“Her curation is like the circularity of a vinyl record, the deep Black recesses in a modulated spiral groove are affective continuums weaving in and out of the mix.” Justin Smith, founder and curator of Afrovisualism Prevailing institutional and academic conversations engaging with restitution in art ecologies unfold in a framework rooted in the return…
Given our very recent history of isolationism, as a human society, there seems to be an appreciation for cultural exchange more than ever. Considering even older histories of struggle, discrimination and constitutional battles, there is a deep necessity for the culture – at this moment – to experience a kind of upheaval. At the meeting…
When I think of Andrei Van Wyk’s work and practice, I think of colliding and melting-into-each-other sounds, transformed and transforming noise and a notion of “listening beyond what you audibly hear” through his constellation of au/orality. “We need to start thinking about song way beyond its representational qualities within the sonic…” says musician Tumi Mogorosi, and…
The seventh edition of West Africa’s premier international art fair, Art X Lagos came together from the 4th to the 6th of November 2022 at the Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria. The fair attracted the art community from far and wide including artists, curators, collectors and the curious to experience a spectacle of artistic…
The protagonist in Ben Lerner’s novel ‘Leaving the Atocha Station’ (2011) is obsessed with what he calls “profound experiences of art” — how other people seem to so easily “break into tears” as a result of being moved by things of utmost beauty. I found myself wondering about the impact of art as I stood…
Finding its articulation in the space of intimate narratives, moments and milestones, KWENZEKILE sits in meditative celebration of — through visual archiving and witnessing — the journey and progress the artist and individual, Sinalo Ngcaba, has endured and moved through. Her testament that indeed, kwenzekile. With works produced in oil pastel on paper, Sinalo’s KWENZEKILE, began…
In July this year, I went to see a group show at blank projects called, The weight of a stone. The first thing I saw was a small bundle of red, suspended in the middle of the room. It was tied with a rope that stretched across the length of the gallery, connecting to a…
Curated by Joburg and Paris based multidisciplinary artist, composer, DJ and producer, MO LAUDI —Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape — Globalisto. A Philosophy in Flux, is a group exhibition of 19 artists, activists, philosophers, change-makers, storytellers and poets interconnecting Africa and its diaspora — spanning from Cameroon to Egypt, Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania…
If indeed — as American radio personality Ira Glass proposes — great stories happen to those who tell them, then Lukhanyo Mdingi is a phenomenal chronicler. His exhibition, The Provenance (Part I), presented at The Fourth Gallery in Cape Town is a freshly penned tale of connected and interconnecting loci; of the intersection between mediums,…
The “party” is about a moment of suspension. Feeling a rigorous sensation in the body, a pulsating tip-to-tip… Like pins and needles all prickly across the skin’s surface and a slow numb that calls attention to each beat of the heart, harder and harder. And the Sensation, conjured by this dance, is void of history,…
1957 was the year the first African state won independence from colonial rule. To place that in context, my father was born then. In the 65 years he has been alive, three generations – including mine – have come into existence, yet post-independence Africa reads from an unchanged script. It goes like this: election year…
COVID-19 changed our relationships with the spaces we live in, in ways we can’t imagine. For the first time in many of our lifetimes, we witnessed the whole world forced to cave in, and retreat into internal spaces. Some, safer than others, retreated into their homes. Many realised they retreated into somewhat of a safe…
