Tag: racism

AFROPUNK returns to Constitution Hill

It is fitting that the first AFROPUNK Festival to be held in South Africa took place on the historically significant Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The festival, inspired by the documentary ‘Afro-Punk’, which spotlighted black punks in America, was first held in 2005 in New York City’s Brooklyn. Originally aiming to help black people build a community among the white dominated punk subcultures, it has grown to include a wider audience and a broader range of music, yet still highlights alternative black artists.

With this shift away from pure punk culture towards celebrating blackness in its many forms, the festival has grown. Events are being held in Atlanta, Paris, London, and Johannesburg, with a total of more than 90 000 attendees. Utilising their platform for entertainment as well as change, the mantra of AFROPUNK is: “No Sexism, No Racism, No Ableism, No Ageism, No Homophobia, No Fatphobia, No Transphobia and No Hatefulness”. A free space for black and other bodies that do not fit into the moulds presented by mainstream media.

Judging by the expressions and attitudes of those who attended South Africa’s first instalment of the festival, it is clear that this approach is highly welcomed in the country. For many this is a cathartic experience, beyond just the amazing music that is on offer from local and international musicians.

And it is this fact, that the festival both provides a high standard of music along with a safe environment to enjoy it in, that has led to its success. Returning to Constitution Hill, this year’s AFROPUNK line-up is no different, with a strong balance between forward-thinking local and international artists. From the likes of Los Angeles’ future R&B superstars, The Internet and Thundercat. To experimental electronic music from Flying Lotus, who is debuting his 3D show on the African continent for the first time, to the superb dance grooves from producer Kaytranada. The legendary hip hop group Public Enemy and the queen of New Orleans bounce, Big Freedia. The international acts are a highly diverse showcase of black creativity.

Similarly, the local acts on the line-up have all carved out niches for themselves in South Africa’s competitive music industry. They have stood out as artist that not only make a difference, but sound different. Local hip hop in its many guises is represented by Mozambique’s Azagaia and Cape Town’s YoungstaCPT, and Dope Saint Jude. Each of which are incomparable with their unique take on the art of emceeing.

Other acts on the line-up include Joburg’s performance duo FAKA with their sound that is familiarly South African, yet utterly futuristic. As well as the sex-positive performer Moonchild Sanelly with her leanings towards Gqom and alternative pop. Joburg’s Thandiswa brings her revolutionary fusion of modern and traditional African sounds, while Nomisupasta brings a unique take on locally inspired music. Rounding off the local acts is Soweto’s BCUC, AKA Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness, with their highly energetic and emotionally charged rhythms.

Themed THE PEOPLE RESIST, this year’s AFROPUNK is a call to action against racism, patriarchy and any form of hate. With 20 000 people descending on Constitution Hill for the first instalment of AFROPUNK Johannesburg, this year’s event promises to be even better and bring people closer together. Aside from music, the festival also encompasses Bites & Beats, Activism Row and the SPINTHRIFT Market as well as the chance to earn tickets via the Earn a Ticket programme. In the build-up to the event, the Battle of the Bands Joburg competition is held that seeks to unearth new musical talent.

To buy your ticket click here, and keep your eyes on AFROPUNK’s social pages to find out which other acts are announced and for more details about the event.

9 August 2018
Future 76 // In dealing with the colonial wound

Coloniality describes the hidden process of erasure, devaluation, and disavowing of certain human beings, ways of thinking, ways of living, and of doing in the world – that is, coloniality as a process of inventing identifications – then for identification to be decolonial it needs to be articulated as “des-identification” and “re-identification, which means it is a process of delinking

This statement by Walter Mignolo during a 2014 interview with Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández describes the pervasive nature of coloniality. Certain parallels can be drawn between the tragic events of June 16th, 1976 and the recent Fallist Movement. These historical moments have enacted ruptures of resistance. Recognizing moments of erasure is crucial to redefining historical narratives and addressing systemic disparities of power. However, ‘the voice’ of youth is not merely a homogenized entity. Issues of representation require a nuanced and considered approach – allowing passage to spaces that have been previously inaccessible. Within the context of contemporary art in South Africa, opportunities for self-representation and exploration are often scarce.

