Dada Khanyisa: Good Feelings

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Dada Khanyisa Good Feelings



Dada Khanyisa Good Feelings



Old wonders, new resonance Sinazo Chiya Works 2017-19

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Good Feelings: A conversation between Dada Khanyisa and Julie Nxadi

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Works 2020

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Notes from the studio

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Artist biography

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Old wonders, new resonance Sinazo Chiya

Within the critical climate informing Dada Khanyisa’s

By wonder I mean the power of the displayed

work, Resonance and Wonder (1990), a text by

object to stop the viewer in his or her tracks,

Pulitzer-winning American academic Stephen

to convey an arresting sense of uniqueness,

Greenblatt, exists as a foundational reference. The

to evoke an exalted attention [...] A resonant

missive has been prescribed reading for students of

exhibition often pulls the viewer away from

the Michaelis School of Fine Art over several years.

the celebration of isolated objects and

It is a divot of canon for the recent generations

toward a series of implied, only half-visible

of practitioners that have passed through that

relationships and questions ...

institution, Khanyisa among them. Greenblatt, as indicated by the title, distinguishes between these two phenomena in art and

Wonder is further described as a form of ‘enchanted looking’. Greenblatt elaborates:

exhibition-making. He affirms both – it’s not a question of if they exist, but a taxonomy of how.

This understanding, by no means autonomous

He states:

and yet not reducible to the institutional and economic forces by which it is shaped,

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By resonance I mean the power of the

is centered on a certain kind of looking,

displayed object to reach out beyond its

the origins of which lie in the cult of the

formal boundaries to a larger world, to evoke

marvelous and hence in the artwork’s

in the viewer the complex, dynamic cultural

capacity to generate in the spectator

forces from which it has emerged and for

surprise, delight, admiration, and

which it may be taken by a viewer to stand.

intimations of genius.

Sinazo Chiya


The first celebrates the object’s ability to conjure

that have been prescribed to a specific but

aspects of its context; it praises its nimble

influential set of South African students are

wielding of its own connotations. A resonant

enriching, yet shuttered in a dialectic of benign

object is authoritatively pliant – it can mean in

alienation. There is passion in Greenblatt’s

many directions. The second is an expression of

evocations but there is no intimacy. In his theorised

veneration at the object’s possession of perceived

dynamics the viewer remains suppliant to the

symbolic weight; wonder is framed as the result

object – an encounter is in motion but the audience

of a positive appraisal of the object’s style. Both

is not necessarily moved. This ‘resonance and

reactions are elicited rather than undertaken. It is

wonder’ belong to a time in which a hierarchy of

not an exchange – resonance and wonder exist

value regarding what is worth knowing, seeing and

as provocations.

contemplating separates the exalted and the base,

Greenblatt’s notion of these concepts is built on an essential distance between object-image and audience. Resonance is dissociative; it ‘pulls away’

with the ability to differentiate becoming a marker of ‘culturedness’. Dada Khanyisa articulates their perception of

the audience from the immediate object, advancing

this genial isolation in the essay accompanying

imaginative possibilities, rewarding a fertility of

their graduate exhibition from the aforementioned

association. Wonder is mired in exalt and affect –

school. They describe visiting the Johannesburg

after all, to ‘intimate genius’ requires a posture

Art Gallery for a school trip at a young age, and

of genuflection.

feeling an irrevocable distance, stating:

Throughout, the text is aware of the specific culture in which it is written and presumably

Seeing paintings with Africans in them

circulated; it acknowledges that it is the product

was refreshing, made the space relatable. I

of ‘the dominant aesthetic ideology of the West’.

connected the content on the gallery’s walls

Greenblatt mentions Platonists, Proust and the

with what was in our apartment [where] there

wonder-cabinets of the Renaissance. He remarks on

was a calendar, photos of people in their

the ingenuity of a Coca-Cola stand in the Yucatán

favourite outfits, celebrity centrefold posters

region of Mexico and fantasises about placing it

and some hardboard-mounted prints on

in New York’s Museum of Modern Art to better

the walls. Art or kitsch decor as westerners

spotlight its possession of resonant potential.

referred to it was what made every home

From his point of view, the recontextualisation of

have a tinge of the sophistication that

the object to a predetermined access point for

mirrored the suburbs that were places of work

wondrous things would better communicate the

for many of our fathers and mothers ... The

stand’s status as a contender in the arena

consumption of art is exclusively reserved for

of ‘enchanted looking’.

those who can afford. As a result, I associated

And so, the concepts of resonance and wonder

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art with white people, especially work with

Old wonders, new resonance


themes that I failed to understand and

institutions like the University of Cape Town

connect with. The feeling I got from seeing

has challenged my perceptions on identity,

the posters was different from the one I got

people and spaces.

when I visited the Johannesburg Art Gallery; curiosity was associated with the latter and

And later,

comfort with the former. I ventured into writings by Bantu Biko, Ntozake Within the post-apartheid South African pedagogical

Shange, Frantz Fanon, Achille Mbembe and

schema, this notion of a mutually exclusive ‘comfort’

Amos Tutuola. The readings helped instill a

and ‘curiosity’ was a common experience for black

sense of pride in my people’s cultural practices

students. To be educated, to be broadened, to be

and day-to-day experiences. Viriri and

cultured, meant following curiosity away from the

Mungwini wrote a particular reading that stood

embrace of Trompies into the swells of Tchaikovsky,

out the most; it addressed the Africanisation

from the complex camaraderie of Emzini Wezinsizwa

of knowledge in a Eurocentric society.

into the romps of Monty Python, from Noni Jabavu

‘Africanisation of knowledge is basically a call

to Joan Didion. Upward mobility has meant

to place the African worldview at the centre

movement away from one’s constitutive references;

of analysis and recognition that there are

in the project of ‘improvement’ there is a recurrent

different pyramids for the construction of

pattern of extinction. Khanyisa continues:

knowledge none of which should be regarded as inferior for knowledge is basically a

It seems to become a problem when an artist

cultural construct.’ I felt empowered by the

focuses their themes on the people versus

hostility I experienced during my first few

creating Eurocentric work. This limited

years in Cape Town. This experience was not

understanding of the commercial art space

unique, my peers were also engaged by black

pushed me towards appealing to people who

consciousness and decolonization material.

