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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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
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Nox, 2020 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 80 × 85 × 30cm
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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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Are You Okay?, 2019 Acrylic, mixed media and found objects on wood 83.5 × 91 × 8.5cm
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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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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
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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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An Underrated Form of Intimacy, 2020 Acrylic and mixed media on wood 110 × 215 × 12cm
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Good Feelings, installation view with An Underrated Form of Intimacy, Sunday Best and Should I Download Tinder?
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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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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
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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.
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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