of being isolated and secluded from Maboneng…By exhibiting in the streets of Maboneng and inviting them, we closed that void of being excluded,” Valentino explained.

HIDDEN IDENTITIES then went to London and was presented at the Armenian Symposium: Armenians in a Global Context in April. In London they built the bridge between HIDDEN IDENTITIES and their next project which is going to be produced in Armenia later this year. They then moved on to exhibit at Kosk Gallery in Munich alongside sculptor Max Boström’s project, EXIT THROUGH CONSUMPTION. The exhibition is moving to Rome, and will make its final appearance in Johannesburg again. “We will be adding a few more pieces in the collection. That is how we do it for every city. So when it returns to Johannesburg, it will have more work than when we left.”.

Lilli and Valentino have got plans to expand their joint creative practice by releasing a fashion project that will include photographs taken from different places in Africa.

Check out ZIBAYO on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with their work.

9 May 2017
The Lesser-known Girls of Jozi

You meet interesting people everywhere. Some of the most intriguing womxn I have come across come from Johannesburg. It is with them, through taking their images, that I found raw beauty and authenticity. Here is a look at three lesser-known females.

Tash Brown

My first interactions with Tash were over social media after she had commented on some photography I did with her friends. I loved how sassy, witty and original her thoughts were. As we progressed to PM messaging she asked me to start a Burn Book with her over a cup of tea. I enjoyed this sassy film reference to the 00’s teen film Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters.

I met up with Tash on a Sunday morning at her home to photograph her. As I entered the door her mother offered me a cup of tea while she was busy preparing food in the green colored kitchen.

After my warm cup of tea was prepared, Tash and I moved to her room to select outfits for our shoot. We started working in her room and moved to the garden where I photographed her blending in with the greenery. We progressed to the spare room of the house where Tash pushed herself up against the window and hid behind the side curtain. Tash changed from her vintage floral shirt to a bralette and panties. It was amazing for me to see how comfortable Tash is with her body.

Tash is the kind of girl who can send you a perfectly articulated voice note while brushing her teeth. She changes her hair color sporadically this is done during bonding sessions with her boyfriend. She calls it “messing with her identity”. Her personality can only be described as vibrant. Everything about Tash is fascinating, from the way that she dresses in pale yellow thrift store dresses to the way that she speaks and the way that she paints. Tash even tap dances. She is currently a third year Fine Arts student at the University of the Witwatersrand and is inspired by artists like Tracey Rose, Dineo Bopape and Ryan Trecartin. Growing up with a mother who is an artist, Tash found her love for art as a child.

Tash describes her work as slipping between fantasy and tragedy. Her practice brings that which is hidden to the surface. The aesthetic value of her work is pink and over-stimulating which brings out the grotesqueness of her style. She relies on kitsch to symbolize the bad taste underlying in pop culture and the imagination. Her created fantasy becomes overbearing at times.

Her work strokes childhood innocence that is tainted. She relies on a balance of intimacy and isolation, depicting violence in a beautiful scene. Her work does not have a single message but holds on to a suggestive idea. Tash says in her artist’s statement that “A face doesn’t want to look like a face”. Have a look at her creations online.

Karen Du Bois

I first met Karen towards the end of last year when she started dating my best friend John. Initially I didn’t know what to make of her, as she was not very talkative. As time passed I got to know her, and her openness revealed itself. She can often be caught walking around singing to herself, as if she is creating a sound track to her day-to-day life. This is what I enjoy most about her.

I spent an evening at John’s place and the next morning I spontaneously decided to shoot Karen because I had my camera on me from a shoot the previous day. I applied some M.A.C Retro Matte lip colour on her full-formed lips and asked her to get into the tub with a white Adidas tee shirt.

As soon as Karen got into the water she immediately went into model mode and transformed from the quiet, pretty girl I had got to know. She was alive, embracing her womanhood and beauty. She was on fire, in her element and comfortable in her surroundings. Looking over my images the magnetism of her eyes is what grabbed me.

Karen has a beautifully raw yet soft childlike voice that echoes pure talent. She has recently completed her BCom Accounting at the University of Johannesburg. Her main focus right now is on making music, taking inspiration comes from Rihanna, A$APRocky, The Pixies and Amy Winehouse. She describes herself as experimenting with her limitations and has recently formed a band called The Black Panties with musician John Shepherd. She found her calling as a vocalist at church and was a part of the school choir growing up. The Black Panties’ musical style can be defined as edgy, and sometimes eerie, and falls within the death trap genre.

Give them a listen on soundcloud.

Rosa Elk

I met Rosa for the first time at a picnic in the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens when she was about 16 years old. From my first interaction with her, I was intrigued by how academically sound she was. Her knowledge on world history surpassed her age.