have stories that are not foreign from mine. The aim was to create a relatable visual

In what is tantamount to their earliest manifesto,

language that relied upon figurative and

Khanyisa professes a desire not only to participate

literal narratives so people would not have

within spaces, but to remake these according to

to question their intellectual capabilities

the world around them. The formative force-fed

while engaging with the work. The need to

concepts of Greenblatt and other canonical figures

make work that connects with people who

have been responded to and retooled by Khanyisa

live in and around the spaces I call home

and their peers through ‘decolonization material’.

was realised when I studied fine art in Cape Town. The learning material that is offered by

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During a walkabout for Bamb’iphone (‘Pick up the phone’), Khanyisa’s first solo exhibition, one

Sinazo Chiya


visitor raised a hand to comment, ‘The picture is

are the warmly bleached tones common to all

looking at me.’ This uninhibited response expresses

rooms illuminated by a single flame. The gloom of

a fundament of Khanyisa’s practice – the picture

the arrangement carries reverberations of other

is looking at the viewer because the artist is.

art-historical kitchens spanning Gerard Sekoto, Van

Greenblatt’s expansive aims, quickly dissolving into

Gogh and Carrie Mae Weems, yet the styling of the

alienation, have been elevated to work in a time

room is decidedly specific. This particular kitchen is

when ideological reparations are not a negotiation

a staple of South Africa’s townships with its ageing

but an imperative. The people seeing are asserting

behemoth of a microwave, enamel fixtures, squat

their right to be seen, and to have their experiences

fridge and pride-of-place bread bin. There is only

be recognised as moments with wonder.

one adult seated at this table, and she is depicted

The diptych central to Bamb’iphone pp22-23

in a mode of strenuously applied calm. The teenage

elucidates this perspective. In the first panel,

boy beside her is holding the phone they will use to

‘Khaw’phinde um’trye’ (‘Won’t you try them again’),

‘try them again’ – the technological responsibilities

a family is painted gathered around a single candle,

delegated to the younger, savvier generation of

jointly waiting for the phone to ring. The colours

the family. uGogo stands in the corner, robed and

Bamb’iphone, 2018 Installation with ‘Khaw’phinde um’trye’ and Love between Magenta Covers (acrylic and mixed media on masonite); sound created in collaboration with Julie Nxadi

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Old wonders, new resonance


blanketed as if she has left her room briefly to see

the young people depicted we see the scholarly

how the young are getting on in their attempts to

industriousness underpinned by the talismanic

make contact. The rest of the figures in the scene

belief that sufficient formal education will lead to

have books and pens in hand, apparently engaged

transformed material circumstances, and the aged

in reading, writing and arithmetic.

possess a resigned but practical dejection – their

The second panel, Love between Magenta

carriage suggests they are the kind of people that

Covers, takes place in an antonymic setting.

can extract all the value possible from a coupon or

Nothing is filial in the trio of lovers depicted

a social grant. The women of homely appearance

at repose. The roofline of distant buildings is

are painted in the home and those who wear their

visible from the window behind them, but painted

worldliness are seen surrounded by silken bedwear.

lower, implying that this group is at the crest

This is a tableau of common dysfunctions and

of affluence, the extent of their luxuriating

survival mechanisms, but what is crucial in it is

corroborated by the golden tones seen throughout

its disavowal of the pathologisation of both the

the image. It is altogether a different form of

township and the city. Khanyisa’s precise synthesis

warmth than in ‘Khaw’phinde um’trye’. Two phones

of ambiguity ensures the narrative never reaches

are visible in this image – one is held by the group

the level of trope; they have made provision for

and the other lies face-down on the bedside table.

a liberating confusion. The lack of linearity, the

The woman holding the phone wears a look of

calculated removal of resolution, and the defiant

supreme restfulness while the other, reaching

absence of absolutes eliminates the temptations

towards it, exudes near-maniacal excitement;

of a moral framework. Khanyisa’s is an image

the man between them combines suspicion

superlatively without judgment: all simply is.

and bewilderment – perhaps it is the look of

All the parcels of the human experience,

performed machismo.

specifically the black South African experience,

In the call-and-response dynamic created

that are mundane, devastating, humorous, heroic,

by these two paintings the viewer is certain of

tender and cringe-worthy are brought to the fore

where the call is coming from but the ambiguity

not as curiosities but as resonant comforts. Instead

of the lovers’ faces magnifies the uncertainty

of the assimilatory logic of shame, Khanyisa works

of the answer. Degrees of likelihood are evenly

to imbue with pride every facet and contradiction

distributed between the device ignored and the

of their subjects’ personhood. In Khanyisa’s work,

device attended to; the intrusion of a call from

experience no longer has to fit itself into canonical

needful relatives explains the extreme animation,

modes in order to be legible as venerable; rather,

the disgruntledness and the serene apathy on the

notions of canon are expanded to accommodate

respective faces. In this diptych, a home with an

the minutiae of the everyday.

absent male figure is juxtaposed with an image of

While ‘Khaw’phinde um’trye’ and Love between

man immersed in a coterie of beautiful women. In

Magenta Covers address the multiform experience

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Sinazo Chiya


of being, using the discrepancies between township

[T]he interiors came from the frustration of

and suburb, Squad Goals (internet friends are not

not having the financial power to be able to

your real friends) p26 spotlights the escalating

change the walls in my living space and just

clusterfuck of self-authorship in our phone-

that frustration of when will I own property

mediated modernity. The characters in this image

or I can’t stand these white walls! ... I wanted

are ready to be seen, and to be seen together. They

change so bad. I also wanted change as far as

are painted wearing flagship items from imported

what I was talking about in my work because

brands; French-made shoes are combined with

I was getting stuck trying to talk about people

overtures to local retailers and regional celebrities.

all the time. Let me just focus on the spaces

Arranged outwardly as opposed to an entangled

that I want to inhabit or I want to create or

depiction, with a central text asking ‘Do you want

I want to live in.

to tag Palesa Kgasane’, Khanyisa’s work offers a view of the aesthetics of connection in an age of

The artist describes de-privatised fantasies of

algorithmic reproduction.

home in a broadcasted process of wish-fulfillment.

