Bubblegum Club

Tag: race

  • Visualizing Privilege in the Wake of Woke // With Rebone Masemola

    I am heterosexual

    I have never been a victim of violence because of my sexuality

    I still identify as the gender I was born in.

    I never had to “come out.”

    I am a cis man.

    I have never been catcalled.

    I am white

    I was raised by both my parents

    I have never been discriminated against because of my race

    I have never gone to bed hungry.

    I have never felt poor.

    I have never had to worry about making rent.*

    Statements annunciated. Bellowed throughout the crowd. If affirmed, a step is taken forward. An articulated advantage. The starting line of life clearly left uneven – individuals pinned to peppered points of privilege. These are but a few of the points raised by Pro-Black Feminst Rebone Masemola at the last Woke Saturday as part of a ‘privilege checklist’. She used the list to visually highlight the extent and position of privilege beyond just a buzz-word.

    This gathering was one of the inaugural public events she has hosted –  intentionally fostering a safe space in which people are invited to explore ideas and issues pertinent to notions of race, privilege, sexuality, masculinity and intersectional feminism. Woke entered public discourse on a tide political consciousness. As founder of the platform, Woke Project – Rebone notes a differentiation between woke and staying woke. In a sense she believes that the popular colloquialism has been tempered down from its original embodiment of social awareness and intersectionality. Staying Woke, extends from political awakening into action and activation.

    Creating constructive discourse seems to be an important step in enacting social change. Rebone holds the policy of “open invite, open mind” and utilizes the platform to, “showcase the works of emerging thinkers, activists and creatives who address a diversity of social issues.” The programme also strives to incorporate artistic endeavors like photography and poetry to address political consciousness in an inclusive way.

    Rebone’s experience in the space of academia, advertising and activism has inspired a desire of integrating these seemingly siloed disciplines. The utilization of critical thinking as a transferable skill has allowed her to engage across this spectrum of careers. The culmination of which has manifested through Woke Project – activating space both on and offline. The platform was created as a resource to share information and personal experiences, rooted in community.

    *An extract of the Privilege Checklist by Rebone Masemola 2018

  • BORN::FREE poetry nights // the live alchemy of South African and UK-based literature practitioners

    The project BORN::FREE Next Steps was conceptualized as a poetry exchange involving artists based in South Africa and the UK. This three-part series of events and workshops explores themes including gender, race and spirituality, among others. The most powerful impact of the project has been the forging of relationships between South African and British live literature practitioners – specifically womxn of colour working in and outside of the diaspora.

    BORN::FREE, a poetry night co-founded by writer and educator Belinda Zhawi, began as a community project in the UK with the aim of creating a space where emerging writers and well-established writers could inspire one another and share their work with one another. With the first part of the project taking place in the UK, Johannesburg and Cape Town will see Belinda travel to deliver her poetry and share her literary passion together with South African poets.

    Photography by Gabriel Shamu

    The first of the two South African poetry sessions took place at Johannesburg’s African Flavours Books store on the 5th of January. As I walked into the venue, the chatter of the attendees hummed the tune of excitement that comes with a new year, and a new experience. Although the audience was mainly made up of Joburgers, there were a few British visitors woven between those seated. Belinda began the evening by reciting poems that share experiences from her childhood in Zimbabwe as well as poems that express a mix of lessons she has learnt about life and herself. South African poets, writers, social commentators and academics Katleho Kano Shoro and Lebohang Masango shared their poems, and information about their latest published works. Katleho has recently published her debut collection of poetry,’Serebulele‘. Lebohang has recently published a children’s book titled ‘Mpumi’s Magic Beads’. Both of these are available at African Flavours Books.

    BORN::FREE will then travel to Cape Town on the 11th of January and will be hosted by Ahem Art Collective. In addition to Belinda’s performance, South African poet, performer & spoken word educator Toni Stuart as well as London-based poet and drummer Remi Graves.

    Check out the Facebook event for more info about the Cape Town event

    ‘This article forms part of content created for the British Council Connect ZA 2017 Programme. To find out more about the programme click here.

  • Interwoven Narratives in the work of Alexis Peskine

    Alexis Peskine is an internationally renowned artist attracting a lot of attention for his incredible large-scale portraits of powerful black figures intricately rendered by hammering nails into wooden boards (what has now been coined as acupainture). Coming from a mixed heritage, he uses his art to make comments on identity and race within a global context. His use of nails has been linked to that on the Minkisi “power figures” of the Congo basin. But beyond cultural references, the tension embedded in the nail as an object that both has the possibility to build and destroy places the figures depicted in a similar state of tension. The very tension of an object forcefully inserted into another allows for the very aesthetically and formally pleasing work to become charged with meaning and possibility. Themes of immigration and the tensions of growing up mixed-race in a somewhat homogeneous society such as France have begun to permeate his practice as Peskine draws a wide range of different mediums and materials into his body of work.

    Image from ‘The Raft of Medusa’

    The much acclaimed exhibition of work titled ‘The Raft of Medusa’, shown at Dak’Art ‘16 showed a new and exciting direction in Peskine’s practice. The multimedia installation featured video, sound, photography, as well as paintings on three dimensional objects (a carriage and a canoe) in his signature acupainture style. There were exciting moments that emerged which began to bridge fashion and art, specifically in Peskine’s use of the now globalised Ghana Must Go bags as a carrier for meaning. Figures clad in high-fashion-like assemblages of these bags wander the beach, stare far off into the distance or pose as the hawkers selling key-ring versions of famous landmarks to the tourists of Europe. Addressing themes of globalisation and colonialism through these carefully constructed images has allowed Peskine not only to highlight social issues, but to challenge the narratives constructed around these issues. The figures he depicts are strong individuals, and just as the Eiffel Tower looms behind the figure in the image so the challenges of inequality and racism still loom large, and are impossible to ignore. However, the presence of these issues does not detract from the strength of the individuals facing them.

    Image from ‘The Raft of Medusa’

    There is an elevation taking place through Peskine’s work, both in the use of materiality, and in the figures he portrays. Especially powerful is the aforementioned image from the ‘Raft of Medusa’ series (referencing the historically famous painting by Gericault), positing the figure in a number of different registers for the viewer to read. Just as the Ghana Must Go bag interweaves different coloured strands, so a street-vendor selling curios, a kingly figure adorned with a crown of gold and holding a sceptre, a mighty warrior, and a Christ-like figure, are interwoven to give us insight to the complex visual language at play in Alexis Peskine’s work.

    Carriage from ‘The Raft of Medusa’

  • 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.

    Roberta Rich

    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.

    Roberta Rich screen