On a Sunday evening in March 2020, a national address was broadcast across the country that shifted the way in which we celebrated, worked and interacted, completely. That Sunday evening plays vividly in the minds of South Africans as we reflect on it some 18 months later. That single moment ushered in a new phase…
The scope of our imaginations and our ability to translate that into raw, inspiring creativity is one of our abundantly giving capabilities as humans. From music to painting, poetry, and dancing, our artistic expression finds shape through many forms, some of which even live on or adorn our bodies. Makeup is one such form of…
Earlier today we released Kgotlelelo B. Sekiti’s series The Three Balloons. The series exploring “the generational and ongoing traumas of Black bodies, the everyday experiences of queer Black bodies and Black body’s ability to embrace the gift of life through celebration portrayed by a balloon” was created by Kgotlelelo as the recipient of the Bubblegum…
Our second Bubblegum Workshop will take place on Thursday 25 March with art and documentary photographer Paul Shiakallis with a focus on studio lighting. Shiakallis who shot our 5 years of Bubblegum Club cover — along with our Tabita Rezaire cover feature — and who has worked on numerous commercial campaigns both here at home and…
Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word “love” here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace – not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the…
2020 was a wildly unexpected year with great social and institutional change gripping the world; COVID19 pandemic included. Our team has seen the year through with continually producing work to inspire growth, interrogate injustice and remind our audience of the immense creativity and ingenuity of artists around the globe. It is an honour to introduce…
Recently, we announced the launch of our graduate trainee programme with a call for candidates interested in joining our team as an art director. The job specifications outlined that we needed candidates with skills that wouldn’t traditionally fall within the scope of art direction. The reason for this being that we are operating within a…
Since its inception in 2006, the label Butan has become a part of South Africa’s streetwear landscape. The name Butan came from re-arranging the word ‘bantu’. This can be viewed as symbolic of how the label takes pride in bringing an African perspective to streetwear. “We pride ourselves in being an African label with a strong…
Recovered Files is a series where we share throwback footage of creatives and their work. This gives the opportunity to see these creatives at a point in their lives and make connections to how their work has evolved technically and conceptually. As a continuation of a collaboration between Bubblegum Club co-founders Jamal Nxedlana and Lex…
Bubblegum Club released their first cover story on the 26th of January 2016, and since then, have continued to announce new covers every two weeks. Their goal, at the end of January 2017, is to look back at twelve months of images and narratives, contextualise their position as a platform that offers an alternative aesthetic…
Durban is a city that is constantly evacuated, reconstituted, and returned to; kids throw their lives into bags and haul pieces of themselves back-and-forth while trying to find their bigger-picture footing. Despite is sleepy façade, things aren’t anchored in the same ways as other cityscapes; there’s an ephemeral and meteoric quality to the things that…