This Veblen tapestry shows us the ways in which

One such work is Traces of Companionship p83.

attempts at autonomous modes of self-creation

Again we are in a bedroom, but instead of a window,

are overlaid with clumsy pleas for recognition;

the viewer looks at an artwork that appears a

it lays bare the simple-hearted, simultaneous

concatenation of textures, colours and references.

desperations for belonging and differentiation.

The central figure is a rendition of the statue of

Khanyisa’s rendering of an earnest digital ritual

Zeus holding a cornucopia or horn of plenty, a

reflects the ‘dynamic cultural forces from which

symbol of abundance. Yet he is wearing a beanie,

it has emerged’ – the need to situate oneself in a

his facial features synchronous with those seen

community that is simultaneously real and unreal.

across Khanyisa’s repertoire. The bedroom itself is

Khanyisa blueprints a form of ‘resonance and

close-cropped and zoomed-in, the perspective and

wonder’ hinged on the coalescence of seemingly

the sheets and pillows directly referencing Felix

disparate positions, a means by which these terms

Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled bed billboard (1991), a

can become actualised in the amorphous and

work Khanyisa studied at their alma mater.

constantly moving here and now. Good Feelings, their sophomore exhibition,

How they have adapted these classical and contemporary icons is a clear display of their

deepens this notion. The small-scale works in which

retooling of Greenblatt’s concepts. Having reduced

characters are completely absent are a key element

the distance between viewer and object, they

of this presentation. Place and context are cast as

now invite the viewer to transpose themselves

not merely telling about the people around them,

into the scene. Exalted imagery is incorporated

becoming platforms for imaginative occupation.

into a domestic metric. The venerable is not aloft;

Khanyisa has said:

it can be counted among the places whose sole

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Old wonders, new resonance


Preparatory drawing for Squad Goals (internet friends are not your real friends) from Khanyisa’s sketchbook

purpose is refuge and rest. Through strategic

and every engagement, be it agreement with the

additions rather than trite iconoclasm, Khanyisa

artist’s taste, or an internal desire for adjustments

has cleaved a space in the image to be filled by the

in wall-colour or flooring, is an activation of the

audience, with participation becoming necessary

resonant potential – all is permissibly enchanted.

for its completion. Within this deeply personal room, among these sheets that carry the marks

In an essay titled ‘Speaking in Tongues’ (2009), Zadie Smith observes:

of use, objects of curiosity have been delicately cannibalised into features of comfort. Khanyisa’s

Black reality has diversified. It’s black people

stated process of personal wish-fulfilment is

that talk like me, and black people that talk

inevitably turned into a shared vicarious wondering.

like lil Wayne. It’s black conservatives and

For a generation famously excluded from the

black liberals, black sportsmen and black

possibility of home ownership or means of self-

lawyers, black computer technicians and

determination beyond clothing and hairstyle, these

black ballet dancers and black truck drivers

works become vehicles for the practice of choice,

and black president. We’re all black, and we

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Sinazo Chiya


all love to be black, and we all sing from our

Conditions’ in deference to Frantz Fanon’s own

own hymn sheet. We’re all surely black people,

appraisal of ‘The Wretched of the Earth’. Whether

but we may finally be approaching a point

we are previously wretched and/or perpetually

of human history where you can’t talk up or

nervous, in Khanyisa’s work there is no corrective

down to us anymore, but only to us.

or aspirational tendency: it is sufficient to be. Khanyisa’s practice makes room for not only

And it can be said that Khanyisa’s work reflects the

being spoken to but being spoken with. The

kind of thinking that brings us closer to that point

encounters, characters and rooms in Khanyisa’s

in history. In the artist’s egalitarian cosmology of

work do not apologise for their existence – they are

personhood, every voice singing from its own hymn

assured of their place in ‘the cult of the marvelous’.

sheet carries the ability to be sonorous. Just as

Theirs is not a storyboard of ‘otheredness’; rather,

the contrasts across the kinds of wood used by

unburdened of the need to fulfill narratives of

Khanyisa reflect the differences in skin tone, so

tragedy or triumph, theirs is a defiant preparedness

black subjectivities are embraced in their plurality.

to meet cultivated shame, complexes of inferiority,

Khanyisa’s depiction of the black South African

trope-reliant pathologisation, with good feelings.

experience avoids the pitfalls of a romantic

Without lapsing into the parroting numbness of a

essentialising of blackness, or of dissolving this

mirror, or the vacuous amplifications of an echo

into a generalised ‘humanity’. Rather, they affirm

chamber, the work of Dada Khanyisa advances

its idiosyncrasies and contradictions as something

a resonance and wonder of closeness, mining

to be witnessed with rapt enchantment. Theirs is a

the critical potential of not only the familiar and

precise disavowal of the psychic dispossession that

intimate but even one’s own reflection.

continues after commissions and committees on restitution and reconciliation have drawn to a close. That Smith’s words, stemming from experiences specific to the ‘West’, can find purchase and urgency in the ‘south’ reflects the global scale of the systemic disenfranchisement that brought about what Tsitsi Dangaremba termed ‘Nervous

Sinazo Chiya is an associate director at Stevenson and the author of 9 More Weeks, a book of interviews with artists including Dada Khanyisa. She has contributed to the publications Adjective, Art Africa and ArtThrob, and is among the 2019 writing fellows at the Institute of Creative Arts, University of Cape Town.

