If this isn’t a name you’ve seen before on, at least, a dozen lineups for some of the most prestigious music events in South Africa, then you’ll be grateful we’ve brought her to your attention now. One of the most prolific live mix DJs in the Johannesburg events scene began her career four years ago…
Music producers are the sonic architects of popular culture. Great producers capture the raw feeling of performers, while also knowing how to use the trickery in the studio space to create fresh sounds. It’s especially evident in hip hop, where beatmakers play a foundational role. The Bomb Squad, Dr. Dre, RZA, Timbaland, The Neptunes, Kayne…
South Africa is built on violences that are unsolved and remain un-checked. A conscious decision is made by many artists to unpack colonial history examining its visible traces on modern day South African society. They deplore its continuum of racist thought. The main tenets of sexism, racism and apartheid remain inseparable from South African life…
To be “feminist” in any authentic sense of the term is to want for all people, female and male, liberation from sexist role patterns, domination, and oppression. ― bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism This Womxn’s month as we reflect on a notion that is both so vital yet so patronising we need to…
The first We are Data Mines looked at the human relationship with the body, while the second looked at our changing relationship with information technology. This text expands its focus to our fractious relationship with the natural environment, using the space of the mine dump to reflect on how extractive mining capitalism continues to structure Johannesburg….
Urias is the Uberlândia born Brazilian transgender artist gaining an enormous following from her fellow LGBTQI+ community members and it is not hard to see why. With her uncompromising, grungy cyber futurist aesthetic as well as her husky and hypnotic voice it’s practically impossible to not be drawn to the rising artist. Now pursuing a…
Every single aspect of this cover was intentional. Every little detail holds great significance. Every hair is placed with purpose. Every jewel pays respect to both my heritage and my future. It is symbolic of me claiming my light and my purpose. – Haneem Christian on the making of her Bubblegum Club Cover Metamorphosis. Transcendence……
Posing a challenge to the racist archetypes of the black South African man by exploring the character of the “tsotsi” is an earlier work ‘Simunye’. The tsotsi, commonly regarded as a “dodgy character” has come to be determined by race. The black person is dehumanized and seen as black before their personhood is acknowledged. Yet…
“…design is a verb and a noun, being a design artist, allows me to shape shift. Essentially it is the intentional creation of a plan.” Storytelling is all encompassing within the expression of design artist Lunga Ntila. Intersectionality, sexuality and femininity are her building blocks. “I can’t be a singular expression of myself. There’s too…
Born in Totó a neighbourhood of Recife in Brazil, visual artist Samuel de Saboia began his creative journey at the tender age of 13. By 15 he attended an Architecture and Urbanism course that he left prematurely to pursue graphic design. Shortly before completing his graphic design course he decided to venture into the world…
SA rapper Riky Rick is one of the hottest artists in the local game right now. In his music, the KwaMashu born MC has the ability to effortlessly flip between a rugged, hardcore sound to more commercial and upbeat flows. Alongside his reliable musical output, Riky Rick has a developed a powerful visual aesthetic. His…
Soweto born and raised photographer and filmmaker Justice Mukheli has an affinity for eyes. He expresses his relationship with them by saying “Eyes tell you a lot about a person before you even speak to them, when I create photographs or capture moments. I am mostly looking for emotions I have felt or emotions I…
