THE LAKE #012 by THE LAKE MAGAZINE

ZOMBIE Witness the fitness

THE LAKE WE ARE FOOLISHLY Ambitious

#12 / 150916

Witness the fitness “It is our suffering that brings us together. It is not love. Love does not obey the mind, and turns to hate when forced. The bond that binds us is beyond choice. We are brothers. We are brothers in what we share. In pain, which each of us must suffer alone, in hunger, in poverty, in hope, we know our brotherhood. We know it, because we have had to learn it. We know that there is no help for us but from one another, that no hand will save us if we do not reach out our hand. And the hand that you reach out is empty, as mine is. You have nothing. You possess nothing. You own nothing. You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give.” - Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

CONTENTS REGULARS:

PUBLISHER

Editor / Art Direction Stefan Naude’ stefan@thelake.co Existential ADVISOR

ART:

Brendan Body brendan@thelake.co

Iconicity 08 Atang Tshikara 20 Olivie Keck 44

COVER

PHOTOGRAPHY: Stalker Quinquennial Aberration

14 26 30

MUSIC: Hezron Chetty Clarksdale Blues Return to the Dust Morning Pages

10 18 36 50

LIFESTYLE: Fashion 40 Wax Junkie 54 Unplugged 56 The views and opinions expressed within the editorial and advertisements of THE LAKE do not necessarily reflect those of its staff, nor any of its associates.THE LAKE and anything contained within is copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, copied or stored electronically without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Jacqui Van Staden Photography Atang Tshikare Zabalazaa ! Atang Tshikare Styling Art Direction Stefan Naude’ Retouching Naomi e’ Camara photographers

FASHION

Jansen Van Staden Oliver Kruger Jacqui Van Staden Adriaan Louw Lou Bopp Kent Andreasen Travys Owen Justin Patrick

Kristi Vlok kristi@thelake.co

CONTENTS PHOTO

Christine Stewart

Adriaan Louw adriaanlouw.co

ONLINE / SOCIAL

‘Always in the kitchen at parties’

Contributors Fred De Vries Matt Vend Ruan Scott Lani Spice Sean O’Toole Valeria Geselev Jacqueline Flint

Advertising / MARKETING Brett Bellairs brett@thelake.co COPY EDITING

thelake.co.za Submissions info@thelake.co

PRINTING NOVUS Novus Print Solutions Tel: +27 21 550 2500 Email: info@paarlmedia.co.za

www.adriaanlouw.co

News 06 Print Run 58 Fashion Mens 60 Fashion Ladies 61 Plimsoll 62

THE LAKE MAGAZINE PTY LTD info@thelake.co

THE LAKE

UNION GINGHAM

BE N SH ER M A N . C OM

FINAL LARGE SCALE

This version of the Union Gingham Lock up is the final version and has been set up to allow the logo and flag to be scaled up. THIS LOCK UP CAN BE INCREASED IN SIZE.

NEWS Iconic Skate ShoeS Resurrected for Vans’ 50th Anniversary The Full Cab Returns Alongside Pro Models Worn by Legends Cardiel, Barbee, and Rowley Capping off Vans’ landmark year of heritage celebrating 50 years “Off The Wall”, the original action sports brand and #1 skate shoe manufacturer resurrects the most revered footwear icons of skate history this holiday season to send off the final installment of the Vans 50th Anniversary Pro Classics Collection, available worldwide now. Legendary in skate shoe design and an icon in its own right, the unrivalled Full Cab returns to the Vans Pro Classics lineup. Originally released in 1989, Steve Caballero’s namesake style revolutionized skate footwear history by inspiring street skaters with the clever innovation to customize the shoe by cut-

ting its collar in half, and thus spawning the “lighter, better, faster” Half Cab® in 1993. In its full form, the Full Cab honors a true original, representing the foremost modifications in performance skate footwear of which Vans is known for today. Alongside the Full Cab Pro follows a trifecta of timeless silhouettes worn by three undeniable skateboarding legends including Ray Barbee, John Cardiel and Geoff Rowley. These influential skaters equally brought persona, style, and performance to an untouchable skate shoe trio highlighting the Old Skool Pro, the Chukka Pro, and the inimitable Rowley Pro, reintroduced this season in the original colorways of their time. INFO: www.vans.com

Missibaba A hot new spot on Rosebank’s Keyes Art Mile / Having been on the hunt for the right location for a new store in Johannesburg, Missibaba was immediately drawn to the TRUMPET building. The strong sense of community and wonderful energy that was being poured into the space by the luxurious mixed bag of soon to be neighbors and friends was utterly infectious. Missibaba is a luxury accessory label established by leather devotee Chloe Townsend. Passionate about South Africa and supporting local industry Townsend works alongside business partner Lizel Strydom from a studio in Woodstock, Cape Town, experimenting with texture and colour that continuously push the boundaries of imagination INFO: www.missibaba.com/

adidas Originals / Gazelle Since the 1960s the Gazelle has existed in many forms and is undoubtedly one of the most classic three-stripe icons. This season Gazelle will reclaim its position amongst the classics with a celebrated launch of the archival ’90s style. Gazelle’s history is made from the fabric of re-appropriation; a legacy carried through style tribes from mod scenesters to the reggae crowd, from the brit-pop crew to the 90s minimalists. At each space in time, it marked a change in creative ownership. Introducing: I am because we are. Remember the future. A unique multi media content collaboration featuring local style tribes and digital artists. adidas Originals briefed unique style tribes to shoot and style a photo series around Gazelle that embodied the concept of ‘I am because we are’. The

style tribe images were then handed over to digital artists to redesign into collages inspired by digital artist Doug Abraham’s artfully remixed visuals of a young Kate Moss for the global Gazelle campaign. Digital artist Aart Verrips was partnered with performance art duo FAKA, Dustin Van Wyk with Instagram cool kids Lindiwe Ngubeni and Lulama Wolf, and Lex Trickett with image maker Gabrielle Kannemeyer and her boyfriend boxer Clint Sylvester. Aart, Lex and Dustin were also briefed to create collages blending Gazelle product from the past and the future with city-specific imagery. Gazelle retails for R1299.00 from adidas.co.za, Anatomy.co.za and Superbalist. INFO: www.adidas.co.za

ORIGINALS BY JACK JONES

Glenfiddich IPA Experiment

ORIGINALS by JACK & JONES has its roots in jeanswear but is reinterpreted with elements from street culture. It is an urban DNA of a youth culture that demands a creative and individual look, adding attitude with hand drawn graphics, a bright colour palette and garments that dare to combine old school versus new school. The sports inspired styles take your mind back to college: simple two-coloured graphics, contrasts stripes and contrast collar. Colours are kept in blue and red somewhat toned down to match the old-school look of college-styles. The colour blocked track suit cardigan in polyester is a strong style representing the retro-sports look within the collection.

The Glenfiddich Experimental Series is designed to inspire unusual and unexpected variants, and sees the unveiling of the first release, the Glenfiddich IPA Experiment, the world’s first single malt Scotch whisky finished in India Pale Ale (IPA) craft beer casks. Glenfiddich Malt Master, Brian Kinsman created the Glenfiddich IPA Experiment in collaboration with a Speyside craft brewer.Perfect for any occasion, the result of this experiment is a liquid with a zesty citrus note followed by soft, sweet vanilla and a hint of fresh hops. The innovative flavour comes from carefully hand-selecting the right malt whiskies to complement the extra hoppy notes.IPA, part of the The series is available in liquor outlets nationwide.

