A picture is worth a thousand words. This idiom speaks to the premise behind the 2018 Aperture Summer Open exhibition titled The Way We Live Now. Aperture Summer Open is an annual open-submission exhibition at Aperture Foundation’s gallery in New York. It features work selected by a prominent curator or editor, with the exhibition unpacking critical themes and trends influencing international contemporary photographic practice.
As a point of departure for this year’s exhibition, the photographs from the selected artists and photographers look at how images come to capture and become visual markers of rapid change in society, politics, beauty, and self-expression. The exhibition features 18 artists and the way in which they engage with the “currents and contradictions of life” in the 21st century. These artists and photographers reflect on how we define images and how images define our lives. This year Bubblegum Club was selected as one of the displaying artists.
As an online magazine and content agency reporting on and contextualizing trends across creative practices in South Africa, Africa and across the world, we have developed a fluid aesthetic that responds and contributes to cultural moods. This taps into grunge, DIY approaches to styling and photographic strategies that plug into references that are reflective of the discursive and visual languages present in urban subcultures. The construction of the image becomes a condensed moment in time, a contextualized mirror of current ways of being.
The images chosen by Bubblegum Club were drawn from different aspects of our work, including cover shoots and editorials. Makeup artists Orli Oh, Katelyn Gerke and Nuzhah Jacobs, as well as hair stylist Mimi Duma and styling assistant Lebogang Ramfete, contributed to the creation of the images on show, with styling and photography by creative director Jamal Nxedlana. Lightfarm has continued to assist with post production and with printing. A special thank you to adidas South Africa for supporting the trip to New York.
The 2018 exhibition taking place from 27 June – 16 August is curated by Siobhán Bohnacker, senior photo editor, the New Yorker; Brendan Embser, managing editor, Aperture magazine; Marvin Orellana, photo editor, New York magazine; and Antwaun Sargent, independent writer and critic.
Since the inception of Celeste Arendse’s fashion brand, SELFI, inspiration has lived in the wells of her being and each garment is testament to the childlike process of releasing inner self expression. This approach has catapulted SELFI into the top-tier of local fashion heavyweights and the firm grab of an international market. With SELFI evidently having a global consciousness, Celeste longed for a space where her brand could extend its expression. Much sooner than expected, SELFI organically moved into its flagship store, a space that allows the brand to breathe and take various forms of Celeste’s self expression.
Located in Cape Town, the idea was for SELFI’s flagship store to be a concept store that houses products that resonate with the brand and are also some of Celeste’s favourite things. You can find accessory brands like Githan Coopoo, who creates wonderfully shaped ceramic earrings, and Lorne, who creates titillating metallic pieces of jewellery. Ceramic homeware pieces from Dayfeels with illustrations that also resonate with SELFI’s aesthetic can be found at the store, plus body products and books. Obviously SELFI products can be found in the curated store. “It’s just an amalgamation of my brand and things that I love”, Celeste explained.
The use of natural materials is at the heart of SELFI and throughout the store Celeste uses a duality of materials such as concrete, rock, marble and a cornucopia of plants. “You are in something natural but you are in a building…the sort of gentleness of plants and hardness of rocks…and we burn incense every day. There are elements of just being in a space that is a sanctuary.”
SELFI’s flagship store is curated to perfection. Throughout the year, Celeste will be nourishing the brands aesthetic by representing parts of herself that are sure to resonate deeply. Be sure to experience the flagship store and find new collaborative collections and unique timeless pieces when in Cape Town at Shop 3, 199 Loop Street.
AFROPUNK. A movement that has multiple branches, from its online platform to the festival to a series of collaborative projects. A seed was planted 13 years ago in the mind of Matthew Morgan, the co-founder of AFROPUNK, when the screening of the documentary Afro-punk gathered an intimate group of black kids who shared an interest in punk rock culture. Reflecting on this moment Morgan expressed, “The large portion of them wanted to exist in a space that catered for their music choices and their lifestyle choices but with other black people, which was not available to them for the most part.” The AFROPUNK identity and what it stands for has been translated into a reach of 40 million a week in digital space, and an incredible following of its festival and connected events.