It is in response to this, that Bubblegum Club has created an annual micro-residency to cultivate the talent of young artists. A group of four womxn have been selected for this years programme – to participate in a series of workshops, close conversation and ultimately exhibit a new body of work at the end of June. The programme has been conceptually framed around decolonial options – to tentatively consider and critique this notion beyond the buzzword.

Jemma Rose, a self-identified visual activist and Gemini, uses her camera to capture daily realities. She also uses it as a mutual point of contact – a device to generate encounters with people. Photographic work is in part a family tradition, it has always had an element of familiarity to it, as both her father and grandfather have engaged with the medium.

Through her work she often works with themes of queerness and queer identity as well as drawing attention to mental health issues. Jemma notes that there are some performative qualities to her photographic work and usually focuses on using her images to convey a message relevant to her experiences. She is interested in locating herself and her work within a larger context based on her personal subjectivities.

“I initially thought of ‘decolonisation’ in relation to breaking things down. I’m starting to realize that it’s much more than that. There are so many things behind it that you have to unravel…masculinity, heteronormativity and sexism are also all part of it. You need to slowly start unraveling it so that you can see the bigger picture.”

This sentiment echoed by Mignolo “Patriarchy and racism are two pillars of Eurocentric knowing, sensing, and believing. These pillars sustain a structure of knowledge.” (2014). Thus through untangling the history of colonization, racisim and the patriarchy must also be addressed.

Boipelo Khunou is currently in her final year of Fine Arts at Wits. “It’s been an interesting journey trying to find out what this so-called-fine-art-world is – what it means to be making art and making work.” This process can often be dissolusioning, especially once you realise how the elements of capital and nepotism are entertwined in the system.

As a multi-diciplinary artist, Boipelo focuses her practice on photography, print and digital media. Thematically she works through ideas of personal power. “I use to reflect about the things that I experience. Experience is one of the most important parts of my work.” Through her work she investigates the kinds of spaces it is possible to find and claim power. She describes how oftentimes it’s within the walls of the institution that power is forcibly relinquished and autonomy is lost.

“I didn’t know anything about decolonization until Fees Must Fall.” During the movement, the concept gained an immense amount of traction. Pedigogical systems and western epistemology within the university and beyond were challenged. “After the protests, so many people I know went through this weird depression because they realized that institutions have so much power, but what does that mean for people who want to dedicate their lives to decolonial practices?.”

“The interesting thing is to actually see how you can put decolonization into practice. You can do all the readings, go to the talks, go to all these places that advocate for it, but what does it mean to practice it every day? I think that it is a very complex thing, it’s something that challenges me. You realise that there are so many aspects of your being and how you operate in life that you need to figure out how to prevent institutions and conditioned ideas to creep back into your life – it’s a constant battle.”

Natalie Paneng is a 21-year-old artist and student. Her background in set design gives her a unique application of her use of space. Her work is often located virtually as she explores what it means to engage with the internet as a black womxn. The mode in which she does this is often through the use of alter egos. Hello Nice is a character she created on youtube and utilizes the ‘vape wave’ aesthetic.

Recently Natalie created a zine called Internet Babies, it chronicals the profiles of five girls: TrendyToffy @107_, Black Linux otherwise known as the Mother of Malware, Silverlining CPU, Fuchsia Raspberry Pi and Coco Techno Butter. It explores their relationship to digital space and how they’re the “fiber of the internet.”

She decribes how, “trying to find myself is like the decolonization of myself. Learning how to push those boundries and be more radical as well as owning the need for decolonization and acknowledging that it’s going to have to start with me.”

