Art
If They Let Us,
Part 1
Roy Nachum an artist that made the cover art for Rihanna’s Anti album. The series is called ‘If They Let Us, Part 1’. The cover art sees the singer as a young child with a crown over her eyes engulfed in red paint. It is to show the Rihanna when she was not yet Rihanna but Robyn Fenty. The entire image is in Braille dots, the words by poet Chloe Mitchell, it reads “I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood. It is simply because what I want to say, what I need to say, won’t be heard. Heard in a way I so rightfully deserve. What I choose to say is of so much substance That people just won’t understand the depth of my message. So my voice is not my weakness, It is the opposite of what others are afraid of.”
Stephanie Mzee widely known as “Kenyaa” is a respected, well rounded conceptual visual artist, filmmaker and writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. Recently graduated from the film and creative media school, City Varsity studying Film and Television production majoring in Producing. In 2018 she was named one of Design Indaba's 40 Emerging South African Creatives to watch and later on one of South Africa’s 27 Creatives to watch. The Young Independent nominated heras one of SADC's (Southern African Development Community comprising of 16 states)Top 100 Leaders in the category 'Trailblazer', recognising the role her artwork plays in pioneering meaningful conversations and dialogue through her art.
The series is a conceptual photography series that interrogates, visualizes and dares to evoke thought/comments and healthy debates on the lived experiences, mistreatment and fetishisation of the black female 'house niggers' in colonial/slavery era in for Africans. The series' name describes how many of the house slaves at the time were told and made to 'comply' and how this has translated through the years into present times. The same is expected for black women in different walks of life. The subject in the images has white paint stains on her arm symbolising the stain these events have had and how they continue to stay on the people for years on.
‘I AM MORE’ explores the beautiful as we all as complicated relationship many black children/youth who live in townships in Africa have while living in an area many look down upon. As the title suggests, it is saying I AM MORE, more than my circumstances, more than the area I come from, more than what outsiders may see in a community so many outsiders pass judgement as they pass through it. By capturing portraits of the children in the township of Mfuleniin South Africa, then carefully surrounding the subject with 24kgold leaflet, the artist aimed to highlight the children with gold as a conveying tool expressing the status of not only royalty, preciousness and greatness but also expressing to the viewer that gold can be found in and around them. There are golden moments in the townships so many look down on.
Dr Esther Mahlangu
A multi-award winning visual artist
She was the first woman and African to be invited to participate in the BMW Art Car Collection in 1991. In 2016 she collaborated with John Legend and Belvedere Vodka for the BMW 7 Series. In 2020 she became the first artist in the world to paint ‘gallery’ of the new Rolls Royce Phantom. It was named “The Mahlangu” in her honour.
Lady Skollie
Passion Gap: A self-portrait of the artist wrestling with her daddy issues, reaching misguidedly for the validation of men. ‘They’ll suck you dry beware’. Lady Skollie designed the R50 coin and the new R5 coin.
Pedro Reyes
Pedro Reyes, convinced his government to give him confiscated weapons he then turned them into musical instruments.
Nelson Makamo
In my work, I reflect on the movement of culture amongst the youth living in and around the city. My observation is that there is an exchange between people where we adopt each other’s cultures that are relevant to our respective ages. I am greatly fascinated by this, and how we, in turn, manage our identity with different personas. Therefore, my work aims to show that we are always changing and moving in a path of self-discovery. My work does not represent a certain group of people, it moves across cultures and generations.
Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie started the ‘The Kitchen Table Series’ to find out what it means to be a black woman in America. Hey are made in her house in her kitchen using a single light source. She did the series to show what you can do in your own environment with whatever you choose at that specific moment in time.
Doreen Garner
‘White Man On A Pedestal’ is based on Marion Sims who is considered the father of modern gynecology, he achieved this title through torturing black women. He performed surgeries on black women without anesthesia, he claimed that black people did not experience pain therefore did not need anesthesia.
Doreen’s work seeks to place this trauma and pain in plain view for lookers to experience without the ability to turn away. ‘Saartjie’s Triangle’ is inspired by Saartjie Baartman who was a victim of sex trafficking in the 19th century.
Titus Kaphar
In this series it depicts the outline of the painting of a likely white woman a young black boy serving her inside the outline of the woman is the face of a black woman.
His other work shows the hidden truth beneath works of art and symbolism in America
Juliana Huxtable
Dj, Performance artist, Painter & Writer
Her work is informed by intersectionality.
Her sculpture work in ‘Untitled In The Rage (Nibiru Cataclysm) ‘ presents a feminine figure in the style of Nubian and Egyptian artwork. The figure has a triumphant black identity that explores the femininity and sexuality as its creator was born intersex and raised male.
Kennedy Yanko
Painter-sculpter
Her work serves as a visual way to make certain materials such as metal and marble into organic visuals. She explores the limits of material gesture and simultaneously reveals innate links between seemingly dissimilar objects.
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