Meeting up with Rosa again years later was everything I thought it would be. As she walked up to my car to greet me she had a little dust on her because she had been working with archival material from the Wits Art Museum. Entering her room I saw a beautiful collection of artworks, and in her closet carefully hand-picked designer items that were minimal, striking and beautiful. While Rosa was selecting her wardrobe for our shoot I perused the titles of her books. All in mint condition, with titles such as On Photography by Susan Sontag.

Photographing Rosa was an interesting experience. We moved from her bedroom, that I felt said so much about her personality and attention to detail, to her garden that looks like a miniature version of the botanical garden where we first met. I was confronted the wildness of her garden and, as per usual not dressed for the occasion. I was climbing rocks in sandals in order to get the right angles for the shots.

Rosa has a spunkiness about her that I find refreshing. We brushed over many topics while shooting but the one that stuck out for me was our conversation about how children perceive the world. She mentioned that her younger cousin calls her garden “the jungle”. We indulged ourselves all afternoon with interesting conversations, an amazing collection of books and a cat called Madeline, flying up and down the scene of the shoot trying to catch tiny insects only she took notice of.

Rosa has a passion for art and although she can’t be considered a Fine Artist, she sure knows how to write about it. She has a BA degree in English and History of Art from the University of the Witwatersrand. Rosa can be found drinking cups of tea, reading books or crocheting. Her favorite artist is Lady Skollie. She loves collecting South African jewelry and is building an art collection that consists of student artist pieces.

7 April 2017
Claiming public space: Artist Sethembile Msezane on history and commemorative practices

History is often spoken about as one story which unfolds on a linear timeline. Artist and Masters student Sethembile Msezane thinks about the impact of this understanding of history in relation to commemoration, monuments and memory. When she completed her undergraduate studies she knew she had to respond in some way to the discomforts she was feeling about living in Cape Town – feeling as if she did not belong or exist as Black woman. So she began public performances in 2013.

The invisibility of Black women’s histories in public spaces stirred up her fixation and fascination with memory and monuments, as well as her public performance work. Her work highlights the plurality of history; pointing out that there are and always have been multiple stories unfolding at the same time. She works against the constant privileging of one history and a cutting out of others, specifically the histories of Black women. “I realized that there was an interplay between what histories were remembered and what histories are forgotten based on which symbols we choose to put in the landscape,” Sethembile explained. Her work engages with key debates on how the commemorating of history that has taken place in South Africa has been constructed through erasure.

Amanzamtoti (2015)

She has been frustrated and disturbed by constantly being confronted by white, colonial hyper-masculinity, and the few stories of women portrayed as symbols of piousness in the image of white women. “And if there was any kind of symbolism or remembrance attributed to Black women it was plaques which were on the floor which [allows people to] step over our histories,” Sethembile expressed.

Untitled (Youth Day) 2014

In her first performance on Heritage Day 2013 and the beginning of her ‘Public Holiday’ series she started to explore symbols which could have been attached to public holidays as well as trying to engage with what was happening in the landscape sociopolitically at the time of her performances. “[These performances are] living sculptures because they look like they are statues but they can never be because my body is living even though I am statuesque,” Sethembile explained. Her most recognized work, ‘Chapungu- The Day Rhodes Fell’ (2015), forms part the larger body of work called ‘Kwasukasukela‘ that looks at the reimagined bodies of a 90s born South African woman. This performance saw the personification of the Zimbabwe bird monument, that is in the Rhodes’ Groote Schuur Estate, stand tall in front of a crowd as the Rhodes statue was removed from the UCT campus. Originally thinking that she had put Chapungu to bed, Sethembile admits that “she [Chapungu] keeps wanting more”. She has plans to bring her back to life later this year in the form of a film part of another body of work.

Chapungu- The Day Rhodes Fell (2015)

The beaded veil she wears in all her performances works as a device to take away the attention from her face and her identity. “I am embodying other women in trying to bring their histories to the forefront so we can start thinking more about Black women’s histories,” Sethembile explained. This encourages viewers to think about who the woman in the performance could be. This is imperative as it refutes the continuous disavowal of the presence and stories of Black women in public spaces by allowing people to identify the women in their lives within her performances. “I guess these performances were a way in which we could start to identify and claim spaces as women so we can also start seeing ourselves within these spaces,” Sethembile explained. The veil also references her culture which brings a part of herself back into her performances.

At the moment she is working on completing her Masters in Fine Art with her show coming up at the end of this month. The show will display her wide range of work including images of her performances, sculptures and an installation.

“My work is definitely an experience. It’s best to be in the space to experience it. Whether it is through performance when I am in public spaces or in looking at the textures and the materials that I use such as hair, such as wine, and salt. It is a sensory experience. It is quite an experiential body of work”.

To keep up with her work check out her website or follow her on Instagram.