Opposite What is this patriarchy you speak of?, 2017 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 123 × 127 × 14cm

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Old wonders, new resonance


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Yaphel’imali, 2017 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 85 × 122cm

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Ama #WCW, 2017 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 115 × 147 × 15cm

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Afropolitan Teaparty, 2017 Detail of mural at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg

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Untitled (Intimacy), 2018 Acrylic and mixed media on wood Diptych, 88.5 × 122 × 12cm, 100 × 120 × 12cm

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‘Khaw’phinde um’trye’, 2018 Acrylic, mixed media and found object on masonite 97.5 × 178 × 10cm

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Love between Magenta Covers, 2018 Acrylic and mixed media on masonite 97.5 × 179 × 10cm

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‘Si la ngaphandle wena uva?’, 2018 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 140 × 125 × 23cm

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Squad Goals (internet friends are not your real friends), 2018 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 133 × 247 × 7cm

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Nine-Nine, 2018 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 83 × 70 × 10cm

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Abalandeli, 2018 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 94 × 185 × 20cm

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Another Round, 2018 Mural for Nine More Weeks at Stevenson, Johannesburg

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Ugly Art, 2018 Mixed media laid on canvas 47 × 37cm

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Mpumi: Selfie King, 2018 Mixed media laid on canvas 47 × 37cm

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‘Grand sharp, what are you saying to me?’, 2018 Mixed media laid on canvas 48 × 38cm


Queen of Nudes, 2018 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 72 × 70 × 16cm

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Taking Selfies Religiously, 2018 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 85 × 65 × 15cm

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Kind of Cool, 2018 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 95 × 85 × 14cm

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Sad in Summer, 2019 Mixed media and found objects on wood 64 × 51cm

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‘Sund’khotha bhuti’ (I have my own), 2019 Mixed media and found objects on wood 85 × 82 × 18cm

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Untitled, 2019 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 127.5 × 74.5 × 23cm

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USB box for sound component of Bamb’iphone created in collaboration with Julie Nxadi, 2018

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Good Feelings A conversation between Dada Khanyisa and Julie Nxadi

I: Process ’n’ Feelings

DK: Yeah so I am having a chat with Julie about –

DK:   It’s been in my head since March

a lot of things, this and that –

2018 – and it’s been interesting. It’s been a

About such and such –

lot of questions and a lot of trying to figure

This is about the exhibition Good Feelings. I chose

out and answer the questions. Trying to be

to have this conversation with Julie because I

sassy and whatever. Give it attitude, give

respect her perspective. She is someone I chat to

it character, give it meaning, from nothing,

and see a lot. So it was only fitting to kind of make

you know, from just sketching. So it’s been

sense of things – talk about things, learn about

interesting to see things form themselves

things – with her. So yeah, hello Julie.

and the characters take shape and wear eye shades and pout and shout.

JN: How are you doing? JN: What is your process? Are you the kind of DK: I’m good. Just working towards the show,

person who leaves a lot on the cutting-room

excited to finish it up.

floor, where what we see is one-third maybe of what you came up with? Or do you know

JN: How long has this story been in your head?

exactly what you’re going to be making?

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Dada Khanyisa and Julie Nxadi


DK: I think it’s a mix of both. Most of the

reflection of a time that I can relate to, an energy

time when I revisit the sketchbook I do something

that I can relate to – and I don’t feel alone. That

from that. I guess I would describe the process

sounds so sad, but I think you get a sense of

as – it’s very abstract, like how maybe you would

what I am saying.

rewrite your stories where you get an idea and you build on it. So it would be an image or a gesture

DK: I know what you mean ...

or an attitude or a feeling or something sparks an interest, you know, and that kind of gets it going. It

JN:

forms itself. I know it sounds mystical and maybe

All of your work has always felt very collaged

whimsical or just – I don’t know, but that’s the

and fragmented and reassembled, but there’s

process. It’s always like finding a solution:

something very particular about these works ... there’s a second level of fragments. I am wondering

– ‘Oh, which wood is going to work with this?’

what happened? What is this process? How did you

– ‘What is time efficient?’

get to the disassembling and reassembling of these

– ‘What brings out the nice qualities?’

particular moments in this fashion?

– ‘What gives it life?’            – ‘What gives it character?’

DK:

I think – especially with these – they serve as Thinking about all those things. Taking whatever

storyboards. They work as singular images, but

works, but there’s always room to explore an idea.

they also feed into each other. It comes back to

It’s never stopping because an idea is too big or an

what you said about relating – it’s not just about

idea is too ridiculous, because sometimes it’s just

one trajectory or one idea. I think I based this work

the giggles that actually work.

on feelings and emotions –

It’s what you are going for. It’s just like, oh okay, that’s ridiculous, or that’s great, giggles, giggles,

JN: I was just gonna say!

and that’s maybe just as simple as that.

It feels like a kind of socio-cultural accompaniment. It’s like a score. It’s accompaniment to a mood ...

JN:

In terms of the trajectory of your work, the lineage,

DK:

this particular cluster of work feels as though it’s

Most of the time when I make work, people tell

familiar subject matter – a cultural temperature

me what the narrative is. People share what they

more than a specific instruction or idea. When I

think is happening and I take a lead from that –

am with your work, I don’t get a sense that this is

because your social context will help you pin

supposed to be telling me. It’s more like this is a

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Good Feelings


the story together. I can’t really bring out what

I might take it in a different

certain gestures mean to you culturally. I base it on

direction.

showing emotions and not just depicting that these people are beautiful. For example, the portrait of Nox, it’s not just showing how gorgeous she is, but also, she is in action. I guess that’s what brings us back to

It all comes down to challenging yourself and just taking it a step further and trying not to have your feet stuck in mud and calling that comfort. Things have to be functional and have to add

your question about the trajectory, the growth

value to the community and the people. It has

– the collaging, it looks different now. I think the

to do something. So from that understanding,

conscious decision to grow and also just follow

it’s hard to separate yourself from the narrative.

what I am feeling was something I stuck to.

I focus on people. I think the reason why it’s relatable is because these are gestures by people who we’re around ...

JN:

It’s kind of awe-inspiring and staggering to see how intimate you get – even in these big animated

JN: ... all the time ...

gestures. The lens is very close and it’s very intimate because you are a Black person and

DK: ... all the time!

you are chatting with Black people. That’s the

You see on the internet –

difference, I think, between your work and some

And these are the people that I am also part of –

other works: it’s a chat. I am wondering, how do

this is the community that I am also part of. I do my

you keep inviting people into that conversation? Is

best to catch up with friends, argue with people,

Bamb’iphone one thing, and then you go and start

touch tongues with someone, you know?

another conversation? Or does that conversation drift into another phase?

JN: A lot of tongue touching sometimes.