INFO: www.jackjones.com

INFO: www.glenfiddich.com

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NEWS Roger Ballen The Theatre of Apparitions / A groundbreaking, immersive new monograph from Roger Ballen, one of the world’s most original and critically acclaimed art photographers Roger Ballen is one of the most original image-makers of our times. Always seeking to push the boundaries of photographic practice he has created an aesthetic and artistic vision unlike any other contemporary photographer. The Theatre of Apparitions is Ballen’s groundbreaking new monograph. The Theatre of Apparitions is both a departure from his existing oeuvre and the culmination of his unique aesthetic linking image-making and theatrical performance. INFO: www.rogerballen.com

PUMA / DUPLEX EVO Global Sports Brand PUMA looks into their deep sports archive to bring into fruition the Duplex Evo, a style that reimagines the DNA of its 90s predecessor. A take-off the vintage runner, the Duplex Evo has been given a fully redesigned EVA outsole, optimising it for the street rather than the track. With increased flexibility, cushioning, durability, the lightweight sneaker boasts a poignantly modern aesthetic. A seamless mid-foot support system lives on as a nod to the shoe’s early running roots. Over-all, this sleeker, more techy update allows for multiple colour treatments, framed by a seamless mid-foot support arm that calls back to its classic roots. Available PUMA stores, Sportscene, The Cross Trainer stores and selected retailers nationwide. INFO: www.pumaselect.co.za

DR. MARTENS X - THE TRIUMPH OF CAMILLUS BY D’ ANTONIO D’Antonio was an Italian Renaissance painter born in the 15th Century.His painting the Triumph of Camillus depicts how the Roman Senate honours the hero Camillus with a parade through Rome. Camillus had returned from exile to rescue Rome from the besieging Gauls. When informed that the city was ready to surrender and pay off the enemy, he stirred both his troops and fellow citizens with powerful rhetoric stating “With iron, and not with gold, Rome buys her freedom” Taking inspiration from this painting, this capsule collection consists of a 3 option pack of the Pascal 8 eye boot, a 1461 shoe and then rounded off with an 11” satchel to complete the offer. INFO: www.drmartens.com

Woodstock Laundry Comfort is a word spun from the past. It is from a time when things were just made properly. Not things like the internet, segways or selfies, but important things like a comfortable pair of boxer shorts and regal pyjama wear. At Woodstock Laundry we still make things the only way that we know works: by hand and on the loom. You see, everything we do is created from scratch by Capetonian hands out of the purest natural fibres and nothing else. Our garments are light yet substantial, warm but breathable, cool but timeless. They’re artisinally hand-crafted with the environment in mind and each bespoke item is designed in house to be as comfortable as humanly possible. INFO:www.woodstocklaundry.co THE LAKE

iconiCITY a Jack Daniel’s +NESS collaboration

To some, a building is bricks and mortar. Merely a vessel for activity, accommodation or administration. And while certain forms of architecture are perhaps more aesthetically pleasing on the eye than others, buildings are still inanimate structures devoid of soul. That is to some.

+NESS view buildings as enduring custodians of a people’s collective culture, history and memory. They believe that buildings have an essence that not only helps define a skyline but a society too. As masters of their craft, Max Melvill and Jamil Randera are the talented duo that make up +NESS, illustrators whose subjects are architecture found around the cities of South Africa and beyond. Both qualified architects, it is in fact Max and Jamil’s desire to tell the stories embedded within these buildings and the city fabric that inspires them to do what they do.

– a global scavenger hunt to find 150 handcrafted barrels located at historic and cultural sites that have united friends of Jack across the world.

and Cape Town, which formed the clues that ultimately uncovered the whereabouts of the two SA-based barrels.

Two authentic Jack Daniel’s barrels were shipped to South Africa – one for Joburg and one for Cape Town and the locations of these were top secret. Fans of Jack in both cities had to follow

The tales within 2 cities Just as stories are integral to the Jack Daniel’s brand in that they uncover the characters and

Meanwhile, the final Cape Town destination was a location that has been associated with popular culture since 1935. Jack Lemkus, situated in the Exchange Building in St Georges Mall, Cape Town CBD was the first company in South Africa to build relationships with brands such as Nike, adidas and Vans. The enormously popular street wear store is regarded as the place to shop for the biggest names in sneakers. The building in which it is situated, as with most old bulidings, comes with colourful stories including an underground vault that is said to have once contained untold treasure.

The painstaking craftsmanship evidenced in their work and their extraordinary appreciation for buildings and the stories they represent, are what captured the interest of the folks at Jack Daniel’s. This year, the iconic whiskey brand has been celebrating a very special milestone associated with a building that lies at the heart of its provenance. 2016 is the 150th anniversary year of the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. And the global campaign celebrated in cities around the world needed a South African twist for the celebration here, at the tip of Africa.

The spirit of Jack If one considers that buildings and their stories around the world have outlived people and indeed centuries, one begins to appreciate the fascinating role they play in the cities that hold them.

Same craftsmanship for 150 years of whiskey-making As the first registered distillery in the U.S, Jack Daniel’s has grown from a local name in Lynchburg to an iconic global brand by remaining true to its legacy of authenticity, independence and integrity.

+NESS believe that buildings are really full of life and have an undeniable power to make us feel. They believe that a building’s atmosphere can imbue a profound influence on us. This is how they personify the spirit or ‘NESS’ of a building. They split each series into three parts: all the buildings they choose either have historical significance, cultural relevance or in some way help define the respective city’s skyline.

In 1866, Jasper “Jack” Daniel had the foresight to place his distillery at a source of limestone water flowing from a cave spring in Lynchburg. Jack Daniel’s has been at the forefront of whiskey-making ever since. Incredibly, in the 150 years of the Jack Daniel Distillery, the distilling process has largely remained unchanged and craftsmanship has never been compromised. Jack Daniel’s is the only major distillery in the world to make its own barrels. Comprising 33 separate American White Oak staves held together by the sheer pressure of the wood’s precise arrangement alone, the task is far too meticulous to be carried out on an automated assembly line. From this exactitude of carefully crafting each barrel to mellowing each drop of whiskey through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey is made with the same process pioneered and perfected by Mr. Jack himself. Today, the quiet town of Lynchburg still produces every single drop of the world’s Jack Daniel’s, proof that mastering a craft with a focus on quality can propel a brand beyond borders and across cultures. From Tennessee to Jozi and the Mother City In a world where change is a constant, the incredible achievement to be making whiskey in the same way, in the same place, after 150 years has been celebrated with a global Jack Daniel’s Barrel Hunt 08

Newtown offers a unique insight into the development of Joburg and modern South Africa. It is the source of social, political, industrial, artistic and cultural trends that have come to be associated with Joburg’s evolution. Today Kippies is a heritage site and a key part of the richly textured cultural legacy that make the Newtown story so compelling.

Some might say that the Jack Daniel Distillery fulfills all three of these. We think they’d be right. INFO: www.jackdaniels.com INSTA: city_ness

a series of clues to find them, and the incentive was enticing. Each barrel contained tickets for all-expenses paid trips to Lynchburg, Tennessee to be part of the 150th Distillery Anniversary celebration, and New York to learn more about the New York bar and American whiskey culture. With each barrel’s prizes valued at over R150,000 the race was on. +NESS were commissioned to handcraft a special series of works that showcase the facades of different locations around the cities of Joburg

events that have made the brand what it is today, so too the stories behind buildings bring them to life. The successful Jack Daniel’s barrel hunters in Joburg made it to the legendary Kippies, one of Joburg’s most famous jazz venues and the final destination for the scavenger hunt. Situated in Newtown, well-loved Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse is said to have quipped that as an aspiring musician, when you walk onto the stage at Kippies for your first set, you know you have made it.

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SOUTH OF HEAVEN HEZRON CHETTY WRITER - Matt Vend

PHOTOGRAPHY - JANSEN VAN STADEN

“Like many places in South Africa, Durban is a melting pot of conflict and fiercely diverse culture. Rich and poor haplessly merge in a sultry endless summer, in what seems like some unavoidable eclectic co-existence.” An eccentric like no other is violinist Hezron Chetty. Born from the Durban sweat and toil, his roots are firmly cemented in the deepest crevices of the city. He’s an artist that has quietly been making his mark on the world over the years, quietly making something beautiful through the often deafening chaos that is South Africa. ‘I grew up in Bakerville Gardens, an Indian area in Durban; when the schools started integrating races we moved to Glenwood, my Dad owned a bottle store and take-away in Umbilo Road opposite the Winston Pub. I spent most of my weekends practicing there and working for the family business until I was 18’ The legacy of music in Hezron’s family runs deep and he decided from an early age to pick up the violin. ‘On a family outing one Sunday when I was 8, my Dad asked me which instrument I would like to learn. I had seen someone at school playing the violin and I thought, that’s fucking magical, and literally 2 days later I was sent for lessons, It was as quick as that”. Previously he had been playing the harmonium, an instrument found in traditional Indian music, from the age of four. But that wasn’t the start of the roots of his musical antiquity as the family tradition of music had been going since the 50s. ‘Both my granddads where big band leaders in the 50s, in South Africa they always advocated change, all the bands had both male and female members. They used to dress up like Duke Ellington and used instruments like banjos, guitars and violins. One was a multi-instrumentalist and one was an accordion player. There’s just a history of music in my family, even my cousins jam, some make beats and others play guitar even if they aren’t doing it full-time, people in my family just love music.’

