Bubblegum Club

Tag: ritualistic

  • Nakhane Exclusive: Live At The Lyric Theatre and Directorial Debut 

    On Monday morning, I had a Zoom interview with Nakhane and noticed that it was becoming a happy habit. The artist was generous enough to share new details about their busy schedule, upcoming concert at the Lyric Theatre, and exciting directorial debut.

    On the new film, Nakhane shared, “I wrote it about two years ago as an exercise, really. I didn’t think that the story would go anywhere. … And then I couldn’t stop writing it … I adapted the short story into a film. It’s called B(l)ind, the Sacrifice and the ‘L’ is in parentheses …. It’s about a father who … believes that he hears God and he convinces his family and their servants to move, to go live in the wild because he believes that the world is evil. And there comes a point where he believes that God is saying that he should sacrifice his son … 

    The jumping point of course (is) Abraham (and) Isaac’s story in the Bible … but I wanted to humanise it because I feel like the story is not human enough. It’s all about (the) heroic things that men do. … And I wanted … to ask myself the question of what does it look like when you take away the faith and you’re just left with the actions and consequences of human beings. … And then it becomes a little uglier … it becomes a question of patriarchy; a question of agency, betrayal, love, all the big ones.” 

    I noted that the film, which Nakhane described as a drama set in the desert, could also be about violence and they responded, “Oh, violence, completely violence. Violence … that is enacted upon one by a person who is supposed to be their protector.” 

    Nakhane

    Nakhane

    Nakhane
    Nakhane on set for their directorial debut in the film B(l)ind Sacrifice.

    Acknowledging the sheer privilege of being able to produce such a project, Nakhane expressed gratitude for the collaborative effort that brought the film to fruition. The film is set for release in the first half of the upcoming year.

    Of course, I had to ask Nakhane about the synergy between this, their directorial debut and the highly anticipated upcoming concert at the Lyric Theatre. The artist replied, “Oh, they’re completely different projects, but on some level, everything influences everything, right? Whether you know it or not … 

    But, the reason I’m playing the show is because I haven’t played a show in South Africa in a year and a half, and I love performing here, and the music on Bastard Jargon (2023) was so influenced by South African music that I thought it would be … remiss for me to have toured like Australia and Canada and played shows in the UK and not play a show in South Africa.  … And also because I just love playing live here. The people are very … different to other countries … you don’t need to give them permission to have a good time.”  

    Nakhane

    We talked about the vibrancy of South African performance styles and the use of joyfulness as resistance against despair. Nakhane hinted that their show at the Lyric Theatre would be intentionally minimalistic expressing a preference for spontaneity, vocality, and real-time collaboration; moving away from the Western performance style of complex visual elements. The show will be stripped down and raw. Described as “sweaty, electronic, and percussive,” it takes on a ritualistic quality, focusing on bodily expressions, rhythm, and connection to African spirituality, inviting the audience into a sensory odyssey.

    It seems the whole city is pulsating with anticipation for Nakhane’s upcoming Lyric Theatre show, which, it has just been announced, will feature a visual collaboration with the award-winning artist Lady Skollie. This collaboration with Skollie, a self-proclaimed groupie of Nakhane, is a product of their mutual admiration. Reflecting on her work, Nakhane noted, “What Lady Skollie did for me was bring painting to the here and now. It was no longer an older person’s practice, but my generation’s as well.”

    Nakhane’s concert will also feature artists from Msaki‘s ALTBLK community such as Gemma Fassie, who will open the show. Muneyi, known for his acclaimed EP For All The Boys I Like (2023), will serve as the Support Act. My esteemed reader would be remiss to miss this homecoming expression of Nakhane’s passion for African storytelling, filmmaking, and performativity on Friday, Nov 24, 2023, at the Lyric Theatre in Gold Reef City, Johannesburg.

    Tickets, range from R250 and can be purchased through Computicket 

  • Emon Toufanian // fashion editorials and collages of glitchy wonderlands

    Emon Toufanian // fashion editorials and collages of glitchy wonderlands

    The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well. – Quote from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol.

    Emon Toufanian is an artist whose primary mediums are photography and collage. Working in the music industry before, discovering his talents as an artist was a happy accident, and now sees him producing fashion editorials and beautifully trippy collages. His images look as if he has taken inspiration from the imagination of Lewis Carrol and glitch aesthetics, creating his own morphed wonderlands.

    The images he uses for his collages look as if they are melting into one another, while others are torn and overlaid on to others. “I prefer art that’s visceral and lets you decide your own meaning. I try just to create an atmosphere that allows viewers to better understand their desires, pain, dreams, whatever,” Toufanian mentions in an interview with Metal Magazine. This is combined with his ability to make the subjects in both his collages and photography carry a feeling of vulnerability and fierce engagement with viewers. The intention of this is to allow the viewer to construct their own interpretations of his work, and assist them in unpacking their own feelings.

    “Collage is ritualistic to me; I need to be alone and with music. I look for a moment of transcendence when a character or story reveals itself, driven by whatever record is on. Editorial is collaborative so the challenge is finding a compromise between my vision and the reality of what’s possible on set.”

    Working between New York and Paris, he places fragments of these cities in his work. He has been recognised by publications such as Dazed, PUSS PUSS, Vogue Italia and Document Journal among others, with his work being used for covers.

    Fall down a very deep well and go on a visual adventure by visiting Toufanian’s website to view more of his work.

  • FAKA // intersectional body politics and the collapsing of creative boundaries

    FAKA // intersectional body politics and the collapsing of creative boundaries

    FAKA, the duo made up of Desire Marea and Fela Gucci explores a combination of mediums including sound, performance, video and photography. These are the tools they use to unpack themes central to their own experiences, resulting in the construction of a low-fi, eclectic aesthetic that communicates the liberation and reimagination of queer bodies.

    Their collective name FAKA is descriptive of the impact of their work. Their presence is not a faint permeation or seeping into the consciousness of audiences. Instead, it is a direct insertion into ones frame of reference.

    Inviting audiences into their ritualistic, celebratory performances with seductive looks and welcoming hand gestures, their aim is to humanise all faces whose presence signify underrepresented realities. Their work moves beyond that of a performance duo, and shifts into the realm of a cultural movement. Their existence lives beyond gallery spaces and stages, penetrating coded environments with their online presence through sound, video and social media. FAKA have created their own hybridised language to express intersectional body politics. Their work engenders the creation of safe spaces for black, queer, gender non-conforming or trans people to reflect on their own experiences and grow in community.

    As a duo FAKA commemorates and contributes to “third world aesthetics”, making a demand for this to receive large scale validation in local and international creative cultures. European audiences, and more recently Australian audiences, have been drawn to their ancestral gqom sounds as well as the unapologetic lyrical and performative transmission of their own stories and that of Black Queer Culture in South Africa.

    Disrupting cis-heteronormative notions of existence, their work is an amalgamation of music and art, collapsing the idea that artists need to focus on and be recognized within one specific discipline.

    Their collective manifesto can be summarised by words from a Facebook post about their 2016 song ‘Isifundo Sokuqala’ – “Izitabane zaziwe ukuthi zibuya ebukhosini” (Let it be known, that queerness is a thing of the Gods), paired with the statement that the song is an “ode to all the powerful dolls who risk their lives every day by being visible in an unsafe world. This is a celebration of those who have fearlessly embraced themselves. Because when your identity is the cause of your suffering in the world, you begin to fear the very source of your greatness in the world.”