Describing the AFROPUNK audience as global, African and diasporic, Morgan recognizes that their audience is shifting every day. This shifting audience is what allows AFROPUNK to be relevant in Brooklyn, Atlanta, London, Paris, and now Johannesburg. However, the core of the movement never changes – to be a platform for people of colour to see more alternative versions of themselves, and to celebrate black excellence. This is a sentiment that is shared in South Africa and across the globe more generally, which can be seen through social media posts that embrace a similar thinking to the founding pillars of AFROPUNK. The desire to promote and make political and physical space for alternative black culture has resulted in AFROPUNK being a welcomed breath of fresh air in the digital and festival spheres.
This connects with the evolving nature of Johannesburg and the people who inhabit it. From kids who are fresh out of high school moshing at a tightly packed hip hop party, to those who reject western beauty standards by embracing their natural hair, to those who are calling for free, decolonised education. The kinetic energy that is fostered through the networking and collaboration related to AFROPUNK is what provides connection for people of colour. Morgan expressed that it is important for significance of this connection to be acknowledged, and the festival is a way in which this connection can manifest physically. Allowing a moment of self-expression among people of colour who might share similar experiences, or who have to navigate the world in a similar way. It allows for an interrogation of that experience, as well as a moment to exhale.
No Sexism, No Racism, No Ableism, No Ageism, No Homophobia, No Fatphobia, No Transphobia and No Hatefulness. These slogans have become tied to the AFROPUNK identity and present an intersectional understanding of identity politics. They also come from the aspiration for AFROPUNK to create a sense of coming together, and a practicing ground for leaving prejudice behind.
Reflecting on his visits to Johannesburg that led up to the festival being hosted in the city, Morgan expressed that he “spent significant amounts of time on every visit, and feel[s] the music, the fashion, the style, the politics, are incredible, and if we can be part of helping to share that and then bring people in, that again shares, and connects the diaspora in a more meaningful way.”
The word ‘zine’ is derived from the term fanzine, referring to a publication form that first started circulating in the 1930s. During the 1970s fanzines translated into a more developed type of publishing with the then popular punk fanzines and later the upsurge of queer and feminist driven zines in the late 1980s. This was the result of the fanzine form moving away from fan culture and clearing a space for zinesters who felt misrepresented by mainstream media to have their opinions expressed in print. Zines have been described as “non-commercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines which their creators produce, publish, and distribute by themselves”. With developments in technology, zines have shown growth by incorporating more diverse content such as personal reflections, special interest, literary zines, and fanzines. The unifying elements of zines are their independent production, writing, and design, existing outside of the fringes of mainstream publishing. Zines explore topics that are frequently ignored and overlooked by mainstream media and play a pivotal role in representing the possibilities for counter-hegemonic transformation. Being independent of commercial contemplations and viability, zines address a smaller audience of like-minded individuals and can act as a safe outlet for self-expression (Bold 2017).
We are living in a time where there has been a large-scale resurgence of older forms of content creation and storing. This can be seen when looking at the popularity of film photography in recent times and the ‘coolness’ that is associated with vinyl, tape and the early ’00s aesthetic. We are currently living in the golden age of paper and there is an increasing interest by creative sugar babies to voice themselves through self-publishing. To find out more about this phenomenon I spoke to the creators of two new South-African zines, ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ and ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ is a zine created by Capetonian creatives Keenan Oliver, Mzonke Maloney and Dumi Mparutsa. This zine uses the act of waiting for someone to arrive, specifically Joshy Pascoe, as its basis. These zinesters are looking at defining image use as a colloquial language combining the images used with news headlines from the day that they were waiting for Joshy’s arrival. This combination of news headlines as image labels is intended to mimic the way that text is added to imagery in meme creation. They explain in our interview that this union is imposed as an emphasis on the disparity of news image reception in contrast with socially constructed images and how they are received.
