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…
“Like the dead-seeming cold rocks, I have memories within that came out of the material that went to make me. Time and place have had their say.” Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road “Experiences like this: they seem to accumulate over time, gathering like things in a bag, but the bag is your…
Self-described as Switzerland’s next generation in dance, Company MEK is proving to be at the forefront of collaborative creative practice that strips back, subverts, and exceeds the limits of European dance. Learning about Muhammed Kaltuk and his company’s research trip to Senegal enlivened me and gaining insights into the company’s ethos, the ways in which…
Grant Jurius’ sonic composition Animal Skin, co-produced with the Lumpen station in Switzerland, is a progressive medley with fragments of conversation and snippets of the sonic cityscape. The work is arranged on a bed of persistent and low-frequency rumbling that crescendos into a contemplative and broody 19-minute-long melody. Sirens, laughter, drums, the clattering of objects…
Only that there were tears. Only that Quietness and Emptiness fitted together like stacked spoons. Only that there was a snuffling in the hollows at the base of a lovely throat…Only that they held each other close, long after it was over. Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things Basel-based violinist and performer Alicja Pilarczyk’s…
“Art gave me freedom,” the artist Olaniyi Akindiya reveals on a Google Meet call as he quickly strings up pieces of cardboard. “There’s communication, dialogue among people that’s helped me open up the minds of a lot of people.” The Nigerian artist has been working in fine art for over two decades but began his…
The Cape Town Investec Art Fair has been celebrating artists and supporting the growth of the Cape Town art scene for 10 years. Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the Cape Town Investec Art Fair has been curated around the theme of time, as we reflect on the achievements of the past decade. Taking place…
Dominique Cheminais is a dexterous colourist — she mixes, shades and tinges with intonations and delicate variations that produce remarkable visual sensations. Her solo exhibition at THK Gallery in Cape Town, Things Done While Dreaming, reads like a rediscovery of the plasticity of representation where characters from her literary texts are vigorously animated in a…
Like other art forms, film can be thought of as a way to narrate histories, generate critical discourse and most importantly, bring communities together. Part of this is reflected in what artist and filmmaker Maria Iorio contemplates as, “the self-reflexive power of cinema to thematise its own histories, its independent modes of production and engage with…
As the weeks of January roll by, the excitement and promise that a new year brings begin to fade and the reality of work sinks in. However, art always has a way of revitalising us. Whether it’s watching that nouveau film your friends have recommended or a book that’s collecting dust on your shelf, engaging…