‘On a family outing one Sunday when I was 8, my Dad asked me which instrument I would like to learn. I had seen someone at school playing the violin and I thought, that’s fucking magical, and literally 2 days later I was sent for lessons, It was as quick as that”. Past the Umbilo and inner city taxi ranks, with their ranked rank leaders, and bustling streets, condensation and cohesion, and summer constipation, a beast sleeps and then awakens like the tides of the warm Indian Ocean. Seamless rest and motion, sometimes something dark lingers, waiting with its sharp nails and fingers, darkened from clouds through the sunshine, these wicked men see no light, blinded by summer, blind-

ed by bling and blue. Some get out, some don’t, gangsters and thugs linger in many communities in and around Durban. Hezron got out and music was his way out. ‘I come from a background of gangsterism and things could have really gone either way for me, it’s something that I’m not proud of. I got involved with dealing drugs and arms from the age of 20 to 23; however music became an escape and I figured if I had my violin with me nothing else mattered, I am so grateful for music and what it’s given me’. Besides its seedy underbelly, Durban really is an incubator for profound artistry, but sadly many of these situational ramshackle prophets just can’t survive in the city’s small music and art scene, so Hezron decided in his final year of studying jazz at UKZN to drop out and travel to London. ‘I felt too restricted and I wanted to learn as many different styles on the violin as possible, so I dropped out and went to London and this is where I was introduced to punk and rock ‘n roll’. Hezron started to learn the hustle of surviving off music; his background is as diverse as you can get from being classically trained whilst almost still in nappies. From playing in both the KZN Youth Orchestra and the Durban City Orchestra, to a brief stint with jazz, Hezron really was starting to know a lot about what he was doing. Nevertheless he wanted more, he longed for the self-expression and rebellion of rock, hip hop and folk, so he started playing anywhere and everywhere he could, travelling with folk singers, hip hop artists and punks all over Europe. His main act at the time was called ‘The Broken Record Project’ which received a fair deal of attention around Europe, particularly in Spain. ‘Wherever I am around the world I like to cook a meal for musicians, this gets the ego out the way as you are usually in each other’s homes. I met a lot of musicians this way in Spain and this is how I learnt to play and perform Spanish music.’ As circumstance would have it, Hezron had to return to South Africa due to visa laws: ‘The UK had changed their visa laws and this made it difficult for me to get back after spending nearly 5 years there. It broke me and I felt sad that I had to leave. I came back to SA and realized that either I could lull in the depression of having to leave a band in the UK I helped start and watch grow to such great things, or I could pick myself up and see how I could get involved in the SA music scene’. So Hezron started a songwriting company when he arrived home from the UK called KrayZeeN, which eventually got a publishing deal with EMI; they wrote pop songs for acts such as Pixie Bennet, Incha and a few established artists from the UK - at the time he was based in Johannesburg. These artists included Marc JB and, from a popular UK dance act, Bimbo Jones who has worked with THE LAKE

some of the leading individuals in music today, including Britney Spears and Kanye West. Hezron returned to Durban and soon found himself back in his old Umbilo stomping ground. A chance performance with punk/ska/afro band Fruits and Veggies at Splashy Fen 2012 would see the minstrel become immersed in the underground of Durban, playing in all its darkest corners with the most unlikely pairing of characters and genres of music, the epicenters being The Winston Pub and Live the venue.

‘I come from a background of gangsterism and things could have really gone either way for me, it’s something that I’m not proud of. I got involved with dealing drugs and arms from the age of 20 to 23; however music became an escape and I figured if I had my violin with me nothing else mattered, I am so grateful for music and what it’s given me’. A few months after this event Hezron left Fruits and Veggies yet carried on playing with rock, folk and punk musicians in the city, eventually having a successful run of shows with performers such as Badyn Holesgrove, The Trees and The Accidentals. This all changed when a loop station was introduced into the fold. ‘When I got the loop station I could get what I wanted with my chord arrangements and riffs without a guitarist or any other instrument. The first time I plugged in and played was at a flat I was living at on Manning Road in Durban and the first song I wrote was Chasing Kings and being able to write on my own after collaborating with so many other artists was fucking liberating. It’s like all my influences from working with other musicians were suddenly coming out in the music.’ He also attributes going solo to a chance performance with Madala Kunene the king of the Zulu guitar, and Vieux Farka Touré at a workshop in Kwa-Mashu just outside Durban. Vieux is the son of Ali Farka Touré who was one of Mali’s greatest blues musicians. Since then Hezron hasn’t looked back and has been playing anywhere and everywhere from tiny theatres, dingy pubs and major festivals. His music is some kind of psychedelic escape that screams the torment and fragility of any sensitive artist without even uttering a word. Hezron now resides in Cape Town, but just uses the city as a base as his touring schedule keeps him moving. He also seems to be continuously collaborating, which has seen him work with the likes of Albert Frost, Sannie Fox, Arno Carstens, Lee Thomson 11

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and Medicine Boy. From the spacey, somewhat minimalist, almost orchestral, dream-like sounds of his solo shows, he has now brought a drummer and bass player into the mix and the music soars, almost like some rock opera meets cinematic battle scene film score. Last year the debut album ‘The Fallacy of Composition’ was recorded at The Vervet Underground studio in Redhill, Durban and engineered by Rudi Greyvenstein of popular acoustic act The Kickstands and since then Hezron and his band, consisting of Jeanre Leo on drums and Cj Duckitt on the bass, have been hard at work promoting it. Interviewing an old friend is a strange kind of paradigm as the conversation moves beyond the formalities. We start chatting about the struggles musicians have in forming relationships, and the constant pressure of making rent and buying food, and although things are going well for Hezron it wasn’t always that way and he has made the sacrifices and literally starved for his art. This is why he’s holistically looking forward with other endeavors within the music industry to help empower himself and other musicians with his production company ‘Mad Violinist Productions’. ‘I set up Mad Violinist Productions to launch my album with the help of Julienne Fenwick as co-director and I truly believe that I could not have achieved this success without her belief in me, it sounds weird but it’s really good to have someone in my corner that believes in my project and the SA music scene as much as I do. Our vision is to build my music portfolio over the next few years, travel the world and create an open source network for other

musicians in South Africa where we share our contact and networks with people that want to share theirs. Mad Violinist Productions is about empowering local artists and teaching them about their rights as musicians. It’s not necessarily struggling artists, as most of our clients are successful artists that don’t know about basic things like registering music, and the laws around selling their music. We are also in the process of building a steady touring route throughout Africa for musicians, we have all these amazing countries close by that aren’t routinely added to touring routes and yet the majority of musicians are only worried about growing music markets in Europe or America. We have untouched regions in Africa that we as artists must break into. Mad Violinist Productions is also in the process of launching a campaign called ONCE. The aim of this project is to get people to go out and support local, live, original music once a week’. Utopian yearnings aside, it’s been no easy ride for this wandering troubadour and he’s fought tooth and nail to campaign for the violin to be a leading instrumental instrument. He wants it on the centre stage and that’s why certain techniques within his playing can sometimes resemble a rock guitar soloing. His music will probably never be considered commercially viable or mainstream in the mundane music industry standard and in my eyes this is only a good thing. Yet his undeniable skills, dedication, drive and vivid intensity keeps people mesmerized in every context and every time he decides to get on stage.