The idea for the self-published piece was brought to life after Joshua Pascoe saw an image of Keenan on an insta story which led to Joshua’s instant engagement. Evidently liking what he saw, he jumped on the DM train and asked Keenan for an impromptu shoot in which he planned to finish the remainder of the frames left on his roll of film. The images that made it into the zine were captured while the act of waiting on Joshua took place. When asked why they believe the act of waiting for someone’s arrival was significant enough to base an entire zine on they tell me that their self-published content is aimed at challenging the entire concept of significance in relation to the fundamental elements of image creation.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
“The democratization of image making as an industry and a practice, has rendered all images equally significant, specifically within the cultural/social space. Our deliberate use of suburban tedium and non-activity looks to further emphasize the fact that there is no longer an accurate barometer, used to gauge the importance or non-importance of an image.” This statement holds a considerable amount of weight as we are living in a time where there is content on nearly every subject imaginable. We are bombarded by content whenever we open our web browsers. From small pop up adds advertising weight loss products, to celebrity scandals, food recipes, people dyeing their hair with Nutella spread and artistic short films of girls smashing their faces into food (yes I’ve actually watched this). The list is never-ending. Curating your content is a rather new idea and the first time I stumbled upon it was in the book by Michael Bhaskar titled ‘Curation – The Power of Selection in a World of Excess’, published in 2016. This book is a rather useful guide to removing actual bullshit content from your cyberspace experience.
The team behind ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ explain that this zine was a way for them to express their views on the consumption of news imagery, and what people’s reactions are to them at present. “The rapid technological development of the various image generating mediums has prompted the reimagining of images, as more than just ‘artifacts of technology’ but rather as what Hans Belting has termed as being ‘the boundary between physical and mental existence’”. The inquiry addressed within this zine attempts to create a discernment between images within mental existence and images that move into a physical space within our current social context. “What becomes urgent and what remains trivial.”
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
“I could somehow watch the news and instantly disconnect from the images and their implications (these images would not transcend past mental existence), yet Joshy could watch an insta story and respond immediately, bringing the image to the fore of his physical existence.” This zine thus questions the relevance of news imagery and its significance in modern day society. This is done by almost saying that their social media interactions that led to a photo shoot and zine were more significant and impactful than news headlines were. They were more inclined to interact with a social post than they were to read the news of that particular day. And let’s be honest, I don’t engage with the news much, I can, however, tell you what my insta connections were doing this weekend in excruciating detail.
News headlines were used as a form of tagging in this zine which is explained by the team as follows, “In attempting to synthesize those two thoughts; we realized that whilst we were waiting, absorbed by our own daily tedium and taking pictures of mundane suburbia (which is significant to us), much more “significant” events were taking place around the country, and the reconciliation of these two events occurring simultaneously would create the significance of the moment.”
Utilizing screenshots from the DM thread between Joshua and Keenan, a timeline is visually built to create a context for the imagery that rests on the opposing pages. This timeline provides a temporal space in which the events were taking place and aided in establishing the overriding narrative of the zine. This zine is in my opinion, a storage space for a ‘live’ event taking place and is almost a self-published insta story/documentary piece of work addressing a complex question. All the content within the zine questions the idea of significance. The team tells me that these images are significant because of the mere fact that they exist.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
Explaining the connections made between social media, the act of image creation, texting and newspapers the creators tell me, “Whether it is the form of a meme, post or photo sharing, social media has made photographing a part of colloquial dialect for our generation. News making (documentary photography) was the most impactful form of image production from the past couple generations, but no longer holds the same weight, due to the rate at which images are being produced. The news now exists in synthesis with this colloquial/new language. The news of the day includes personal images, memes and other forms of social imagery.”
This zine considers itself an anthropological study. It is explained as, “Regardless, the mass production of art means that all of art has dissolved into life or more accurately all of life has dissolved into art and therefore an inquiry into the use of medium must be considered anthropological.”
