Abi and Claire Meekel present under the collective Meëk. They have swiftly become a feature within the South African art scene dabbling in various forms of expression. You may recognize them as the sisters who modeled for Tarryn Francis or the sisters in the recent film by Aart Verrips or perhaps you know them as the DJ’s from AIR 2.0. However you know them, almost everyone in the art community in South Africa today has heard about them or seen their murals around Johannesburg. I met up with the 21 year old artists at a bakery in Melville. They walked in with a calmness about them, and Abi still had a blue paint mark on her neck from painting a mural beforehand. The blue of the paint accentuated her blonde hair and bold features. Claire’s red polo neck hugged her small frame. After we ordered our drinks, we began to talk about the various parts of their artistic practices.
The Meekels were born in Amsterdam and lived there for seven years, hardly able to speak English. They then moved to Johannesburg and attended Parkview Junior where English became a part of their lives. Art has always been an integral part of the Meeks’ lives. Their mother is an artist and their father is an installation artist.
“It has always been in our blood and in our faces. My dad would sit me on his lap and he would edit with me and with Claire on his computer.’’ – Abi Meekel
“My mom would give us drawing pencils and pens when we were like 2 years old and we would sit there and draw and we loved it.” – Claire Meekel
Meëk unfolded at the end of the Meekels’ matric year when they went on holiday in Europe. During this three-month period they decided that they wanted to create something, whether it was a brand, or an art collective or a movement. They were largely influenced by the art in Europe, from the graffiti on the walls to the architecture they were surrounded by. One day they sat down and just started drawing, and didn’t stop. And so Meëk was born.
In speaking about this process the Meeks say that they created a character. Feeding off each other’s energies and shared background they decided to work as a collective. “It is more of our left leg or our right hand. It’s something; it’s an experience we have had as twins or sisters. It’s our pasts, our difficulties. It is what happens when we just come together. And it is very deep in a sense. It is also very playful. It’s like taking two halves and making it whole, almost.”
The Meekels state that the older they get the more friction is evident between the two of them. Going to university led them to grow into individuals focusing on their own artistic practices. The Meekels are currently studying at Wits. Claire has always dreamt about being a photographer or a cinematographer and is currently specializing in cinematography. Abi specializes in sound and directing and has been playing the piano for nearly 14 years. Both sisters express that even though Meëk has a large following they have a need to work as individuals as well and find their own unique voices. They have already started branching out, with Claire having her own separate photography account on Instagram called @El_mno.
@El_mno, Claire explains, is about close-ups of peculiar textures that make the viewer question what the object is that is photographed. She tells me that these pictures are all taken with her phone and then cropped out, and not edited. She enjoys the quality of the images and the restrictions that are enforced with a phone camera. The oblivious nature and confusion of subject matter that the images portray is what Claire finds appealing.
Inspired by director David Lynch whose style can easily be described to resemble a nightmarish, fantastical dream, the Meeks conceptualize the soundscapes of their projects. “It’s a feeling. Like an atmosphere. An ambiance. It becomes a lot more difficult for people to relate to because it is a background thing. It’s something behind your head. In your head.”
The Meeks aspire to create the future of art, but still take from the past and apply what inspires them into their practice. Becoming public figures in the art world at a very young age, they believe it has to do with their generation and the way the world is moving at this moment in time. They started putting their work up everywhere and took care to manage their social media presence. They have also been backed by their friends whom they collaborate with from time to time.
Meëk is not about flawless imagery or content but instead they focus on creating a raw, unpolished aesthetic in their work. In their collage work they like to play with the fact that Photoshop is, in common practice, used to create perfect imagery but instead they warp normal perception with cutting up and duplicating parts of images. The twins have a uniform style and perspective that leans towards experimental that I like to think of this as cutting edge. “It’s just an image, it is nothing else. It’s not real. It is a moment in time. And you are editing over it. It’s distorting, changing.”
The Meekel sisters are a part of Autonomy Wave‘s first micro residency, Future 76, and will be showing their work this Friday alongside artists that they consider to be their friends. Believing that this micro residency will push young South African artists to a new level they are excited to have been chosen for the first wave.