‘I felt too restricted and I wanted to learn as many different styles on the violin as possible, so I dropped out and went to London and this is where I was introduced to punk and rock ‘n roll’.

HIGH FIVES the Doors

Charlie Parker

Led Zeppelin

Waiting for the Sun

Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker On Verve

Led Zeppelin IV

Pharoahe Monch

340ml

1968

1988

1971

1999

2003

Elektra

Verve Records

Atlantic

Rawkus

Sheer Sound

Moving

Internal Affairs

INFO: www.hezronchetty.com THE LAKE

THE LAKE

STALKER DEAN JAMES HONEY INTERVIEW - LANI SPICE

PHOTOGRAPHY - DEAN JAMES HONEY

“if you want to capture something real, the easiest way to do that is to point your camera in any direction down any street and click. It probably won’t be technically great, but it is a split second of life you can look at and absorb, whatever that might mean to the viewer.” Let’s start off with your nickname ”Cavey” How did this came about? Nothing special, just your regular, “I asked a friend to pull the sleeves off my shirt, because its so hot and he thought it funny to rip half the shirt off, leaving behind what can only be described as a loin cloth, so someone called me, the dancing caveman. Over the years it wore down to take its current form. “Cavey” story.

Street photography seems to take preference in your work, what is about this candid way of shooting you enjoy the most? Well, if you want to capture something real, the easiest way to do that is to point your camera in any direction down any street and click. It probably won’t be technically great, but it is a split second of life you can look at and absorb, whatever that might mean to the viewer.

more and more part of our lives now days, peoples whole lives are being documented from birth online, baby’s and dogs having thier own Facebook pages? Its fucking madness. I like to think I have some privacy left. But there are a lot of pros too, you can look at an artists work you admire or discover a new band, you can comuneicate with someone on the other side of the world and make connections that would otherwise not be possible. Its a personal choice to actively participate and to what extent.

Tell us about your origins, where about are you from? I’m from the big concrete, Jozi. A place I have a love / hate relationship with. I believe photography has always been of interest to you, but never anything prominent and not too long ago it started to really take shape in your life. What influenced this?

I’ve been through a few cameras in my short time, but I’ve settled on a Fuji x100s. Its perfect for what I’m doing now.

Fujifilm X100S

You’ve said “This is the way I see the world” when you refer to your work. What was it about photography that intrigued you enough for it to be your medium of expression?

You work seems to be mainly be shot in black and white, is there particular disciplines that you prefer to photograph that way? And when do you feel the need to apply colour?

I also write and draw, both of which I really enjoy. But I can only do either of those when I’m inspired, unfortunately, to get out anything I feel is important or at the very least has truth, the inspiration is usually sadness or heartache. Photography on the other hand catches life as its happening, so it always has truth in it and it doesn’t have to be my feelings I’m showing.

I love the look and feel of black and white, the contrast, the textures, the richness. Its easier to look at, feels more natural to me, the shadows and lights. Forming shapes you didn’t quite see with the naked eye. Colour on the other hand can’t be escaped, we live in colour and people and things can be very colourful, when the colours are part of what caught your eye, then the photographs need to be in colour.

A few years ago I picked up my first camera, a Minolta SRT 101 to take with me to Europe, I loved the feel of it, but I had no idea what I was doing. I used it sporadically for a few months, but I felt like a dickhead walking around with a camera I didn’t really know how to use properly. That was it for me. So a couple years later when I finally got into photography, I started digital and I really like how versatile it is. I have mad respect for anyone who has mastered the art of analogue. But its about the image at the end of the day, not the gear.

Yeah, starting in April next year I’ll be joining my good friend, and amazing musician and poet, Matt Vend from South Africa up to Ethiopia, across to Ireland over to the USA ending the trip in Mexico. The purpose of this trip is to go in search of the music, the poetry, the art and the people behind it. Matt will be playing shows everywhere we go, collaborating with local artists in each country. Were going to rough it the whole way, getting as close to the heart of each place as possible. From playing music on lake Malawi to riding freight trains across the US and a shit load of adventure in between, we hope to come out with a travelogue/photo/poetry/culture book unlike anything you’ve seen. Its quite an undertaking and at the moment we ate trying to secure some sponsorship. But progress is steady and we look set for a mid April departure. What do you currently shoot with?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to photography in one way or another. I grew up with a very open minded family, who have very interesting friends from all walks of life, artists, musicians, bar owners, writers, photographers etc. And I remember my home and the homes of these people always having beautiful photographs in them, moments of peoples lives, right there for you to be a part of in some way and to feel. But I never had the courage to do it myself, I was afraid in some way that the work would be criticised or be complete shit. Then about a year and nine months ago I suffered a head injury, a result of which was that I had to stop drinking. When all of a sardine you’ve got this heap of free time on your hands and nothing to do. So I picked up a camera as a way of keeping busy, of keeping sane in many ways. So I haven’t been shooting for long at all, if anything I’m still in preschool.

You seem to shoot mainly on digital, do you ever dabble in the world of analogue?

I hear you have interesting plans in-store for your photography, such as travels, books, could you tell us more?

Your work is fairly private when it comes to it being online. What are your thoughts on social media and photographic platforms such as Instagram?

Are there any photographers or people that inspire you and why?

Where can we follow your work?

I have a great respect for the photojournalists of yesteryear, like Dmitri Baltermants, W.Eugene Smith, Alf Kumalo and Ernest Cole. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to enter war zones, to show the rest of the world what’s happening. These are photographers whose photos changed lives. That’s a powerful thing.

I don’t have anything online, preferring to show my work in live setting. However, Matt Vend and myself will be setting up a blog and Instagram account to document our trip, doing daily updates and sharing whatever we come across on this crazy journey. There will also be updates and exclusive content published in The Lake as the trip is happening.

HIGH FIVES The Slackers

Bob Dylan

Wu-Tang Clan

Tiger Army

Peculiar

Nashville Skyline

Wu-Tang Forever

Power of Moonlite

Old Crow Medicine Show

2006

1969

1997

2001

2012

Hellcat Records

Columbia

RCA

Hellcat Records

Nettwerk

Carry Me Back

I don’t have any social media accounts. I used to have an Instagram account, but I felt I was somehow being pushed to keep up. There are 500 million people using it, and most of them are trying to get more followers, get more likes and get famous. It got to a point where I was just posting to stay relevant in some way. It detracted from what I’m trying to learn. Social media has its place. I mean, its only becoming THE LAKE

THE LAKE

“I don’t have any social media accounts. I used to have an Instagram account, but I felt I was somehow being pushed to keep up. There are 500 million people using it, and most of them are trying to get more followers, get more likes and get famous.”

THE LAKE

LET IT BLEED CLARKSDALE BLUES WRITER - FRED DE VRIES

PHOTOGRAPHY - Lou Bopp

“‘Yo, isn’t that Morgan Freeman?’ I turn around. Yep, it’s him, the stately actor who played Nelson Mandela in Invictus, having a meal with friends. Although everyone pretends not to pay any attention, there is a buzz. Because hey, this is Clarksdale, Mississippi, a tiny town smack in the middle of America’s racially torn Deep South – not an obvious place for black celebrities.” But how things have changed. It turns out that Freeman co-owns the establishment where we are sitting. It’s called Ground Zero, and it was the first club to give Clarksdale a new lease of life as ‘the birth place of the Delta blues’. What used to be a virtual ghost town has over the last fifteen years turned into a funky destination for music obsessives. Imagine, we could sommer have bumped into Tom Waits, Robert Plant or Paul Simon, who all visited Ground Zero in the not too distant past.

