The inner world of an artist cannot always be gleaned from their performance or persona, not so with Koeksista; about a week ago, at the Bubblegum Club project space in Newtown, Koeksista blended art and life with aplomb, exposing her feelings and experience into an exhibition that intersects installation and intimacy, performance and personality with…
Facebook should be understood as a form of democratic space in which people from various walks of life are able to distribute and contribute to a digitized cultural ethos. Its various pages are created by its multitude of users and function to reflect the lives and experiences of those they target. Here we see at…
The short film Jas Boude (2014) has recently been blowing up online. Directed by Georgina Warner & Imraan Christian, the documentary details a day in the life of a group of young skaters from Valhalla Park on the Cape Flats. In just 13 minutes the film weaves slick skating footage of the 20SK8 collective…
Memes are fast becoming the dominant popular art form on social media. As a medium, they are simple to make and the right combination of image with text can become a viral sensation overnight. The directness of memes has made them an important mechanism for political communication and social commentary. For example, the online ubiquity…
‘Disappoint Your Parents’ is a Cape Town based zine which launched its first ‘episode’ this February. As the title indicates, it deals with a range of the ways in which young South Africans can let their elders down, from ‘use of illicit substances, hanging with the wrong crowd or just not having much ambition’. Although…
A monolithic structure, nestled between streams of hooting taxis and clouds amassing from suits on smoke break, remains ominous in its overbearing charcoal façade. Located in downtown Johannesburg and enclosed in palisade fencing is the Standard Bank Gallery. The dark grey industrial compound is an icon of Capitalism, but perhaps a necessary evil for privatized…
A police van veers around a corner, a loaf of bread is placed inside a box, leaves crackle and turn in the ambiguity of words; “In my third life, I learnt about mortality”. Zandile Tisani’s Highlands is a kind of forensic infrastructure, unfixing and unhinging the masculinity and certainty of Johannesburg’s necropolitical reflections through the…
In the late 90s, Arts & Culture was phased in as a subject in South African primary schools. My teacher was Afrikaans, had a 9 carat gold nail attached by a gossamer chain to a ring resting on her pinky finger and taught me to make biltong and use acrylic paints. Her central thesis was that…
Manthe Ribane is luminous and effervescent. Watch her share on spirituality and space in this behind the scenes video for Bubblegum Club’s first ever cover. The video was shot and edited by filmmakers Brendan C Campbell and Xolelwa Ollie Nhlabatsi.
The paint on the door was quite chipped, but the black letters remained clear: “Nostalgia is one helluva drug” it said like an answer to a question. And now, here in South Africa – specifically Johannesburg – we get through the day with our trusty dose of the good stuff. Defined as “a wistful or…
City life breeds cynicism, after attending event after event, countless nights in clubs, exhibits en masse and even the odd lecture, new events, alternative spaces and new movements can be received with skepticism. For Black Girls Only is a new and necessary addition to what is offered as fun in Johannesburg. It may not boast what jaded…
Chris Saunders is a filmmaker and photographer based in Johannesburg, his latest project; Ghost Diamond, is a film inspired by and shot in the Johannesburg while featuring creatives from near and far afield. Ghost Diamond is a collaboration between Saunders, Manthe Ribane and OkZharp. It is a meeting of music and mythology, reflecting on Joburg as…
