Four years ago Philadelphia-born, multidisciplinary artist Skikeith shared the film #blackmendream, where he presented black men with the question, “when did you discover you were black?”. The directness of this question required the interviewee to give a direct answer. However, it brought to the fore a contemplation on how we perceive ourselves, as well as how and when racial identity and recognition become a bright spotlight in the lives of black men. It also allowed for contemplation around how the people interviewed navigate their blackness and their masculinity, with the people interviewed often expressing that the discovery of their racial identity often came through violence.
The lived and imagined experiences of black men, particularly black queer men, is a common thread in most of Skikeith’s work. Linked to this is the unpacking of violence against, and reclamation of the black body.
“I’m really tapping into the idea of conjuring up images of black men who exist together, whether that be supporting one another, crying, joyful, praying, anything that could disrupt perceptions of self. To open up to a new beginning,” Shikeith states in an interview with Dazed.
His imagery comes across as a snippet of a hazy memory from an early morning dream, bringing out an arresting vulnerability and honesty. His more recent work, such as This was his body / His body finally his also speaks to Skikeith’s desire to present elements of himself and his own journey within his work. “… I have to realise how important it is to showcase my own story in my work, so that it can resonate for other black men – imagining myself in a state of art.”
To view more of Shikeith’s work visit his website.
Robyn Kater is a bold, passionate and multifaceted artist who is deeply inspired by the city of Johannesburg and all those who live within it. She views her home city, Johannesburg as the compelling and rich space that has greatly influenced her personal identity as well as artwork. The 23-year-old freelance artist, who recently graduated from WITS University with her Fine Art degree, relates her journey as that of self-discovery, learning and unlearning as well as one of trial and error.
The use of Johannesburg as Robyn’s leading inspiration has motivated her to produce a powerful body of work titled, ‘Toxic Playground’. Robyn describes ‘Toxic Playground’ as a mixed media installation that comprises of photography, video and found objects through which she examines how the Johannesburg mine dumps become palimpsests of personal memory and toxicity. The ‘Toxic Playground’ installation consists of 100kg of sand which was collected over three months from the Riverlea mine dump – this is of significant sentiment to Robyn as she grew up in the community situated right next to the dump.
‘Toxic Playground’ is emblematic of the socio-economic and environmental issues currently facing the residents of the area, and essentially speaks to the community’s concerns. This is because the city’s mine dumps have been normalized to be included in the community’s everyday landscape, yet they are severely toxic. They symbolize the exploitative deep-rooted nature of the city. Robyn’s body of artwork raises important questions that require effective answers such as: “what should be done with remnants of the city’s division post-conflict, post-apartheid state? What influence do memory and remembrance of these places have on transformation of the city’s spatial morphology (formation), identity and flows of everyday urban life?”.
In all aspects of this work Robyn does the job of detecting the intersection between history, heritage, identity, displacement and space. Robyn eloquently expresses how she is “interested in the city as a living organism and how the tangible and intangible fragments meet and overlap to form a lived experience”. An in-depth interpretation of Robyn’s artwork demonstrates that she thinks of Johannesburg in various ways. She sees the city as a complex living organism in which certain spaces act as remnants of personal memory and of an overlapping history. In addition to this, her unique artwork illustrates a vivid relationship that the city of Johannesburg presents between space and identity.
Robyn is open to collaborate with people outside of the art industry such as historians, architects and urban planners. She would also like to have to the opportunity to exhibit her work at more experimental spaces. Having showcased at Wits Art Museum, The Point of Order as well as Nothing Gets Organised and with the hopes of showcasing at Zeitz MOCAA someday, Robyn is truly one fearless trailblazer who is more than ready to get her message across.
Popping up on numerous creative radars, Dada Khanyisa aka The Mighty Whale is propelling herself forward in the South African creative industry. A recent graduate from Michaelis School of Fine Art, the multi-faceted artist has already begun showing her sculptural paintings on big stages such as the FNB Art Fair in 2017 with Stevenson Gallery. The creative outputs are varied; from fine art to reconstructed custom sneakers, to tattoos, to murals (if you’re in Joburg peep the mural just completed at Constitutional Hill). Seemingly, at the centre of all these activities is a formal language that reflects the youth and street culture of young black South Africans. This formal language has it’s influences no doubt, but it’s clear that hours on hours of work have gone into refining Dada’s style. As her website states; “I paint as much as I sculpt and draw twice as much as I illustrate digitally.”