Word was that he had sneaked out to some crossroads, where he had sold his soul to the devil, in exchange for musical dexterity. Johnson wouldn’t enjoy these new skills for long. He died in 1938, at the age of 27. Clarksdale with its 17.000 inhabitants and the odd multi-storey building, is surrounded by cotton fields, which in the early 20th century produced mythical blues heroes such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Son House, B.B King and Howlin’ Wolf. Some of their obscure records made it to the other side of the Atlantic, where, in the early sixties, a young Keith Richards couldn’t believe his ears when his friend Brian Jones played him a hissing, crackling slab of black vinyl, which seemed to have come from another planet. ‘Who is that,’ asked Richards in disbelief. ‘Robert Johnson,’ said Jones. ‘Okay, but who’s the other guitarist?’ persisted Richards. It was only then that he realized that it was actually a single person who was responsible for this rhythmic yet melodic guitar work. This man, who also sang in a high, nasal voice, had written a number of stunning tunes that sent shivers down young Keith’s spine. The haunting ‘Hellhound On My Trail’ dates from 1937. And Johnson’s most famous song, the equally scary ‘Cross Road Blues’, had been written two years earlier. The Rolling Stones would eventually introduce Johnson to a wider audience (including this writer) when they recorded his desolate ‘Love In Vain’ for their 1969 album Let It Bleed. Johnson, so the story goes, was an average guitarist, who was occasionally allowed to fill in when the big guys took a break. Then one day he disappeared. A year later he returned as one of the most gifted guitarists of the Mississippi Delta. Word was that he had sneaked out to some crossroads, where he had sold his soul to the devil, in exchange for musical dexterity. Johnson wouldn’t enjoy these new skills for long. He died in 1938, at the age of 27. Some say he was killed because of a woman. Others blame it on alcohol poisoning. We barely know what he looked like, since only three photographs of Johnson exist. And to add even more flavour to the myth: around Clarksdale you can visit three spots where the guitarist is allegedly buried. And those crossroads? Who knows…? Anyway, way back in the early sixties another aspir-

ing English guitarist fell under the spell of Johnson. His name was Eric Clapton, and he turned ‘Crossroads’ in 1968 into one of the highlights of the oeuvre of Cream. His competitor Jimmy Page was more expedient. He used the sharp riffs of the Delta bluesmen – without crediting them – for a whole series of Led Zeppelin classics, including ‘Whole Lotta Love’. Blues, with its outcast characters, and lyrics about loneliness, booze and sex, is timeless. In the late nineties bands such as White Stripes, The Oblivions, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Black Keys gave the old blues a new noisy coat. Initially, all this barely affected Clarksdale. ‘When I first came here twenty years ago we had private security on the street. It was a ghost town. You could walk out on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night, look both ways and not see a single car,’ says Roger Stolle, who is 49 and is generally seen as the instigator of the Clarksdale blues revival. Stolle settled here in 2002. He grew up in suburban Dayton, Ohio, where he had an epiphany on the 17th of August 1977, when the newspaper headlines screamed that ‘The King is dead’. Elvis Presley had died at the age of 42. It didn’t mean much to Stolle, whose parents didn’t listen to music. But there was a radio in the house, which now played non-stop Elvis hits: ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Hound Dog’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, you name it. Stolle became an instant fan, with a particular preference for the bluesy songs. ‘At school I became the idiot because my friends were all into things like Boston. And I was: I’m into Elvis. Then, slowly I got into the blues.’ It wasn’t just a passing interest; Stolle got obsessed with the blues. So much so that fourteen years ago he quit his well-paid job with an ad-agency and moved permanently to Clarksdale where he opened his Cat Head shop on Delta Avenue, which specializes in blues paraphernalia. His colleagues thought he had gone insane. But Stolle persisted. He collaborated with other newcomers - artists, musicians, businessmen, club owners - to realize his vision: transforming Clarksdale into an international blues centre. His perseverance paid off. Clarksdale now has live music seven nights a week, there’s a big number of bed & breakfasts, plenty of bars, restaurants and weird places, such as the Rock & Blues Museum, run by 67-year old Dutchman Theo ‘Boogieman’ Dasbach, who entertains some 7,000 paying visitors per year with an insane collection of rock and blues items, including LPs, instruments, jukeboxes, photographs, signed posters and furniture. The renewed interest in blues also spruced up Clarksdale’s juke joint Red’s, a hard-core shebeen at the edge of town, where black labourers used to come and dance and drink (‘jukin’). These days, the low facebrick building with its flapping corrugated awnings is the ultimate place to hear live blues. Stolle smiles. Even the previously indifferent local business community now has the blues. ‘Like the owner of Bluestown Inn. He wasn’t a blues fan, had zero interest. Now he loves it: people from 28 foreign countries stayed in his place last year.’

zero in common with the black cotton pickers who started this music 100 years ago. The main reason for their visit is that they want to experience the roots of their favourite music. Because blues, with its seemingly simple chord structure, multi-layered lyrics, driving rhythm and expressive vocals, has influenced virtually every type of popular music: jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, funk, soul, hip hop, grunge, r&b, even country & western. A world without blues is like a kitchen without spices, writes Ted Gioia in his excellent Delta Blues. We’ll never know how the blues came about. American author James Baldwin was probably right when he stated that blues was born on the Southern slave markets. Slavery destroyed social cohesion, language, culture and history. ‘Blues’, writes Gioia, ‘was an answer to the suffering’. Blues lovers rave about ‘authenticity’, ‘rawness’ and ‘realness’. In an essay for the literary magazine Oxford American, Will Blyth – himself a white, middle-aged blues fan – questions that adulation. After all, those old bluesmen weren’t exemplary citizens. ‘They were heroes of weak impulse control. They said terrible things to people, they shot them, stole women, made fools of themselves, and drank things that weren’t originally meant for drinking. A lot of times, they didn’t show up places. They didn’t seem to have jobs, wore the same clothes for days on end, and had more children than they knew what to do with.’ He’s right. They drank, fought and chased every skirt in town. But still… As Stolle points out, it all boils down to ‘feeling’, with the way in which a string is bent, a voice expresses emotion. Blues illuminates something that we’ve lost and is now out of reach. It’s direct, unaffected, spiritual if you like. Bluesmen spat upon rules and conventions. They were the ultimate outcasts. That’s why they appealed to Clapton, Page and Richards, to Jack White and Jon Spencer. The crucial question: does Clarksdale live up to the promise of the ultimate blues experience? It is definitely worth it to visit the various museums and to follow the Mississippi Blues Trail, which leads you, among others, to the grave of Sonny Boy Williamson, to the Riverside Hotel, where Ike Turner in 1951 wrote the first ever rock ’n roll song (‘Rocket 88’), and to the Dockery Plantation, where countless he-

roes worked and played. But you also want something that breathes, some unhinged noise. So Friday, late afternoon we check out Red’s, the juke joint, where we end up talking to a greying man with white loafers and a straw hat. He introduces himself as McKinney ‘Bluesman’ Williams Sr. and says he and his female partner are on their way to Jackson, Mississippi. But they’ll stay over in Clarksdale, hoping to earn a few extra bucks by doing an impromptu gig at Red’s, where local hero Terry ‘Harmonica’ Bean is scheduled to play tonight.

They drank, fought and chased every skirt in town. But still… As Stolle points out, it all boils down to ‘feeling’, with the way in which a string is bent, a voice expresses emotion. Blues illuminates something that we’ve lost and is now out of reach When we pop in at Red’s, early that evening, it’s still empty; not a trace of our two friends. We walk back to town. Near 3rd Street we hear music. There, in front of a bar, Williams and his partner have placed a chair and a small amp, playing for an audience of two: the waiter and the waitress. We sit down at a table. The evening is warm, filled with the sweet smell of magnolia. They sing beautifully, their voices intertwining like snakes on old tunes such as ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’. Every now and then someone walks past, listens, throws a few dollars in the bucket and moves on. It feels like 1955. Eventually we stroll down to Red’s, where Bean has just started his set. It has filled up nicely, some forty people, all of them white, most of them male and middle-aged. Bean plays hard harmonica blues, aided by an idiosyncratic guitar style, which sees his right hand shooting up and down the neck. At midnight we leave. Clarksdale is eerily quiet now. But as we approach 3rd Street we hear music. A gravel voice fills the empty street. ‘When things go wrong, yeah wrong, it hurts me too.’ No audience, just one man, singing the blues.