Tash Brown is a young painter who approaches the concept of White Suburbia as well as investigating her place and participation within that space. While working through the lens of decolonization she describes how “white suburbia becomes a distortion of reality”, one which is also often still racially segregated. Her distorted paintings are often a grotesque depiction of the suburbs.

As a white artist, she is critical of her own voice. Noting that, “it’s a time and a space in South Africa where black artists should be prioritized. So I guess I’ve struggled to find myself relevance in the art world, but through the critique of my own cultural issues and the problematics is a way that I can approach it, without having my voice crowding out other voices.”

Credits:

Photography & Styling: Jamal Nxedlana

Makeup: Orli Meiri

Photography and styling assistant: Lebogang Ramfate

8 June 2018
‘Trauma & Identity’ Group Exhibition at Gallery One11 by the NJE Collective

The NJE Collective‘s latest group exhibition opened at Gallery One11 last night and has as its focus its Womxn contributors and the themes intrinsic in their practice incited by the current realities in Namibia on a political, socio-economic and cultural level.

In discussion with a member of the group, Jo Rogge, she expresses that ‘Trauma & Identity’ relates to individual and collective realities that Namibian citizens are faced with in a time when Namibia suffers under immense poverty, rife corruption, gender violence, unemployment and the depletion of national resources amongst other factors. Jo adds that, “…the queer space while dynamic, remains a vulnerable target for random hate-speech and physical assault.”

The participating artists for the exhibition include Jo Rogge, Masiyaleti Mbewe, Tuli Mekondjo, Silke Berens, Tangeni Kauzuu and Hildegard Titus. The artists engage in equivocal concerns founded on personal as well as political experiences. The experiences addressed include gender and cultural identity, nationhood, belonging and recognition. Jo explains, “This exhibition encapsulates the diversity and complexity of individual and collective narratives as witnessed through the lens of each artist, drawing on either historical or current narratives.” Artworks that will be featured will include photographs, paintings, installation, and mixed media works.

The relevance of this discourse within a South African gallery space is elaborated on by Jo as, “Namibia’s history is closely aligned with that of SA with the SADF having fought a bloody war against SWAPO on its northern borders from 1966 until prior to Independence in 1990. The post-colonial space is darkened with the lingering shadows of the apartheid system and racism. Unlike South Africa, Namibia has never seen the need for a process of reconciliation and there is a lot of unresolved trauma and pain in the national consciousness.”

‘Onde ku hole’, oil on canvas, 2018 by Jo Rogge

NJE Collective, formerly known as SoNamibia, decided to change their collective name in order to embrace multilocality as a means to evade issues concerning nationality that is regarded as patriarchal and exclusive.

Members of NJE Collective are either invited to take part in a specific exhibition or approach the collective themselves to become members of the group. The collective’s fluid membership means that members remain active by choice. Currently, the collective has eight practicing members.

* NJE functions under its own management, towards shared goals. It is also a space for mentoring, peer support and sharing resources. Meetings take place individually as well as in a group format in order to discuss topics of common interest, creative practice, and the potential for collaboration.

Come and support the work of these Womxn artists whose show will run at Gallery One11 until the 28th April 2018.

‘Collateral Damage’, oil on canvas, 2018 by Silke Berens

13 April 2018
Racism in Art is sometimes Okay? The artist challenging current understandings of Blackness, Mxolisi Vusi Beauchamp

Artists are the mirror to the wonders and horrors of our society! They reflect the state of ideas and beliefs in 2 dimensional forms. Yet, when this mirror becomes an act of controversy, very often artist’s freedom of speech are not enough to protect the artist from being silenced by the very society that they are meant to serve. South Africa’s new speech bill might even make it illegal to “make fun of” the president, making artists like Zapiro guilty of hate speech.