Image courtesy of Dada Khanyisa
A recent venture is a custom kicks project aptly titled ‘Conversations.’ An extension of Dada’s vast project of reconstructing sneakers to create custom kicks, this project focuses on reconstructed Converse sneakers and plays on the title to suggest it being open ended and not limited simply to a single narrative. A video made in collaboration with Chris Kets, Chawezi and Stiff Pap went public on Facebook, celebrating the artform of custom sneakers, and highlighting Cape Town’s rich house party scene, which serves as an inspiration for some of Dada’s paintings.
Image courtesy of Dada Khanyisa
The combination of fine art and fashion is nothing new, yet with Dada’s work it seems to take a fresh approach. Perhaps this is due to the particular narratives which gain exposure and are fore-fronted through her work, and perhaps it’s simply the vibrant and exciting ways in which the designs are executed and characters rendered? Either way, I’ll be taking 2018 to save for a pair of her custom kicks to treat myself with next Christmas.
The braiding of black women’s hair is no simple weekend outing. And as has been shown in more open, public discussions about black hair amongst black women, the process of going to the salon, choosing a style and applying the braids is also being recognized as a series of processes which are cultural, community-driven and the product of intergenerational knowledge and techniques.
Celebrated Zimbabwean interdisciplinary artist and educator Nontsikelelo Mutiti touches on these and a sea of other points in her umbrella project titled Ruka (to braid, to knit, to weave) – which blends the salon experience of braiding black hair with the digital and a tactile body of ethnographic work.
She collected salon business cards, spent time in salons both in South Africa and abroad, and unpicked the broader story about black hair, black women, and the intimate interactions between the two. A desperately needed conversation in the face of a lot of documentation which relegates braids to a technique, or a style to be appropriated as part of ‘world culture’.
I spoke with Nontsikelelo to uncover the process and lessons involved in this body of work.
How do the different elements of Ruka (the algorithm conversation, dialogue in the salon, floor tiles, collection of business cards) all connect? What is the central research question?
Repetition; rule based image making, graphic aesthetic with mathematics at the foundation. How can my work expose the inherent scientific value to important cultural forms from African and other Black cultures such as Hair braiding?
Why the decision to have so many iterations?
As a visual maker I am working with a range of tools across spectrum of digital and analogue. Different technologies and aesthetics allow the work to move in different directions towards a range or audiences, registering at different pitch with each approach.
All the work is intended to interact and create a multifaceted conversation allowing for audience members to engage with the different aspects of the investigation which is a project that addresses, culture, tradition, innovation, migration, language as ideas around aesthetics, process and technology are being grappled with.
RUKA is a design project, it is social practice, it is anthropology, it is a diary, it is place making and experimentation. The work grows naturally as my interests and learning around the core subject of braiding increase. I don’t have an end point in mind. Braiding is a practice of infinite possibilities and meanings.
Image from We Buy Gold THREE, On Visibility and Camouflage taken by Darryl Richardson
Who else was involved in creating this body of work?
A lot of my work is highly collaborative. I worked with a good friend and colleague Julia Novitch to produce Morning 0, or braidingbraiding.com.
Haja Jalloh, a former student who graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science has helped me with running braiding workshops, as has Njoki Gitahi, another colleague and friend who is a phenomenal graphic designer. My work always refers back to my life and community.
What was the value of the project for you as a person?
I started this project to close a gap in my knowledge around a cultural practice that I wanted to learn for myself. I wanted to know how to braid. I wanted to work as a hair braider to earn money. I think a lot about Black African women as bread winners. We create economies that have complex layers. The project really started there and grew naturally into a visual a social experiment because of my natural inclination towards images and people. It is important to always reinforce the aspect of labour, time and care in the work, just like coding braiding has to be learnt, practiced, perfected. Braiders are skilled and valuable workers.
Elements of the work and further explanations are available to view on Mutiti’s website.
