Bubblegum Club

Tag: open time coven

  • Open Time Coven – Mxit and Mythology

    Bogosi Sekhukhuni consolidates millennial media technology and inherited cultural practices – creating complex modes of identity in the digital age. Although geographically located in Johannesburg, the web of his reach extends far beyond the metropole. “I was raised to understand myself as an African first, and secondly as a South African. My grandmother is from Botswana and I grew up regularly visiting Gaborone. From a young age I was surrounded by my mother’s peers, a lot of whom were visitors from around the continent.”

    Aspect of heterogeneity precipitate through other elements of his life too. Over the course of his career Sekhukhuni has constructed a visual language matrix. He refers to this process of historical excavation as “throwback visual culture mining”, drawing on his own subjective experience as well as a larger discourse of popular culture. Influences are drawn from his experience of the “black aspirant middle class” and growing up with early South African social media technologies such as mxit. “I mainly draw influence from other artists or people through the attitude they present their ideas in more than the content itself.”

    Consciousness Engine 2- absentblackfatherbot, Dual Channel Video Installation, 2014 two channel video Edition of 3

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

    As a conceptual artist, his practice orbits around notions of dismantling oppressive and outdated knowledge systems. “It’s tragic that our curriculums pay homage to the ideas and histories of others more than our own. To me, this is a fundamental problem. Our obsession with the future is based on a materialist approach to space-time. I’m interested in learning about how my ancestors understood reality and applying that to my practice and life.” Sekhukhuni aims to amend the Pan African agenda and shift its focus to spiritual development. “I think we need to draw more from African spirituality and realise the potential for social transformation that’s inherent in it. We need more right brain female energy in African leadership.”

    Sekhukhuni engages with the information economy in his work. His recent launch of Open Time Coven serves as a new platform of access and intervention. As a manifestation of his online presence, the site is a direct conduit to share his ideas to a global audience. Art products and a store will be hosted on the website by Sekhukhuni and his collaborators every new moon. He will also be participating in an annual studio residency exhibition at the Bag Factory – exploring the trauma culture in Johannesburg. Restore the Feeling opens on the 28th of July.

  • Battle of the CBDemons; The spiritual-synaesthetic-sound and Afro-anime-tinge of a revolutionary new club culture

    Fuck your false sense of reverence as you snort and swallow for sensation, lapping up the glitter of smashed glass in sweaty rooms. Different artillery is required for these cities where hate can be placed on a heart through the harsh angles of the grind through grimey streets. In a summoning by the Open Time Coven, and as a unit of the tribe Angelboyz Choir (comprised of Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Angel-Ho, Fela Gucci and Desire Marea of FAKA, and Neo Mahlasela of Hlasko) artists Angel-Ho (of NON Worldwide Collective) and Bogosi Sekhukhuni have joined forces to create Battle of the CBDemons, a sonic narrative that churns the metaphysical in an archetypal battle to purge the hostile and desperate infestations of life in the CBD.

    The Battle of the CBDemons discharges cloud-ground lightening to reassemble ancient mythologies with modern technologies, cleansing the way that meaning is crunched between foreign teeth. It bleeds a shield for shallow love, staking a space to reassemble all the parts of self that have been so thoughtlessly dispossessed. It is a synthetic Lebombo Bone burning clean, a fever-dream to blaze through the night at accelerating speed, the 3D printing of a sacred chant. Sounds and samples are manipulated on the edge of a sword, refracting light to a frantic phantasmagoria where the avatars gleam in dirty constellations. There is something of the complicated African orchestral filtered through pixelated pop culture to create a new sonic cosmology, a new technology of healing. Not only does the mix cleanse and create anew the makers, but it also acts as a physically affecting interface for the listener; vibrating Kemetic force to strengthen their engagements with the world.

    Battle of the CBDemons is an answering-back to the vampiric energies of stagnant representations; it kicks Tay AI in the shins and looks the Sakawa Boys straight in the face. It’s a digital, crystalline, plastiglomerate rooted in a genetically-evolved contemporary Africa. This is redefinition of club culture. Listen through. Don’t be embarrassed of the things it touches. This is the love-child of a communion of future sounds.