DK:

I think I try to blur where one project starts and the other ends ... Most of the time I try to step back and listen because I’ve said all I can in the work. I find it very

DK: It’s a lot of tongue touching. I think it’s

important to step out of that world that you create, but also to bring back into it. But what I wanted to touch on is intimacy, like

fruitful because people usually bring out something

these intimate settings. That’s core, that’s the

I have never thought about.

foundation of these works. It’s like unveiling a layer

It’s one of those things where through engagement it might inspire the next body of work.

and looking at the intimate connections that thread a community, that build a community. I guess that’s what I was trying to do with these people.

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Dada Khanyisa and Julie Nxadi


Depending on who you are looking at, who is next

DK:

to who, it’s kind of a game of broken telephone.

I think it does have that, taking it a step further

Depending on who tells the story, it changes.

where someone will frame their reality based on

It’s the same principle where you can place one

what they want.

painting next to a totally different one and it

We all just curate our experiences and make it seem

switches the narrative. Like these women shouting

like our life is lit. I am trying to keep it pretty, but

at him, ‘o grand joh?’ – he deserves that question.

also keep it ... I think I am shying away from the

uGrand, Joe? [are you okay, Joe?]

word real? JN: It’s an interesting word because

JN:

There’s always an interface between what people are performing and what’s ‘real’. In that same way,

the fact of it feeling disjointed and feeling so unreal is what is making it ...

you have this performance of being okay that’s then made complex by the question. uGrand?

DK: ... not real ...

All these very fine interfaces of what we understand to be social media culture, that is:

JN: Yeah, but very real.

trying to find a way to package your reality. Everyone complains about people being cheesy or vile and trolling on social media, but I think we’ve made a false dichotomy where we have framed performativity as a masking of truth or moving away from the truth, but ... sometimes the performance is a packaging of a truth. There’s a lot of those moments with these paintings or maybe like you said, it’s my encounter with them.

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Good Feelings


II: Good Ugly Feelings

JN: So ... sometimes you are making something

DK: It’s just like the complexities of a toxic

because it makes you feel good.

relationship. Maybe someone’s character is that they are very hands-on, they are very present in

DK: Exactly. It’s like I am just trying to focus

the house, they take care of things, but they also

on the good feelings.

abuse you emotionally and it’s confusing because there’s something comforting about the fact that

JN: It’s admirable.

it’s happening in such an organised space.

It’s very easy to fall into an entrapment of trauma.

JN:

There’s a lot of healing moments even when you

It’s familiar.

are resolving traumatic experiences. I suppose the

There is such proximity between pleasure

thing is that joy is not taken seriously, even though

and pain. Like that thing we were watching where

that sounds oxymoronic. Joy is something to be

this woman who had been abused by her mother

taken seriously ... and feeling good is as important

was sitting by her bedside as the mother was

as combing through some very difficult and

dying. She was literally kissing the hands of her

uncomfortable things.

abuser. A lot of the time that’s where people find themselves, and it’s embarrassing and it’s tough

DK: It’s like our lives are not just characterised

but that’s a reality.

by our traumatic experiences because between that, even when we tell our traumatic experiences,

DK: That’s a reality, you know?

there’s some laughing ...         JN: Things are complicated, they        JN: Yes, that’s the thing! Traumatic stories don’t always sound like you

are so complicated. All we can do is tell the truth.

think they’re going to sound. You don’t know that ukwinto ezo ku traumatiser ibu tshintshe ubomi bakho [you are in a moment that will traumatise you and change your life] until you can’t stop

DK:

It’s very important how we tell that truth. At times it’s not a moral stand, at times it’s

looking back at it. And so your experience of that

like you are telling a story about something that

thing – in that moment – is complex.

changed with experience. Say you talk about

It’s funny, it’s bizarre, it’s harrowing, it’s soft

someone who spins igusheshe [BMW]. Someone

and it’s all happening at the same time.

else may point out that that is a hazard.

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Dada Khanyisa and Julie Nxadi


JN: And a crime, yeah.

fugitives of an unjust system. So there’s this call that ‘our responsibility is to change that’,

DK: It’s a crime because some of the time

because that’s not a place to survive from.

they spin out of control and bash into people.

But at the same time we can’t

It’s very dangerous for that to be happening.

pretend that there might not be a risk here of

It’s not wise, but the thrill ... it’s mind

disarming and making vulnerable a hunted people

blowing and only a few people understand

and now you are just vulnerable and still being

or appreciate that. We were talking about

hunted at the same pace.

ukuchaza [having swagger] and how it has to

There’s a lot of things that are going

do with being on the edge. It’s on the edge of

on at the same time and I think siyathanda uku

breaking the rules and almost dying.

instructor [we love instructing] and sometimes we need to take a break from the instruction

JN: Like train surfing.

and just tell the story.

DK: Yeah.

DK: Yeah, tell the story.

It has to come out. JN:

Train surfers have robust social lives, ngabantu a bachazayo kwezindawo a basuka kuzo [they are

It has to exist, it has to be there, it has to be in the world. I guess that’s the instructive element.

people who have swagger and status in the social

But as far as having to carry the load of fixing the

groups that they are from] ... and it’s a matter

social wrongs or social ills ...? Because there’s

of life or death.

also that thing that as Black cultural practitioners we can’t just focus on fynbos. And ‘they’ are like,

DK:

Uyayibona [you see]? Everyone is on the edge of something. I think ‘going out’ is an outlet for that. You know, that edginess, that way to release.

okay, we get your fynbos obsession but the hood is burning. Where is your bucket? The hood is burning, dawg. We are here and we are doing it. So there

Because we love releasing, we love escaping.

is also a need to celebrate that. A need to celebrate

It translates to the social alcoholic problems.

the beautiful. Getting back from work and taking off your bra and just chilling – that decompression

JN:

I think we like to instruct. There’s an

element – It’s a point of interest to me. I understand

acknowledgement that, okay, Black life has been

why people go out because I go out and it’s

made urgent by all sorts of interferences. And

interesting the things that play out and what

some decisions are coming from a place of being

they say about the greater South Africa.

