In a “post-apartheid” South Africa, sharing the stories of people of colour is necessary to challenge the representation of BIPOC in the archive. But who gets to create this archive? And more importantly, who gets to dictate the narrative of this archive? These are all questions photographer Tshepiso Mazibuko’s work contends with. Born and raised…
In the realm of contemporary artistic endeavours, few projects hold as much intellectual vigour as the School of Mutants. A beacon of conceptual inquiry and creative expression, this collective, situated at the confluence of artistry, architectural critique, and post-colonial realities, presents an inspiring narrative of engagement and reflection. At its heart lies an impassioned quest…
“There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet,” is the line from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot that inspired the exhibition An Endless Night at the Mount Nelson Hotel, in collaboration with Investec Art Fair. An Endless Night, curated by Anelisa Mangcu, investigates this innate human desire to…
On the 1st of August, the Wits Art Museum opened a solo show by Swiss/Italian artist Nicola Genovese. The exhibition titled, Sad Boy explores masculinity and the decay thereof. The day before the opening, I had the chance to interview Genovese and gain insights into his artistic intentions and material choices. The artist contemplated the…
Co-curated by Yolanda Kaddu-Mulinwa and Nisha Merit, SOIL CONVERSATIONS is an exhibition that features artists such as Lungiswa Gqunta, Mia Thom, Io Makandal and MADEYOULOOK. Fittingly, the exhibition text is co-authored by Lindiwe Mngxitama, our former editor, whose strong tenure forms the foundation upon which Bubblegum Club rests. The exhibition is an exploration of soil…
The small, everyday stories of women in our society, the caregivers, mothers, and providers, are often left untold. As a way of honouring these women and the hardships they endure, Zizipho Poswa’s debut solo exhibition in the United States, iiNtsika zeSizwe (Pillars of the Nation), seeks to highlight and honour these women. Zizipho Poswa is…
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, many artists, academics and activists explored expressions of race and identity in reaction and response to the colonial liberation movements that proliferated across countries in the Global South. Specifically within the African diaspora, concepts of race were, and continue to be, a topic of concern. Artists, Hank Willis…
The arts and sciences have been separated into distinct fields. More than that, art and science, particularly in Western culture, are often positioned as polar opposites – associated with either the left or right side of the brain, different sections on university campuses, and even gendered as masculine or feminine. These fields never seem to…
Reid starts by asking me – who is here to have a conversational interview with her – about myself. She asks about what I do, whether I enjoy it and how I came to do what I do. We laugh, observing the flipped dynamic of interviewer and interviewee. “I like to know who I’m talking…
The term ‘savage’ has a dark and loaded past in the context of art history, but through contemporary culture, brands like Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty have hijacked it from its historical captors. As new life is breathed into the post-pandemic South African art scene, Bubblegum Club sits down with Lwando Dlamini to discuss his career,…
It was a sad day for the world of art when Carte Blanch released its investigative piece into the state of Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG). The episode revealed that the situation is dire, at best. The structural integrity of the building is below par, with resultant water leaks constantly damaging priceless works of art. Of…
Time – the core theme of this year’s Investec Cape Town Art Fair – offers us both a threat and a consolation in the same heavy breath: change. Regardless of the happenings beneath it, the sun will rise again, and it will set again. The happenings of the last few years – with so much…