HIGH FIVES “Honeyboy” Edwards

Robert Belfour

Son House

Jelly Roll Kings

Charley Patton

Pushin My Luck

Father Of Folk Blues

Off Yonder Wall

The Essential Collection

1992

2003

1965

1997

2013

Earwig

Fat Possum

Columbia

Fat Possum

Not Now Music

Delta Bluesman

The majority of those visitors are relatively well-todo middle-aged white men, who have absolutely THE LAKE

THE LAKE

Atang Tshikare Trivialities within my existence WRITER - RUAN SCOTT

PHOTOGRAPHY (PORTRAIT) - JACQUI VAN STADEN PHOTOGRAPHY (ARTWORK) - Justin Patrick

A multidisciplinary surface artist and sculptor. An illustrator and graffiti painter. A chronic collaborator. Atang Tshikare knows how to pick them. Collaborations with Adidas, TwoBop, Wiid Design and Alpha Longboards are just some of the twenty plus successful partnerships he’s executed in the past four years. “It’s not about being judgmental, but rather being a good judge of character” Tshikare says. A skill he’s honed through perpetual networking. For Tshikare, it’s important to take something away from every encounter and meeting. Be it through local culture, pan-African art, social media or daily human interactions, Tshikare says “being exposed to, and being open to what I am exposed to, enables me to internalize experiences, ultimately shaping my sense of self”. The artery to the heart of the South African art world can be a greasy one. “It’s not always been easy,” he admits. “There have been times when I questioned art as a career choice. Especially when moving to Cape Town in 2009. “You’re a new artist in a new city faced with the reality of finding a place to stay, managing a studio space, getting to know people and getting known in the art scene”. The business end of the art world can be daunting for a young artist too, he adds. “Clients, contracts, briefs and deadlines can be arduous to navigate when starting out”.

“You see something on TV or in a magazine and you want to recreate it. You want to make something as cool as what you see in front of you. You don’t have a name for this emotion yet. It’s that primary instinct, that first urge to create”. As diverse as Tshikare’s musings are, his choice of mediums are equally disparate, ranging from marker and aerosol to chisel and pencil. He draws, paints and sprays his creations on a plethora of exterior surfaces. There is a vital constant component for Tshikare though. It’s the importance of telling a unique story through every artwork. “As long as I can make artwork that tells my story, then I know that my art is original. In that sense the art will be easier to sell because that’s my story. And who better to tell my story than me”, Tshikare says. “I see a lot of art and come across a lot of artists who just make art for the hell of it. Just because it looks good. I guess that’s fine for some, but to me that’s rather trivial. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate tale. Even simple narratives reveal something about the artist”. Tshikare, who opted for art class instead of the soccer pitch, has been behind a pen, pencil or paintbrush since his school days in Bophuthatswana. He takes after his father, Mogorosi Motshumi, he says. Motshumi recently published the first Autobio-Graphic Novel by a black artist from South Africa. Tshikare says his indoctrination with this animated style of drawing happened at an early age. “You see something on TV or in a magazine and you

want to recreate it. You want to make something as cool as what you see in front of you. You don’t have a name for this emotion yet. It’s that primary instinct, that first urge to create”.

200 Young South African nomination. These laurels stand as landmarks for Tshikare, signs which gave him direction and affirmation of his chosen direction.

Tshikare garnered notoriety in his early career as the street artist who paints on sneakers. A moniker which he is still somewhat associated with today. Vital as shoes are for any journey, Tshikare says he has departed from this youthful association. Friendly buff robots, talking shoes, African animals and other quirky personalities like Harry Bananas, his girlfriend and all their friends are some of the character illustrations detailing this era of his art.

The road to success, however, is a double lane for Tshikare. In the one lane he drives his commercial brand Zabalazaa and the other, in which he is increasing the traffic flow so to speak, is Atang Tshikare as himself.

As trying as times were for Tshikare, it was times like 2012 which provided him with heart and encouragement to carry on. Not only was he nominated as a Design Indaba Emerging Creative, a dais for notable artists from South Africa, but this year also saw Tshikare execute a successful collaboration with Wiid Designs. They created an outdoor bench depicting the tale of migration as perceived by Tshikare, a story he is familiar with. It was designed and built by Wiid, while Tshikare created the surface design. It depicted Tshikare’s geometrical and floating block style drawings featuring buildings in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The piece garnered attention via social media and the duo were invited to showcase the piece at Design Days, a design event in Dubai. Tshikare’s minimalistic style of line drawing and cascading quadrilaterals are akin to the 1967 black and white geometrical abstraction art by American artist Al Held, and has a strong neo - modernism tendency combined with post-surrealist and cubist influences. Tshikare ascribes these influences to his time spent in the UK through the mid part of the 2000s. Where spaces were small, living arrangements were comparable to home and one never really settled. The notion of a possible migration was always in the air. It reminded him a lot of moving between cities back home in South Africa. “Migration didn’t always result in better though”, he adds. This particular collaboration also sparked a relationship with Southern Guild, a design platform in Cape Town, whose presence in Tshikare’s career has abetted his success. Tshikare says, He lists some tools Southern Guild have equipped him with: have a clear vision, generate a plan, apply proper production management, execute the artwork to the best of your ability, follow through with your vision and follow up on potential buyers and exhibitors.

“I will always illustrate modish patterns and whimsical characters, but I will do so under my Zabalazaa brand”. Zabalazaa, which loosely translate to ‘being that change and acquiring that ‘thing’ you want in your life’. It has become the commercial art umbrella that envelops all of Tshikare’s commissions, including clients like Olx, MTV Base and Nandos. “Zabalazaa is my design world. It is more accommodating and easily retailed as opposed to ‘Atang Tshikare’, which is more conceptual and aimed at gallery spaces”, Tshikare says.

“I think for Africans there’s always a message in art”, he says. It can be conspicuous like the narrative illustrations of his father’s comic book art, or more subtle like Tshikare’s water theme in his calabash ceramics. The three-piece modern ceramic calabash-shaped stool work displayed during the Design Miami is an example of his more conceptual work. It’s a rich African narrative integrated with his modern line drawings of primal shapes carved into the surfaces of practical, ceramic stools. “The pieces are called Ngaka (shaman), Ngwana (child) and Ngewdi (moon) and convey the idea that water has no enemy. The story goes: After the recent rains a mother sends her child with calabashes to the river to fetch water. As the calabashes rapidly fill from fast

flowing water, the child is pulled into the river. Time passes and the child does not return home. Her mother grows worried and goes looking for her. Her worst fear sets in as daylight fades and she can’t find her. She engages a local a shaman to assist her in finding the girl. The shaman goes down to the river, scoops up some water and reflects on it in the moonlight. He ceremoniously opens his hands spilling the water and raises his arms and sets off into the dark. The shaman returns after some time carrying the body of the child. The mother is distraught. The river took the life of her only child. She is cross with the river but doesn’t curse it as she knows its water supplies her with life. So, water gives life but it can also take life”, Tshikare says. The pieces represent each of the elements in the story and the water is represented by the empty calabashes. If they are empty they have little purpose or no life. Fill them with water else life can be a dangerous endeavor; therefore water must be respected. “I think for Africans there’s always a message in art”, he says. It can be conspicuous like the narrative illustrations of his father’s comic book art, or more subtle like Tshikare’s water theme in his calabash ceramics. Recognizing his diverse background, current surroundings and choice of mediums, Tshikare however makes it clear that he doesn’t make art as an African, or a black guy or as a Tswana, not even as a South African. “My work is a result of the imaginative directed by my influences and experiences. I encapsulate all my continuous collaborative efforts, cultural heritage and modern social influences into my art and into my identity. My experiences constantly grow and my perspective frequently shifts, deepening my pool of influence. This ultimately broadens my art and enriches the stories I have to tell”. * THE LAKE would like to thank the Southern Guild for their support and supplying us with imagery. INFO: www. zabalazaa.com INFO: www.southernguild.co.za

HIGH FIVES Azymuth Águia Não Come Mosca

The Constructus Corporation The Ziggurat

Soweto Kinch

Hugh Masekela

A Life In The Day Of B19: Tales Of The Tower Block

Hedzolah Sounds

Tha Hymphatic Thabs The Age Of Horus

1977

2003

2006

1973

2007

Atlantic

African Dope

Dune Records

Blue Thumb

Lapetus

Local and International exhibitions have further defined Tshikare’s career path. 2014 was the year of an exhibition at the prestigious Design Miami exhibition, 2013 saw a Future Found award from Southern Guild, and in 2015, a Mail & Guardian Top THE LAKE

THE LAKE

QUINQUENNIAL ADIDAS / SOUTH AND BEYOND COPY - ADRIAAN LOUW

PHOTOGRAPHY - ADRIAAN LOUW

“Traveling through Film and Photography is probably half the reason I started to pursue such a career. Over the years traveling with all kinds of people, but always with like-minded people that are part of a group with the same interests in some way.”