Thobekile (2016)

18 January 2017
Bubblegum Club is hosting DENY / DENIAL / DENIED, the culmination of Roberta Rich’ studio residency at Assemblage

Artist Roberta Rich has been in residence at Assemblage Studios since February 2016. Her time at Assemblage now culminates with an exhibition of new works and an artist discussion between herself and artist Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi.

Roberta Rich was born in Geelong, Australia 1988. Her work examines notions of authenticity with regards to concepts of identity. Rich draws from her autobiographical position as a primary source of research, exploring how her South African and Australian identity simultaneously ‘pass’, ’fails’ and ‘speaks’ within varying contexts. Particularly focusing on constructions of ‘race’ identity, Rich attempts to subvert racial stereotypes with ambiguity, satire and humour in her video, installation, performance and text projects. Her engagement with language is part of a sustained practice seeking to deconstruct the problematic representation(s) and language of ‘race’ that continues to inform identity construction. The work developed during her residency at Assemblage respond to instances of cross-examination encountered, South Africa’s history, the (personal) relationship the artist has with this history, what it means to be ‘Coloured’ and attachment(s) to such language, fetishism of African identity and the complexities within diasporic African identities, through the form of tapestry, silkscreen prints, photography and text.

DENY / DENIAL / DENIED opens on Thursday 12th May at 6pm and will close with the artist discussion on Sunday 15th May, 2pm at Bubblegum Club.

10 May 2016
Joshua Williams – Space, Movement, Memory

Joshua Williams is a young Cape Town artist who works in painting, photography and sculpture. His focus on space and walls has a subtle, but potent, political relevance to contemporary South Africa. The following conversation with Bubblegum Club is accompanied with an exclusive photo-essay provided by Williams.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself- how you became an artist, and what creators and experiences have influenced you?

I have always had an interest in the visual which carried me through my school days and extended to studying at Michaelis School of Fine Art. Art allows me to explore and attempt to understand my surroundings. All my accumulated experiences influenced me to this point of exploration and understanding.

Creators that influence me would be firstly God, then my parents and my family members and those that came before me. They are my true inspiration. The image and object makers who explore, engage, interrogate and play should be an influence to all of us.

Your work focuses a lot on texture and detail. What is it about close details of surfaces that captures your imagination?

In order to answer the question I will provide a brief background of my process. Most of the surfaces I photograph, and the close details, are part of larger surfaces. I either use pre-existing walls as a visual reference or construct my own. I always work large when producing these surfaces. I find this to be natural way of working with cement as a material.

Walls themselves encapsulate people within spaces or exclude them. They act as markers of space and power by demarcating a group, a class, a culture. I find myself reproducing them realistically as I experience them. But as I look closer at the surfaces, particular parts of the surfaces have specific movements embedded in them. It is this movement of the surfaces which captures my imagination, as it eludes to other things embedded within the wall. Like residues, scars, wounds and traces. The subtle nuances in walls- parts that are smooth, rough, decayed, painted or raw. By extracting them from a larger whole, I convey an abstract impression of my engagement with the surface.

Spaces evoke different feelings and different experiences for everyone. My interest in the spaces is to do with the memory that is embedded in the surfaces. As we move through spaces we leave a trace behind. When occupying a space there is always evidence of movement in the spaces. If the walls are kept in good condition it says something. And if the walls are not kept it says something.

Another theme seems to be waste and abandoned spaces. How did you come to be interested in these types of spaces, and what do you think their artistic significance is?

I find that to be a particular reading of my work, as I have not considered it as specific interest before. Rather, it’s something that is always there. It is not something which I engage with by choice but much rather am confronted with. These abandoned spaces exist in the periphery. They have either been abandoned by choice or are not engaged with. For example, District Six. This site has been vacant for some time. Its condition says something about our current time. To me the vacant land itself becomes its own monument for District Six. The memory site of District Six has become a monument of waste and abandonment.

What is wasted and what is abandoned reveals something about the current condition. As we consume we discard. As we focus on our consumption we neglect the discarded. Something is discarded by choice. It is deemed by the person or by a group of people to be of no use or no value, and therefore becomes abandoned.

Do you see your visual themes of waste and abandonment as having a wider social or political meaning?

I think there is social and political meaning in most things. For example, another symptom of our condition is the Rhodes Must Fall movement. As an Arts practitioner, I must engage with the movement. But this engagement doesn’t mean only focusing on the politics of institutional violence, systemic oppression and marginalised voices. It also means engaging with how events have impacted on art. And the reality is that art has suffered. This movement was initiated through art. A statue at the University of Cape Town had human faeces thrown at. Already within this dialogue, we are alerted to human waste used as a tool. Subsequently the statue was removed, and has become waste. It was treated with the same regard as it was initially engaged with.