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Good Feelings


* tea break *

JN:

There’s a meeting I was in where someone came in and said I must be having a good time because: ‘Black Panther’. And I was like: ‘I don’t understand.’ She was like: ‘because Lupita is a big thing and you are, like, dark and it must be great for you right now.’ I was like: Whaaat! But in my head I’m like, so, you are conceding that there is another side to this. That you guys are saying that Black is beautiful, but you know that you don’t believe it? Because why would it not be good for me? We are in South Africa. Why isn’t it good for me unless Lupita is famous?           DK: Uyayibona? [Do you see?] JN:

This is why we were talking about it as historical ugliness, because it really has nothing to do with actuality, it is just a story you were told about yourself. And when you have heard that a lot, that theme becomes a big part of your lexicon, right? To be confronted by people and have them say, ‘Umbi’ [you are ugly] – that’s a very serious human experience. Especially when there’s a consensus because you are black, dark, queer, fat, or experience the world differently. And it’s not a quiet thing, it’s a very confrontational thing – the fact that people wish you were somewhere else instead of in front of them. And then you finally find a way to survive where you’re not, like, completely overwhelmed by that,

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Dada Khanyisa and Julie Nxadi


but a lot of your decisions trip up on this one thing:

JN: Do you spend time grinding axes?

the indignity of being called ugly to your face. DK: Do you spend time grinding axes because DK: That’s why it’s important as cultural

of historical ugliness?

producers to not just focus on one thing. JN:

To try and compel someone into humanising me

JN:

Because engraved in our self-concept would

is dehumanising to me.

always be isandla esishushu sa lo oppressor yakho

I must confront who I am in light of

[the hot hand of your oppressor] because how else

everything that I have experienced. Even the

will you explain this traumatic foundation without

shameful and weird stuff, you know? Even the

having to etch out – with great detail – Isandla

things I did to dispel this idea of being ugly.

esishushu sa lomtu ebekuqhwaba [the hot hand

‘Cause we do ugly things to prove that we are not.

of the person who slapped you]? Do you know what I mean? I am not solely a gathering of all of the times that people have bludgeoned me. That’s not my testimony.

DK:

And sometimes you just have to ride it out. I remember when I did a painting about intimacy and there was a finger dragging someone else. It landed up in Ghanaian Twitter and they were like,

DK:

‘oh this is good art, but bad morals’. There is that

That thing someone said to you, ‘hey you must

kind of expectation for you to fix social ills through

be having a wonderful time’, it’s like something that

what you are doing because of the weight of being

someone would say to a Black artist right now. You

historically ugly and underrepresented. It actually

must be having a great time because, you know, this

takes away from your creative freedom as a cultural

is the focus now, Black art is en vogue.

practitioner because you are out there with the

How do you navigate that space of jumping out of

weight of fixing all the wrong around you –

that idea of historical ugliness because there is that weight of where you are? Do you have to milk it

JN: And so what am I supposed to be showing?

because you were so ugly, now that your type is in

Whose fantasy must I show?

fashion do you spread yourself thin? Do you spread yourself thin by making art based on the demands

DK: Yeah, exactly!

that come with it?

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Good Feelings


III: Feeling at home

JN:

I know that your depictions are very candid. These are snapshots of the time and era, but do you think to yourself, ‘oh shit I am gonna have to defend this’?

DK:

DK:

interconnected and related to talking about

Apart from the works that are I’ve been curious about that: how

humans, there are also works about the spaces

provocative it can go. There are times when I know

that people inhabit. After a night out, after a long

that ooh, if I do this I kind of know the response, I

day, where do people go to rest their heads? It’s a

know who it appeals to, I know who shares that kind

way to reimagine my own living arrangements, born

of stuff. Even doing that work with the –

from the frustration of not being able to change the colour of walls and stuff. It helps to remember

JN: The nipple?

the fact that there’s always a negotiation for space. A negotiation for belonging – my frustration with

DK: – with the nipple ring, yeah.

not being able to change the colours of my walls

There’s something about sexual

because it’s not my house, I’m renting where I

acknowledgement, in any form, that makes you lose

am at. It’s like spaces I want to inhabit. Spaces

innocence and kind of takes you to a level of talking

I would like my place to look like. Spaces I have

about anything.

seen. Spaces I know about ... but also talking about

So I was like ‘mmmh, it would nice to actually just

domestic issues. The art, for example, that’s linked

explore that’ because the character style I use

to the kitchen has to do with the politics, the things

kind of breaks away from people. It’s a person but

that occur in the kitchen as in Bamb’iphone ...

not a person. I think I am aware of that, but some responses surprise me, others are expected but it’s never like, ‘okay please stop doing this’. It’s never that extreme. I mean, there are the things we never get to

JN:

I think it’s because of being disjointed from feeling like we can speak about space with a lot of confidence. We’ve been made to shrink. We’re

really ... see because there’s a lot of filtering.

very preoccupied with flesh and with ourselves,

A lot of making things better.

but there’s spatial stuff as well.

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Dada Khanyisa and Julie Nxadi


DK: ... and keep it moving.

DK:

It’s something I know Sam Nhlengethwa

Leave no traces of your existence.

touched on with his tributes. There’s a series where he did these little spaces, with people he looked

JN: Yeah. Ibengathi akhomtu o hlala apha

up to. Moving from that kind of art reference, but

[as if there’s no one who lives here].

also with my own personal take to it. It’s quite

Hahaha.

frustrating not being able to change the colour of the wall. Or to live in a space and not call it

DK: Yeah, yeah.

your own. Sometimes we associate displacement

I guess it’s this idea of ownership. You know, we

with extreme conditions. A visit at an Airbnb is

want a piece of this part of the world that we live

a form of displacement. Not feeling like you are

in and it’s becoming frustrating. Rental prices are

there. The sense of impermanence. You cannot be

high. Walls are the way you found them. Electricity

comfortable, you cannot stay, but also while you

is so high. No, there’s just so many things that make

are there, there is a lot that’s happening there ...

it a frustrating experience. That desire of changing the colour of walls, it also comes from that thing

JN: You can’t be dormant ...

where you’ve never had that privilege. Everywhere you go, even at school when you use a locker ...