However traveling with the Adidas South African Skateboarding team is something uniquely special. The locations, crew, energy, excitement, lifestyle, situations - this is what makes it unique to any other trip. We’ve always had the approach of finding the unknown, putting cities on the map and documenting the surroundings we find ourselves in through the medium we call skateboarding. We’ve experienced some crazy scenarios together through Africa, most of the time stuck in a van for hours on end but there’s never a dull moment. Each person on the team has a different personality and everyone thrives off that. Often when the travel bug bites and I crave to go on an adventure again, to do a project on the road, the first thing I think about are these skate trips we go on. It’s such an addictive state of mind to THE LAKE

be in. Everyone on board has the same goal and each person has a purpose but it’s an adventure and there is always an element of fun attached. Being able to travel with people who don’t mind sleeping in a ditch at night so that we can skate it the next day at forty-five degrees weather, or eating lunch on a dirty sidewalk - this is the kind of crew I’d like to call a family. Here are some of the moments I’ve captured in-between shooting the films we do on these road trips and missions. It’s been an amazing five years and I hope there are many more missions with the same crew in the future. Thanks for all the good times boys. INFO: www.adriaanlouw.co INFO: www.vimeo.com/adithreeleaf 27

THE LAKE

ABERRATION travys owen

SNAKE OIL

travysowen.com

THE LAKE

Return to The Dust Fokofpolisiekar STORY - Ian McNair

PHOTOGRAPHY - Lourens Smit / Nelis Botha

I first watched Fokofpolisiekar in 2005. I don’t know which came first, the Levi’s® party at The Castle of Good Hope or the album launch party for Hog Hoggidy Hog’s Oink! at the perpetually-defunct 3 Arts Centre in Plumstead. Either way, their performances at both those shows and the visceral effect they had on both audiences was as yet unparalleled in the life experience of this 15 year old soutie from the insular, homogenous Southern Suburbs of Cape Town. Eleven years later, trekking all over the treacherously rocky Northam koppie we’ve all come to know and love to catch their final Swanesang 10 Toer set - in the Heroes slot at midnight on the Main Stage at Oppikoppi - brought it all rushing back.

cause it’s clearly sincere and it represents the furthest extreme from the tropes of their context. They’re proving - perhaps intentionally, perhaps not - that Soweto isn’t all deep house and hip hop. Having started as a skate crew, they decided to express themselves musically, and punk just organically came out of them. Like a lot of punk bands, there’s nothing overly sophisticated about the intentions they create from.

The longevity of their career thus far and the fact that, between various other spin-off projects, they still find masses of people to attend their shows and other strong rock acts to share the stage with, is testament to how formative their contribution to punk and rock has been. From breaking the norms of what South Africans can sound like on record to the unabashed fury that has been expressed by the band show after show, and year after year, there’s no punk rock band quite like the first to get 1000s of white kids

Take a band like TCIYF, who are also protecting their legs - against the perils of skateboarding and being bad influences on stage - with the new 505Cs. Although formed entirely independently of the Belville punk heroes, they’ve nonetheless wrought themselves from the time-tested foundations of any punk rock band: acting against whatever their peers and elders accept as the way to do things, and mainlining simple, angry, visceral guitar music. The sound comes straight out of the stereotypical bedroom of angsty teens in American movies from the 90s, but it’s rendered entirely authentic and new be-

2003 Rhythm Records

Lugsteuring

2004 Rhythm Records

Fokofpolisiekar Monoloog in Stereo

2005

The impact of Fokof’s music itself can still be felt today, even in an age where crucial music channel MK89 and most of the other symbolic homes of 20042010’s Platteland rock revolution no longer exist.

The impact of Fokof’s music itself can still be felt today, even in an age where crucial music channel MK89 and most of the other symbolic homes of 2004-2010’s Platteland rock revolution no longer exist.

As Jy Met Vuur Speel Sal Jy Brand

Fokofpolisiekar

On stage, they skillfully and heart-wrenchingly motored their way through the nostalgic crowd favourites that have stood the test of time and spliced in some deep cuts off 2008’s Swanesang. Observing the impact of this kind of ‘best of’ set on the crowd assembled there was a poignant and cutting reminder of the true subcultural impact that Fokof had on their fans, and more importantly, their contribution to keeping the sensibilities of punk (and the punk rock sound itself) alive.

It’s no suprise that they’re rocking Levi’s® 505Cs, the reintroduced and reworked punk staple of the 70s - the classic 505 - worn on stage by almost everyone in that punk movement, including Debbie Harry and The Ramones. The new version, the 505C, is a perfect fit for a band that came to symbolise ‘counter culture’ for many jaded fans of rock and roll music - an Afrikaans band that spearheaded forging a new identity in a highly creative post-proud-conservative-nationalist cultural era.

Fokofpolisiekar

Rhythm Records

Fokofpolisiekar Brand Suid-Afrika

2006 Rhythm Records

Fokofpolisiekar The bedrock of emotions that punk has always drawn from don’t find expression in cerebrality, and TCIYF are not your average snotty punk brats. Their music, attitude and the punk and metal events they’re throwing at their shared house-skatepark-venue, called The Dogpound, are shaping up to have a truly profound impact on their growing audience and their surroundings in Soweto. Fokof’s beginnings were the same, but the context was different. According to them, they wanted to create something that sounded worldclass, but in their mother tongue of Afrikaans. At the time, there was nothing happening in their surroundings that sounded like the emo, pop punk and punk rock that they were into, that they could relate to on a subcultural level. In hindsight, they admit that they were unknowingly trying to forge a whole new identity for themselves and their friends. They wrote some songs, recorded them to cassette tapes, shared them with their close friends, and within a very short time 100s of disillusioned kids found something they didn’t even know they needed. They were intentionally being true to themselves and swathes of teens and young 20-somethings bought straight in.

to tell the cops to get fucked or imagine some kind of heaven on that side of the Boerewors Gordyn.

Swanesang

2006 Rhythm Records

The longevity of their career thus far and the fact that, between various other spin-off projects, they still find masses of people to attend their shows and other strong rock acts to share the stage with, is testament to how formative their contribution to punk and rock has been. The peaking highs of the Saturday night at Oppikoppi couldn’t have been a better set for them to finish up their current tour. Even as the signature sound of Oppikoppi beautifully evolves and transforms much faster than most large-scale festivals in SA, Fokofpolisiekar’s uninhibited spirit and precise delivery of their wholesale rejection of the status quo makes them close to emblematic of the whole spirit of this iconic festival.

THE LAKE

Fokofpolisiekar Antibiotika

2008 Rhythm Records

Fokofpolisiekar Forgive Them For They Know Not What They Do

2009 Rhythm Records Punkskelm Records

THE LAKE

“Fokof’s beginnings were the same, but the context was different. According to them, they wanted to create something that sounded world-class, but in their mother tongue of Afrikaans.”

