There is a long history of artists going against the status quo. Of seeking out avenues beyond what was institutionalised and what was accepted, or even celebrated, in their day. A famous example that comes to mind was the beginnings of the Impressionist movement in Paris in the Salon des Refusés (“Salon of the Refused”) in…
Modise Sekgothe is a multifaceted Johannesburg-based artist with multiple titles. Performance poet, actor, playwright, vocalist, and instrumentalist. Each title is representative of a world that he has created through the mastering of his pen. The foundation of Modise’s worlds is writing, which is seemingly a need. The urgency to write began when the verbose poetic…
Kampire Bahana is a DJ, writer, art organizer and storyteller from Uganda, and part of the ColabNowNow residency. I had an interview with her to discuss her background, practice and the ColabNowNow project The various aspects of Kampire’s work have a tendency to overflow and interlink. “I started out writing about festivals and events that…
“My vision of the future is lead by a feeling” For Nikky Norton Shafau storytelling is about taking ownership of the past and the personal, as a way to create joy in the future. She does not identify as an Afrofuturist but finds that certain artists, aesthetics and ideas attached to Afrofutursim resonate with her….
Clinks of champagne glasses and soft murmurs reverberated around the lofty sky-matrix of steel beams and prefabricated walls. The tenth annual edition of the FNB Joburg Art Fair, located in the aspirational opulence of the ever expanding Sandton central business district, boasted over 60 exhibitors from 12 countries across Africa, Europe and the US. The…
Mukhtara Yusuf is a Yoruba Muslim visual artist, designer, storyteller and cultural activist from Nigeria. In my interview with her we discuss her process, ideas behind her work and the ColabNowNow residency. Cultural activism surfaces in Mukhtara’s practice systematically, philosophically and with regards to representation. “My work comes from a place of seeing how art and…
ColabNowNow resident Lindokuhle Nkosi shared with me how she views herself as a storyteller. She explained that there isn’t a specific point at which she decided to become a writer and to grow her relationship with writing. She adds that her writing has matured by being more honest and playful, and knowing that she has…
Disorient Culture Club is a media platform for diaspora creators and anyone interested in exploring the nuances of immigrant cultures. Co-founders, Dinika Govender and Karen Jean Mok, met four years ago through Facebook. At the time they were ambassadors of a global community of young professionals called Sandbox and connected online in order to share…
Founded by Diogo Mendonça and Marcus von Geyso, Blacksmith Collective calls itself a production collective rather than a production house. Rather than focusing on the old agency model which sees creatives churn out work 9 to 5, they’ve developed a new model which allows them to assemble teams of the best people for the job,…
Artist and designer Jacque Njeri has always had a close relationship with art, which she expressed through various mediums growing up. She took this experimentation with art as a child and channeled it into formal training when she completed her degree in Bachelors of Art in Design. The aim of Jacque’s work is to look at…
Born in Eritrea and now based in New York, visual artist Dawit L. Petros creates photographic images and installations that engage the possibilities of reconsidering the relationship between African histories and European modernism. Research and his travels influence how he conceptualizes his works. In his bio he explains that, “By drawing upon forms rooted in…
A set of hands playing the guitar. A flower vase. A hand holding a phone for a selfie. These are just some of the magical subjects that Ivory Coast’s Laetitia Ky uses to create her once in a lifetime hair sculptures. Far beyond the boundaries of Africa’s highly creative repertoire of natural hairstyles, Ky brings…
