Swiss artists Cédric Djedje and Noémi Michel embarked on a residency in Johannesburg last year to advance their ongoing research project titled “Black diasporic futurities.” This interdisciplinary endeavour delves into narratives of futurity within the global Black diaspora, blending elements of documentary theatre, performance art, and Black feminist critical theory. Djedje and Michel offer insights…
BubblegumX is an initiative by BubblegumClub and Bubblegum Foundation — aimed at advancing Africa’s ever-growing cultural influence in global creative scenes. Every year Bubblegum Foundation utilises its resources to realize initiatives that support and develop creatives across Africa. The first of these is an annual international exchange programme for creatives from the continent. This June, BubblegumX…
“Music is the sum total of individual and collective experience.” Lindiwe Mngxitama for Ghostland. A methodology. A sonic cultural aesthetic. A built through sound world. Welcome to Ghostland — apartheid’s afterparty and our after-tears gathering — where Sorrow, Grief, Hope and (im)possible futures gyrate on purgatory dance floors. Ghostland is a Bubblegum Club production that…
Jamal Nxedlana‘s creative endeavours have never shied away from the experimental; pushing the parameters around creative expression and the processes that drive them. He has created a unique footprint in the South African cultural landscape through his work as a designer, the Creative Director of Bubblegum Club, a member of CUSS Group and his involvement…
He grew up thinking that, of all the Blacks in Kentucky, only the five of them were men… Is that where manhood lay? In the naming done by a whiteman who was supposed to know… It was Schoolteacher who taught them otherwise. They were only Sweet Home men at Sweet Home. One step off that…
Figurative elements emerge in smokey hues, lips poised and blue. An elsewhere-gaze and portrait glazed with azure shades. A portrait veiled, a leaning tower lists towards the heavens. While another is inscribed with crimson text of unanswered questions. Illuminated, light cascades beyond windowpanes onto crisp white walls primed for exhibition. ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’…
Lebogang Tlhako aka Sisterbozza combines her love for fashion, photography, thrifting and township life. Brought up in Katlehong, the Market Photo Workshop alumna and entrepreneur has dreamt about creating a fashion magazine for herself and her peers in the township for years. This jump started her idea to curate her Sisterbozza Instagram page, where she…
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…
A picture is worth a thousand words. This idiom speaks to the premise behind the 2018 Aperture Summer Open exhibition titled The Way We Live Now. Aperture Summer Open is an annual open-submission exhibition at Aperture Foundation’s gallery in New York. It features work selected by a prominent curator or editor, with the exhibition unpacking critical…
Following on from the 5 day residency in Johannesburg at the end of April, Bubblegum Club along with the artists selected to be part of the Infinity Studio programme are in Hamburg for the final stage, their participation in the Live Art Festival #8: SUPERSPACES. Within this frame the work produced will see an expansion on…
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…
If you’re looking for young womxn who personify the young, creative spirit lingering in Johannesburg, you don’t need to look much further than multidisciplinary artists Jemma Rose and Anne-Marie Kalumbu. They are able to transfer this personification into their work, demonstrating the sense of evolutionary motion that Joburg invokes in creative practitioners. Anne-Marie is a well-traveled creative…
