[Sara Baartman] is a grand ancestor for every black woman who has ever felt othered, degraded, hyper-visible, yet invisible. – Lebo Mashile Venus vs Modernity comes at a time where GBV (gender-based violence) has become a national and governmental concern in South Africa. Depicting the life of Sara Baartman, the play chronologically delves into the…
“Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives,” but Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness…
Alka Dass is a multidisciplinary artist from Durban working with sculpture and painting. Her work acts as a reflection on personal histories as she sets out to communicate her anxiety as well as desire as a South African Indian woman and the cultural understandings and aspects attached to this identity. Her work can be understood…
Plastic pollution monsters. They’re near, Very near, In fact… They’re already here. – Luke Rudman Forests ablaze turned ashen decay. Gills smothered; scales tarred by a congealing oil spill. A gasping breath leaves lungs half-filled. On the brink of destruction – once considered scare-tactic-rhetoric, now a reality. In response to the environmental crisis, Port-Elizabeth-based artist,…
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll by Casey Rae, University of Texas Press 2019 The American novelist, William Burroughs was one of the preeminent cultural outlaws of the twentieth century. He was best known for works like Junkie, Queer, The Naked Lunch, Nova Express and Cities of the Red Night, deranged…
Warther Dixon (Cait Warther and Wendy Dixon) is an artist duo based in the Bo-Kaap making site specific installations, sculptures, films and photographic prints. Individually, each of the members bring something remarkable to the table. Wendy’s toolkit comprises of strategic branding and product design while Cait’s consists of philosophy, lighting design and photography. The duo…
“We are three independent curators with a combined local and international experience of more than 20 years in the contemporary art world,” reads the press release for the inaugural UNDERLINE show. Having taken place from the 12th – 15th of September 2019, at the Museum of African Design (MOAD), UNDERLINE is a new annual curatorial…
Open chrome, google Afrofuturism, click images – what you find is images of disembodied faces with rings around their heads, complex headpieces and third eyes. These figures seem to be floating in space and are often illustrated or abstracted to the point that they don’t actually seem real. If Afrofuturism as an imagination is meant…
Collective mourning, one might call it. When grief overwhelms, congeals. Beyond the incessant waves of anger are the depths of pain. A whisper once murmured reverberates into a crescendo of, femicide is a fucking reality: Uyinene Mrwetyana, Jesse Hess, Leighandre Jegels, Janika Mallo, Lynette Volschenk, Meghan Cremer and countless others buried beneath name-less statistics. In…
The Fak’ugesi Digital Africa Residency was established in 2014 with an emphasis on supporting young digital practitioners from the SADC region and beyond. This year’s residency takes focus on the theme of the 2019 festival ‘OWN YOUR FORCE’. It “centers on an African vision of the future of digital creativity by asking; who owns our…
The Johannesburg nightlife scene is ever diversifying and we are here for it! It’s no secret that queer people in Johannesburg know how to get down and event organizers Lelo Meslani and Khumo Pulumo know just how to throw the right party. Not only have they provided queer and femme bodies with the golden opportunity…
Curating is caring for the culture, above all by enabling its artistic or creative transformers to pursue their work. This facilitation is done, preferably, with empathy and insight, effectively, and with some style. – Terry Smith, 2015 Struts of steel intersect descending light-beams. Geometric in design, corrugated iron and crosshatched cubes reveal a cerulean sky….
