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…
“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…
