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…
Much like gold itself, the spectacle of Goldendean challenges the arbitrary values we place on the normative body. Our gaze cannot help but devour Goldendean. In 2016 artist Dean Hutton’s #FUCKWHITEPEOPLE performance went notoriously viral which has extended itself into various forms– an installation, a ‘Fuck White People’ suit, an online archive titled, ‘White People…
“With this album, I’m saying ‘welcome to my house’”. On call from London, Congolese born, SA raised Yannick Ilunga is describing the meaning behind the title of his new EP/Visual album. “The title La Maison Noir/The Black House is a play on the White House. In the same way that the White House is the…
We live in a society of images, mediated through black screens. To be alive in 2018 is to be subjected to a barrage of visuals on computers, smart phones and tablets- news, adverts, memes and the selfies and Instagram imagery that is curated with all the care and detail of Renaissance painting. Meanwhile, technological advancements…
With a Mozambican father, who always had his guitar on hand ready to play a song, and a South African mother, both with great storytelling abilities, Carla Fonseca, the birth name of Batuk’s frontwoman Manteiga, was exposed to and had a great appreciation for the dramatic arts from a young age. “You know your aunts…
