“Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry,” This is the definition given by the Tate Gallery’s glossary, but it only begins to scratch the surface. For celebrated artist Elia Alba, the work…
Cloaked in swathes of cloth. Drenched in darkness. Morphous forms are interrupted only by protruding horns that peer from beneath the surface. Rendered scenes of botanical backgrounds create a space in which looking, operates as an act of violence and refusing to be seen, one of resistance. Kiluanji Kia Henda’s solo exhibition at the Cape…
Swedish illustrator Sara Andreasson has been commissioned by big names such as Nike, Selfridges and Converse. Her images are comprised of simple solid shapes outlines by contrasting colours. Her combinations of purple, pink, brown and mustard allow viewers to travel back in time to a 1970s colour palette. Presenting women as powerful figures is a…
AbdouMaliq Simone’s notion “people as infrastructure” refers to residents’ abilities to combine objects, people, spaces and activities, and their combination of these resulting in a form of infrastructure (Simone 2004: 407-408). Applying this concept to the photographic series, Takeover: Bree Street by young creatives Sara Lagardien and Haneem Christian, I argue that their project pushes…
Misconceptions about being an artist abound within society. Most people think we just sit around aimlessly until inspiration strikes. But if To Meet The Threshold has shown me anything, it’s the value of the dogged persistence of an artist striving to fulfill their vision. The installation enveloping the viewer is just one of a series…
The young photographer, John Edmunds, explores the emotive and visual signifiers of Black masculinities, sexuality and intimacy within particular US contexts. This is evident in his do-rag series he produced earlier this year. Tracing the style of men tying these nylon cloths around their heads to the history of American slavery were women wore cloths…
Archillect [archive + intellect] is an artificial intelligence created by Murat Pak and first became visible at the end of 2014. Archillect was made to identify and share enthusing imagery over social media platforms in order to identify what kind of imagery people are drawn to and to create an archive of inspiring images. On…
Looking for a way to live in her late mother’s memories, Johannesburg-based artist Lebohang Kganye produced the work Ke Lefa Laka which was awarded the Contemporary African Photography (CAP) Prize. Ke Lefa Laka translates to ‘my inheritance’, and this was the starting point for her work. By embodying her mother through images she is able…
Monica Kim Garza. The Mexican-Korean artist’s paintings and mixed media work depict women with fuller figures partaking in activities such as sun tanning, riding bicycles and lifting barbells bare-breasted. Often the women in her images appear to be going about these activities with little care for the viewer’s attention, and other times their eyes confront…
I was always one for the latest Zara or Topshop range, buying selected items from Pringle that I thought were special. That was until I became a working-class millennial and had to start paying my own way in life. As a student, I never understood how expensive life is, your rent, car expenses, food, clothes,…
Founded in 2015, the transmedia platform Black(s) to the Future began with the idea to have a site for Black creation from France. Co-founder Mawena Yehouessi, born in Benin and now living in France, explains that this was important because “France, and Europe in general, is very different from South Africa and the US in…
“Much of the evidence of capitalism is either eroding over time or simply not known or easily accessible to the public.” This is the parallel universe in which we are placed. In Oakland, California, the Museum of Capitalism looks at capitalism as if it were from a distant, antiquated past. It’s a world where capitalism…