An example of such artistic induced controversy is of Kanye West’s use of the confederate flag on the jackets that he designed. For Americans the confederate flag suggests a past where black people were justified in being dehumanised as slaves. For Kanye his use of such a racially embedded image has been incorporated into his politically driven fashion line to change its meaning for his benefit:

“React how you want. Any energy is good energy. The Confederate flag represented slavery in a way. That’s my abstract take on what I know about it, right? So I wrote the song ‘New Slaves.’ So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. It’s my flag now”.

Are artists ever justified in using images that pertain to a racially injustice past?

This would be the question that I asked myself when first coming across the controversial works of Mxolisi Vusi Beauchamp. His works feature the constant reference to the racially loaded image of Coons and gollywogs on his colour and politically infused canvases. With their oil black faces and exaggerated white or red lips, these loaded images have historically been used to degrade and insult black people. They do this through the use of racial characterizations that serve a white supremacist understanding of ‘the other’ as inferior thereby pushing an anti black sentiment .

Yet through his works I would also see a more nuanced message at play. The black and white image of a boxing Nelson Mandela, beside him are floating coon heads and the graffitied word ‘terrorist’ with a question mark below is characteristic of Vusi’s style.

His works are not just simply the degradation of a black self but are also speaks to the contradictory nature of the black experience and under a white supremacist gaze we can easy move from ‘swart gevar’ (‘black danger’) to leader of a nation. Yet his works also speak to the contradiction of black life in South Africa. With our globally praised constitution that grants all peoples in this land equal human rights there are still black people being subjected to racist treatment and are still being referred to as ‘Kaffirs’ in our so called ‘new’ and racially liberated South Africa.

I would get to speak to Vusi and get to hear his explanation of his works and the South Africa that we are living in today.

Motlatsi Khosi (MK): Please could you tell the Bubblegum readers a bit about yourself and how it was you become an artists.

Mxolisi Vusi Beauchamp (VMB): I was born and raised in Mamelodi. I studied printmaking and painting at the Tshwane University of Technology. I then studied Graphic Design at Damelin and have since worked as an artist, art director, and multimedia designer.

MK: On the Kalashikovv website you describe your works as being a “comment on social issues and on the politicians and events that make up the south African social landscape”. Please can you explain some of the issues that your work address as well why choose to use your current art medium to express these issues?

VMB: My recent solo Exhibition titled “Terrorist” comments on the frequent occurrence of grammatical errors on national protest placards in the new dispensation. In my understanding, this phenomenon speaks of a shift in protest culture, as opposed to demonstrations organized just before the ANC was inaugurated. Protest was deliberate, organized, mandated and depending on which political left you belonged, it was generously funded, and was therefore, carefully considered. New and young protest voices today are sometimes misguided, lack responsible leadership, and continue the culture of, “we have nothing to lose but our lives.”

MK: When visiting your exhibition what first caught my eye was the use of “coon” iconography. Please explain the use of such imagery that represents a racist stereotype of black people?

VMB: Once more I return to the controversial and outrageous usage of stereotypical renditions and interrogate the new readings of the binaries of civilized and uncivilized. This is demonstrated in the recurring images of monkeys and its association with key political leaders in my work Philanthropist, by using exaggerated ‘negroid’ features in the colonial tradition of the Enid Blyton’s books that feature golliwogs. Yet, unlike Zapiro, I remain accountable and mindful of a derogatory interpretation of raced and gendered politics.

MK: In using such anarchic images of ‘the coon’ are you not perpetuating an understanding from the past of black people that many black struggles have worked hard to overcome?

VMB: The “coon” imagery is still very much alive today, you see it in music videos from the likes of “Die Antwoord” Fatty Boom Boom where he darkens the skin of black actors and more recently the Chinese detergent advert, a black man walks in and gets ‘washed’ a different colour. My works continue to use use the image of the ‘coon’ so as to take away the power it has over black Africans and expose its legacy that continues to this day.

For more work by Vusi visit Kalashnikovv Gallery website. He will also be doing a solo exhibition at the Johannesburg art Gallery in 2018 so keep a look out for him there.

6 December 2016