Historical “fact” is a topic that has come under an increasing amount of scrutiny in recent years, and rightly so. Within context, history often presents us with an engrossing tale of humanity’s greatest achievements and our most heinous atrocities. However, history — or at least the way in which historical information is disseminated — tends…
Following the invention of the camera in the 1850s, artists felt betrayed and threatened by technology as the end of art seemed to loom due to the camera’s ability to capture images in perfect likeness. Since the invention of the camera, technology has accelerated at an exponential rate in ways that have both benefited and…
Curated by 17-year-old, Diana Sinclair, The Digital Diaspora is an exhibition that features Black creatives from around the globe and aims to spotlight Black artists working in the non-fungible token (NFT) market. Produced by Towards Utopia, the exhibition takes form both on and offline with a gallery space in SoHo New York exhibited by Superchief Gallery NFT —the world’s first physical dedicated…
“Just as the deep oceans harbour particulate records of former geological eras, water retains our more anthropomorphic secrets even when we would rather forget. Our distant and more imcollamediate pasts are returned to us in both trickle and floods.” Astrid Neimanis What does the water give us — beyond cooling, replenishment and restoration? What of…
Born out of a shared love for absurd glamour, ‘80s/90s aesthetics and maximalism, Ciao Tschau is the new Berlin based creative studio and lovechild of collaborative partners German creative director Johanna Rüdinger and Italian film director Savio Debernardis. Ciao Tschau’s model of creative expression synthesises Rüdinger’s and Debernardis’ respective backgrounds in both advertising and film…
I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul. Pablo Neruda, Extract from One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII “You’re asking me…if I love that boy? I do. Sometimes….
The contemporary art space in South Africa is bursting with talent, and I personally believe that there needs to be particular emphasis on engaging with the works of art graduates stepping into the commercial space of art, especially under the strenuous conditions ushered in by the pandemic. Yonela Doda is one such artist, fresh out…
Whether human initiated, Or solar cycles. The Planet falling ill, Or alien outsiders. Climate change is still happening. “What it is” from WAIT by Wilson Oryema Not everyone that can write; can write poetry. It requires a surrender of syntax and a fluidity of thought. Wilson Oryema — who is a London based artist, poet…
“Born in South Africa, raised in Zimbabwe, Michele Mathison has a deeply complex personal story. It is one that is characterised by an ongoing process of (re)locating. That is to say, he is somewhat of a journeyman,” writes Houghton Kinsman on Mathison’s solo exhibition Uprooted, in a piece titled Uprooted: A conversation with Zimbabwean artist…
Callan Grecia’s exhibition title, Laps Around the Sun, lends itself to the artist’s hefty post-internet lexicon of signs. Suggestive of the moment when life relinquishes its rose-tint and the arbitrariness of existence begins to take form, the title is both poignantly nostalgic and existential. Birthday… after birthday… after birthday, existence becomes automated: a non-reality considered…
The chemical ecology of poisonous butterflies brings to question our reliance on nature for beauty, as we romanticise planetary mechanisms as a refuge from our own inorganic decay under industrialisation, precisely undermined by the fact that Nature is often expressed even in all its putrid glory; our own bodies being eco-systems of bile, pus and…
Felix Shumba is a self-taught visual artist from Masvingo in Zimbabwe. In this conversation with Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti, Shumba, whose multidisciplinary practices includes figurative drawing and painting, poetry and performance art, talks about his background, his biggest influences and the obstacles he has encountered as an immigrant in South Africa. Let us start with where…