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
Following my discussion with the creators of ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ I spoke to the young interracial queer couple behind ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ zine, Boni Mnisi, and Leal after the launch of their zine on the 30th October in Cape Town. Boni expresses that the zine came about rather unexpectedly, “I wasn’t even entirely sure how to create one when I decided to announce to my Instagram followers that I was going to do it. I wrote and shared a painfully mediocre poem on my Instagram story and quickly explained it away as a sample of writing from a bigger body of work that I was trying to put together. I got DMs from so many people who were interested in getting involved and kinda got trapped into doing what I said I was going to do.”
Cover image for ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ zine by Gina Hendrickse
The zine’s name was inspired by Lana Del Rey’s 2012 single that shares the same title. Boni regrets this title and explains that at the time she did not consider the exclusion that is linked to the word ‘girl’. “While we do actively recognize that trans and non-binary people who identify with our message may not themselves identify as ‘girls’, the word should have no place in our work from now on. As an intersectional feminist zine, we have an obligation to protect our trans and non-binary family, which includes eliminating the violent language that we have ourselves mistakenly employed. We want to rebrand and come back with something more representative of the community we hope to create. As of 2018, this working title is dead.”
‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ is made up of mostly contributed content from South African creative womxn that is bound together by Leal’s illustrations. This zine which consists of an online and print version made use of social media to promote itself.
Photography by Alessia Dossantos
Speaking about the launch of the first issue Boni tells me that they were overwhelmed by the response they received. Only expecting roughly 50 people, about 250 – 300 attended the event. “We began with an exhibition of our Cape Town based contributors’ work and shortly after began our entirely womxn DJ line-up featuring the insane DJ-duo ‘No Diggity‘. It was an incredibly sweaty night of grinding and vogue-ing. People expressed their gratitude for having a predominately womxn space where they were able to be themselves and feel safe. So we had lots of titties! Lots of girl-on-girl action and not a voyeuristic penis in sight! It was unlike anything I’ve experienced at any party.” Looking at the response that this zine has received as well as the intention of creating a safe and inclusive space for all womxn it can be said that this zine gives a voice to an underrepresented community and a safe space for self-expression.
‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ features content created by Afrah Mayet, Jemma Rose, Alice de Beer, Lianne O’Donnell, Claire & Abi Meekel, Amu Mnisi, Keo Borjeszo, Sandra Wilken, Marcia Elizabeth, Kayo Fay, Jesmin, Sasha de la Rey, Phoenix Falconer +30 more. In order to get their vision going, Boni and Leal raised funds in the months leading up to the launch. “This project was made possible by our generous friends and family whom we are so grateful for.” The zine will be available in Johannesburg soon and a digital free version is in the works.
Photography by Gina Hendrickse
Zines are a powerful tool for self-expression and can relate to literally anything as there are no rules to making a zine and they do not need to be commercially viable. A zine can be an experimental exploration and can be about something that the creators feel are relevant which is the case with ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ or they can address concerns or grant a voice to a community of likeminded often underrepresented individuals as is the case with ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’. The act of zine making has been described as the “mass amateurisation of publishing” (Bold 2017). With the rise of digital folk culture over the decades, zines can be executed in a different way and do not necessarily have to be a physical print. Zines’ audiences are engaging differently today than they would have a number of years ago and zinesters are employing all the tools they have to voice themselves, such as social media. With the internet, there are more options for affordable cultural production with the ability of a global audience (Bold 2017). I believe that today, more so than ever it is easier to create a zine. Amateur creators have a space to explore a different type of cultural production with zines. So to zine or not? – yeah, if mainstream media won’t hear you out then please do zine! However, I do believe that there are many topics that were once considered experimental or non-commercial that have received attention from mainstream media in recent times. I like to think that people today are more connected, and aware of the narratives of some misrepresented and underrepresented communities which I attribute to internet culture. Zines do however still hold a place and creative sugar babies seem to love the heck out of them.