Fast track to two months ago… as the student movement has progressed Shackville emerged. This protest or demonstration consisted of a shack being erected close to where the statue was removed, in response to a student housing crisis. Shackville was a way to confront the periphery and situate it in the centre of RMF and UCT. Certain events transpired which resulted in the shack being demolished and removed. Paintings were burnt. So it is clear that not only has art itself become wasted and abandoned but monuments, protests and demonstrations were abandoned. My understanding is that of the strategy of the protesters was to use waste as a tactic to abandon monuments. Later protestation and demonstration itself wasted art. While Shackville itself was abandoned through force, violence and criminalization.

Currently UCT is in the process of cleansing and sanitizing its Arts collection. This is a response to the student movement. The students decided the art was waste and now the committee is in the process of abandoning more art.

Waste and abandonment are not so much themes as they are realities we currently faced with in the South African context.

What projects and work do you have planned for the future?

I am studying towards my Masters at the University of Cape Town. Therefore I will be continuing to engage with ideas of traces, residues, scars,wounds,cleansing, sanitizing of surfaces, walls, spaces, memory, images, objects, textures, details, waste, abandonment and the realities of spaces, memory, demonstrations, protests, institutional systemic and symbolic violence.

I hope that in future the pre-1994 generation and the post 1994 generation will understand each other. The pre 1994 generation should engage with why my current “colour-blind”, “born-free” and “RMF” generation is destroying art and monuments without simply criminalizing them.

Ultimately we should understand the role of art, expectations of art and its functions in spaces. As we move further away from 1994 as a marker in space and time we need to understand the present and further re-evaluate what is useful and functional for the current moment.

14 April 2016
The almost impossible self-combustion of Andrew Aitchison’s ‘Containing Space’

A chair ignites and something seeps in from beyond the border- it’s all unsettled. A sudden awareness of the force of the floor when it flat-catches your foot reaching for a stair that isn’t there. In preparation for this article, I was sent a video documenting Andrew Aitchison’s ‘Containing Space’, a body of work produced while he was studying at a prominent art institution in Cape Town. In the back of the video, from some strange place, a voice certainly pitches; “You’ll notice how shitty the standard is… like… ya.” And I couldn’t get rid of this… had to replay it over and over. Because although it wasn’t a part of the actual exhibition or didn’t specifically relate to Aitchison’s work (as only one of the graduates presenting), there’s something there that speaks to his deliberately unfinished interrogation, to the beauty of an ugly accident, to the ungraceful arm-in-arm of making and unmaking, of success and failure; the rough and unsubmissive sketch of it all. What does it mean to occupy the space of the ‘artist’, to have the privilege of some kind of investment in, and access to, this title, even before the production begins and then to go through that process, the physical labour of it, only to have that all reduced to an object whose viability is ‘authoritatively’ designated by fleeting glances that fail to see the splinters in your hands?

Aitchison’s exhibition persistently questions the subtleties of structures of power. How does a home come to be such a thing? Can the violence of settling somehow be traced in the way that a person reclines? The way bricks can be read as a single smooth surface? Aitchison’s work forces an immediate encounter with all the ambiguities of the construction site, both internal and external to the educational institution; the precarity of scaffolding, the vulnerabilities of guarding, the designation of value through particular projections necessitated only through a blind-eye to what’s already there, the ways in which creating one structures breaks others apart, the way the unfinished is often marked-off by screens intending to exclude it from sight… the ugly, awkward creature of it all. Aitchison deliberately leaves these gut-wires exposed, frays the polish of the object by calling attention to the abrasive act involved.

‘Containing Space’ is a product of its contemporary context in its refusal to avoid that which can’t be neatly resolved. What does it mean to be producing from a particular kind of machine, at a particular time, and in a particular context where the redundancy of the ‘post-racial’ hits you square-in-the-face? How can the pressure to define a specific identity be navigated when properly acknowledging your own positionality demands multiple degrees of effacement? Is there a way to speak without actually occupying the space you are required to surrender? Aitchison’s work grapples with some of these complexities, unfixing an authoritative stance through the use of multiple materials and mediums that muddy the exhibition format and bring into account the rich textures of worlds that already far exceed the stuffiness of the established. You can’t master the things that are there, tell exactly where they should start and where they should end, disconnect the eye they engage when walking back into the streets, take them home with the open-click of a wallet.

In its strange uses of scale, its appropriations and its repurposings, even in its title; ‘Containing Space’ plays authenticity as a kind of running joke- it radically gambles with its own success and bears witness to ways in which structure can both starve and feed itself. There is something unsettling in Aitchison’s refusal to simply inherit that which has been given, and it is this quality that is perhaps the most exciting- a sense that his commitment to the labour of production will continue to be played out in both formal and informal settings; that the grain of the work will continue to be its own exoneration, undeterred by the dull force of designations or the stagnant borders of cultural inaugurations. The collection flares with a powerful question; how can we survive this if we aren’t sincerely willing to risk our own, almost impossible, self-combustion?

28 March 2016