DK:

My work is about going out culture, but people go

JN: ... Yeah.

somewhere after that. They have to sleep. They

In recent years I’ve learned to occupy the spaces

have to plant themselves somewhere, so it’s also

that I live in. I didn’t know how to do that. Letting

about that. We are at that age where it’s a concern.

some things bleed out. Letting my expressions come out in all sorts of other ways so that I’m able

JN: And there’s this nomadic

to think – nesting! Making space! Occupying. That’s

sense to how people occupy their living space.

not something I knew I could do until the last few

I would say mna [me], it’s taken me a long time to

years and ... it makes me proud because it means

know how to be cosy in a space. Because I would

I am growing at least in some way or another.

just be there and not really feel like I have the

Kukhula oko [that’s growing up].

freedom to change anything. My responsibility is to keep it clean ...

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Good Feelings


DK:      When you find yourself in such a

culturally rich part of the country, there is that desire to plant yourself in this environment ... I think it’s important that I mention that. All of this is happening in Cape Town. The cultivation of ideas – it’s a different flow. I mean, I grew up in Joburg. The sense of space and living arrangements – I think I got to be free here. I had some sense of independence, of having to mould a personality for myself in a different city.       JN: Away from all your comfort zones. DK: You know what we suffer through. I think that

the ability to breathe, the ability to connect with the ocean, the mountain – it does a lot for the creative process. Yeah, that’s that on that.

Julie Nxadi is a former research fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape and was recently awarded a Creative Artist Fellowship at the University of Johannesburg as part of the Gendered Violence and Urban Transformation project in India and South Africa. She is creative director of programmes at the Centre for Being & Belonging, a non-profit company concerned with institutional reform. She also creates for screen with Brown Flamingo Productions, a black womxn-owned production company concerned with rigorous storytelling in film and TV.

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Dada Khanyisa and Julie Nxadi


Good Feelings, installation view with What a Prick, Stevenson, Johannesburg, February 2020

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61


What a Prick, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 73 × 92 × 7cm

62


Group Chat, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 83 × 108 × 5.5cm

63


Nox, 2020 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 80 × 85 × 30cm

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65


Good Feelings, installation view with Precoital Convos and Nox

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Precoital Convos, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 70 × 71 × 10.5cm

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69


Are You Okay?, 2019 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 83.5 × 91 × 8.5cm

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71



Good Feelings, installation view with Precoital Convos, Nox and Are You Okay?


Better than Groin Area Massages, 2019 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 91 × 76 × 16cm

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Blue Sky Excuses, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 86.5 × 57.5 × 15cm

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77



Good Feelings, installation view with Glowing, A Love Letter to Audiophiles and Traces of Companionship


p81 Glowing, 2019 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 78 × 50.5 × 13cm p82 A Love Letter to Audiophiles, 2019 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 61 × 45 × 8.5cm p83 Traces of Companionship, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 63 × 49.5 × 12cm p84 Hug Life, 2019 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 61 × 45 × 8.5cm p85 My Lover Lived Here, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 61 × 45 × 10cm

80


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85


Kaelo, 2020 Mixed media on paper 32.5 × 32.5 × 1cm Vanessa, 2020 Mixed media on paper 34 × 29.5 × 1cm Bhut’ Maswidi, 2020 Mixed media on paper 36 × 34 × 1cm

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87


An Underrated Form of Intimacy, 2020 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 110 × 215 × 12cm

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90


Good Feelings, installation view with An Underrated Form of Intimacy, Sunday Best and Should I Download Tinder?

91


p93 Sunday Best, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 41 × 54 × 11cm p94 Pretty Boy, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 41 × 51 × 9cm p95 Should I Download Tinder?, 2019 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 41 × 50.5 × 5.5cm

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93


94


95


96


Notes from the studio Dada Khanyisa

From an interview with Sisipho Ngodwana and Alexander Richards

On wood I’ve always been curious about wood. My cousin used to make wooden furniture and I was interested in how easy it was to manipulate. It’s the one medium that didn’t feel so hard to use or access because tables

And then I stumbled on the walnut. Actually

were made out of wood. It felt very familiar.

when I went to Rare Woods I was going to

I used to sculpt in clay but I always knew

buy some accents for some side tables I was

that in time I would learn how to work with

making for a friend. I needed a really dark

wood – I think I’m still learning about the

wood. When I worked with it I realised I

right kinds of wood to use ...

could sculpt or carve it – it was very nice

I stumbled upon the wood grain of the

to work with. After that I got some chisels

walnut guy [What a Prick, p62] after my

and tools and some nice oils and that is

exhibition Bamb’iphone, when I went to Rare

what cemented the position of wood in my

Woods’ off-cut section. I was stuck – I

work. I used to ask questions at hardware

wanted something to help my work evolve.

stores, telling them that I am making this

I wasn’t so curious about MDF anymore – I

out of that, and they give you advice and

felt like I had figured it out. Maybe I could

say you can use this or mix that, start with

introduce real wooden frames into the work –

linseed oil and then Danish oil because

I just wanted to see what the options were.

the linseed oil brings out the yellows.

Opposite Photo of Dada Khanyisa for Instagram by Alexander Richards, January 2020

97

Dada Khanyisa


On materiality and working hard When I carve in walnut I don’t have to paint on top of it – the carving takes a long time. But there has to be something that signifies hard work or time. It must feel like ‘Ow

umuntu usebenzile’ [‘this person has worked’]. There is something labour-intensive about painting something really well, as opposed to just having it in flat colour. Imagine if the girl with the pearl earring [Should I Download

Tinder?, p95] had the yellow hoodie and the bomber jacket was just a flat grey or if it was a real bomber jacket – either option would be too easy. I have to ask, what is convincing in this work? What convinces me that I am done, that I have worked a lot on this? I was trying to push the painting element

boxes I am always concerned about. I had very

throughout the Bamb’iphone show. For instance,

little time to get that work done and those

the kitchen scene was painted on the rough

limitations meant some things didn’t feel

back side of masonite because I wanted it

resolved. So that green colour that I painted

to be specific to that context, I didn’t want

on the background, on the wall – that colour

it to be smooth. With ‘Si la ngaphandle wena

finished it all off. There was a point where

uva?’ [p25] I was trying to talk about texture

the carving of that work went really quickly,

or dimensions. It’s similar to the drapery

because it was nice wood – African mahogany.

on Nox’s top – that was easy to do as I took

I was playing with complexions. The guy was

reference photos. But the guy who is leaning

wearing a (fabric) Versace shirt and she was

out of the work is all from the imagination,

wearing a (painted) burgundy dress and I felt

trying to imagine how he would look.

like I cheated, it felt like a formula. So

‘Sund’khotha bhuti’ (I have my own) [p45]

I added the painting of the Woodstock street

– where people were telling security that

scene and then it felt right, like this person

they found a wallet and keys – ticked the

really worked hard.

98

Notes from the studio


On working from life I met Nox around Cape Town Art Fair time – she was friends with my friends. I was on Instagram and I told my friends, she has that thing that I am looking for aesthetics-wise. I reached out to her in the classic DM slide. I told her straightforwardly that I want you to be a muse, whichever way you interpret that. Like, I want to approach this project with that in mind. I had been drawing these kind of scenes in drawing season so I had a specific role I wanted her to take on. This person is at a salon, she is getting ready. The main focus was on drapery, the fabric doing its thing – everything else could be accommodated. She had a great performative presence, like she was on the phone and the

guess where the light would come from, etc.

attitude was right. Yeah, they have a sense

I used to watch make-up tutorial videos for

of flare to their body language and a sense of

painting. You know, learning where to put the

self. So her actions added to the composition

light here and the dark there. I especially

that was already there. I can’t say the final

needed a formula like this for Squad Goals

work looks like the drawing but it is very

because all the characters aren’t in the

much related to it.

same world or space – but let’s make sure the

It would be interesting to work more with her, but I am still trying to navigate how

light is coming from the correct area and that everything makes sense.

that might happen. I think I’ll work closely with people a lot more when the pocket makes sense. It would be nice to hook up a scene with real people. That is why I enjoyed working with Nox because the light was planned and specific, normally I have to

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Dada Khanyisa


On drawing and looking The drawings are the only part of the artwork that I get to keep. I really cherish them. Once the drawing is resolved, I know that the work is going to make sense. I’m not trying to make this a mystical process but I truly do get visions. I used to have a really strong imagination. Well, not ‘used to’ – it’s a seasonal thing. There’s a time when I need to just draw, and a time when I make, and a time when I don’t have ideas. In that drawing time I get visions, like compositional visions, in colour even. There are some things that I need to draw instantly – and then I work it more and more to break it down. Maybe I draw it seven times until it is something. Sometimes a

it will make it into a work. The starting

vision doesn’t make sense, sometimes it

point is people’s gestures or how people

doesn’t translate; other times you are like,

position their bodies. That’s why I don’t want

‘ooh’. Then looking through Instagram,

to make it like a mystical vision where I have

someone does an interesting pose and you

no control and have to present it as it is.

think that could work as a reference. It

I’m also consciously going for growth and

is all just engaging with what is around

not settling for that initial vision.

that sparks those visions. When I’m outside I am looking here,

Sometimes I initiate the vision – like now we have granny [Sunday Best, p93] and the

checking there, analysing that. There

girl with a pearl earring [Should I Download

is always a process of trying to find and

Tinder?, p95], how do we balance that in

understand. So if we’re at Tasha’s and

terms of representation, gender politics?

someone is wearing a really red outfit in that

How do I tie all of these things together?

green setting and then maybe they spill wine

There is always that thought. And then a

on someone – if that moment moves me enough

vision will present itself – maybe that guy

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Notes from the studio


[Pretty Boy, p94] balances things out, or he adds to the feminine energy because there is a lot of pink and he looks very gentle. There are a lot of things to consider – do we really have to put in a geographical setting or is it enough to be just about these people? The works in Bamb’iphone were very specific: we are outside the house, the sun is setting, it was a specific time, a specific narrative. But with Good Feelings I think I am focusing on the abstract, the emotional aspect of people and how they relate. If you look at how the style of the eyes has changed, where it is just like a pupil and a highlight of light, some of them look like they are about to cry. I wanted to focus on emotion and not just depict pretty people. I will depict them looking good, but they will be like ‘Fuck you’ or ‘You ain’t shit’, you know, and that is the reality where people are not just sitting and posing and looking pretty all the time. Sometimes people look pretty and then the card will decline. There is just a little bit more than what we see on the surface, so that is what I consciously chose for the show – focusing on the abstract but also pushing the physical all the way up.

Sisipho Ngodwana and Alexander Richards are associate directors at Stevenson and co-curated Both, and (2018), an exhibition reflecting on 15 years of the gallery’s existence.

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Dada Khanyisa


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Artist biography Dada Khanyisa was born in 1991 in Umzimkhulu, KwaZulu-Natal. They graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in 2016, winning the Simon Gerson Prize. Their first solo exhibition, Bamb’iphone, took place at Stevenson, Cape Town, in 2018, followed by

Good Feelings at Stevenson, Johannesburg, in 2020. Group shows at the gallery include

9 More Weeks and Both, and (2018), and A Painting Today (2017). In 2017, they were commissioned to produce a mural painting at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg as a way to give the historic site contemporary appeal. They participated in a Fountainhead residency in Miami in 2018 and have been awarded a 2020 residency at the CitĂŠ internationale des arts, Paris. www.themightywhale.co.za

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Artist acknowledgments Biggest love and thank you to uMama. I believe all of this is a direct result of her unconditional support and love.

Published on the occasion of Dada Khanyisa Good Feelings 1 February – 19 March 2020 Stevenson, Johannesburg © 2020 for works: the artist © 2020 for texts: the authors Catalogue 93 February 2020 Front cover Nox, 2020 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 80 × 85 × 30cm Back cover Precoital Convos, 2019 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 70 × 71 × 10.5cm Design Gabrielle Guy Photography Mario Todeschini Printing Hansa Print, Cape Town

Buchanan Building 160 Sir Lowry Road 7925 Cape Town +27 21 462 1500 46 7th Avenue Parktown North 2193 Johannesburg +27 11 403 1055 info@stevenson.info www.stevenson.info @stevenson_za




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