THE LAKE

ELLA I came from the east with the sun in my eyes STYLIST - Kristi Vlok

PHOTOGRAPHY - Kent Andreasen

Hair and makeup - Kimberly Lardner-Burke / MODEL- ELLA FROM BOSS MODELS Clothes - Better Half Vintage

THE LAKE

Mass Romantic Olivié Keck WRITER - Jacqueline FLINT

PHOTOGRAPHY - OLIVER KRUGER

“I am the artist because I wasn’t brave enough to be the poet. I am the artist because life demands that boxes need labels. I am the artist because I exist in what I create and am consequently ordinary in what I am. I am the artist because I prefer to improvise. I am the artist because sometimes I like to hide. I am the artist because sometimes I like to communicate. I am the artist because I take it personally. I am the artist because failure is possible. I am the artist because I’m not a certainty freak. I am the artist because I like the look on your face. I am the artist because I like the crowd I’m in with. I am the artist because sins of commission are more fun than sins of omission.” - Olivié Keck, artist statement in Steadfast Arte Olivié Keck started out as a printmaker. She completed a Fine Arts degree at Michaelis with a major in printmaking in 2011 and she continues to seek out opportunities to hone her skill in this medium: an internship at Warren Editions, various printmaking residencies far and wide, from Berkeley to Belgium. Within a few minutes of talking to the artist, however, it’s clear that her practice is much more diverse, catering in a very interesting way to what she has called her “incongruent sensibilities”. Exploring the development of Keck’s practice over the last few years is like going through the looking glass: Towards the end of last year, Keck spent some time in Mexico. There was no pre-meditated plan to make work in Mexico. Rather, Keck’s main priority was to be “overwhelmed by difference”. She did end up spending some time in the studio with Jeronimo Morquecho Bonilla, the protégé of renowned Mexican ceramicist Gustavo Perez, and this fortuitous experience allowed her to get to grips with some of the characteristics of local clays, experiment with a host of new ceramic glazes and integrate all the overwhelming difference – colour, texture, pattern, cultural extravagances – that she had been engrossed in during the two months she was in the country. From Mexico, Keck travelled to the Kala Institute in Berkeley, California, to be part of their Artist in Residence programme. There she spent two months in the printmaking department, working on a series of large-scale watercolour monotypes, for which she liberally excavated online dating platforms for selfie profile pictures before subjecting them to her own specific treatment. The result is a body of work that is reminiscent of the intimate, claustrophobic, colour- and pattern-filled domestic interior scenes that the French Post-Impressionists – particularly Les Nabis – were painting more than a hundred years ago. The work prompts philosophical conversation about the culture of the digital self, but is simultaneously a throw-back to a former time. Keck specifically chose to focus on the younger age groups while harvesting her subject matter from Tinder, match.com and the like – not because the selves behind the selfies were more in tune with how one goes about presenting one’s personality online, but because she was attracted to the mock-Renaissance poses that younger people emulate in their profile picture setups. Perhaps the protagonists are oblivious, but Keck is no such thing, and she mines the rich metaphorical terrain of these references, subverting ideas of portraiture in order to ask challenging questions about the gaze of the digital eye. These works will be shown as a solo exhibition – Selfie Fulfilling Prophecy – that opens at David Krut Projects’ Cape Town space at the end of October, and will be accompanied by a limited edition cat-

alogue designed by bookmaker extraordinaire, Candice Jezek, with cover screen-printed at Black River Studios. Most recently, Keck was in Jo’burg with her band of collaborators – Evan Greenwood, Jason Sutherland and Filip Orekhov – presenting a demo of her latest venture, an immersive VR project called Long Distance Caller. Part fine art experience, part gaming reality, Long Distance Caller is essentially a quest narrative, featuring an iconic public telephone in a universe drawn by Keck in her idiosyncratic koki style, and which the gamer is encouraged to explore. As a major inspiration in the development of the project, Keck refers to The Telegony – the ancient Greek poem that formed the sequel to the Odyssey. The manuscript got lost somewhere along the way, making it accessible to us only through references that other writers made to it during its time. Equally influential has been the sci-fi film, Sunspring, the screenplay of which was created by an AI – a recurrent neural network, which named itself Benjamin.

There are no jagged edges in Keck’s work – it’s all quite rounded, suggesting that mountain peaks, for instance, may not be her primary source of aesthetic inspiration. Her forms are much closer in feeling to broken-open seed pods or overblown roses, and juice-dripping hot pink pomegranates. Going back in time, her first solo exhibition, False Priest, shown at Commune.1 in 2014, comprised mainly tapestry works, including painstaking hand-quilting and embroidery and was presented by the gallery as “a quiet and personal enquiry into the phenomenology of sleep and dying and the related subjects of loss, fear, memory and dreams”. Keck also hosts regular one-morning-only exhibitions of her distinctive koki drawings. These happenings are usually themed, and typically titled with tongue in cheek: O.K. CUPID, Too Gruesome to Show, Museum Quality. In between all of these things, Keck forays regularly into the world of ceramic sculpture, producing one-off pieces that are Henry Moore-ish in their round heaviness and awkward human-ness, but quirkier.

The minute you think that you can neatly sum up what Keck is doing, she slips from your grip, moves on to the next project, which is usually also the next medium, the next adventure in high-end craft. Employing such varied media simultaneously can often create a jumbled overall picture. However, a bird’s eye view of Keck’s practice reveals a surprising consistency. The intermingling of different media is underpinned by a style and sensibility, a particular understanding of colour, pattern and form, that holds it all together. Keck’s domain is representation of the body, because for her “as long as we aren’t robots, and we’re made from flesh and blood, images of the human form are always going to enamour us. They’re going to catch us and draw us in, because it’s us, but it’s not us, and it’s relatable but we’re also estranged”. There are no jagged edges in Keck’s work – it’s all quite rounded, suggesting that mountain peaks, for instance, may not be her primary source of aesthetic inspiration. Her forms are much closer in feeling to broken-open seed pods or overblown roses, and juice-dripping hot pink pomegranates. Keck is generous with black outlines, which allows her use of vivid swathes of colour and complex organic patterns to contribute more towards narrative and emotion, than formalism. Keck works in a figurative mode, but diligent realist representation is not her game. Her work is made up of open-ended forms and playful shapes. She cites the work of both South African modernist, Walter Battiss, and the American outsider artist, Henry Darger, as major inspirations, and the influence can be seen in certain aspects of Keck’s output. The extravagant colours and overflowing compositions of both Battiss and Darger are echoed in Keck’s work, along with a flouting of atmospheric perspective. Keck also follows in Battiss’s footsteps with regard to a polymathic approach to the matter of medi-

um. Battiss and Darger come from vastly differing backgrounds, but they share a decision to cross over into the world of fantasy in their work. Both artists created intensely detailed alternative realities – Fook Island, in the case of Battiss, and Darger’s Realms of the Unreal – choosing at times to imaginatively occupy a world in which they felt more comfortable than the world in which they actually lived. And this is perhaps where the most important influence on Keck’s work lies. Although Keck constantly references her lived reality, challenging the culture she operates within, her forms are loose. There’s a kind of a wrongness in them that feels very right – a representation that is not quite real, but has an uncanny likeness to the real, nonetheless. They are forms that mould themselves around each viewer’s eyes – when you’re looking at them, you are very aware that no one actually looks like that, and yet they feel so much more familiar than a hyper-real rendition could. The wobbly looseness of her forms does justice to the emotion in our bodies, and also alludes to all the history that we carry around with us. Histories and memories are also warped and moulded, to make sense of the present moment. The version of reality that Keck has created is poetic and peculiar. She asks big questions through whimsical scenes, and starts uncomfortable conversations without losing her sense of humour. “When you make things all the time, you have to keep yourself entertained, and that’s the biggest part of it for me”, she says. “I want to be entertained by the things I make and I’d like to really want to look at those things all the time”, and slipping into Keck’s aesthetic, through whatever medium takes your fancy, is certainly a pleasant experience. It is luscious and erotic in the tropics of her imagination – the fine art version of lazy Sunday morning sex, or too much red velvet cake, or both. INFO: www.oliviekeckart.wordpress.com

HIGH FIVES The New Pornographers

Destroyer

David Lynch

Trouble in Dreams

The Big Dream

Mass Romantic

Cigarettes After Sex

Deru 1979

Cigarettes After Sex

2000

2008

2013

2016

2014

Mint

Merge

SACRED BONES

SPANISH PRAYERS

Friends Of Friends

Keck’s media range is enormous – tapestry and embroidery, watercolour monotype, etching, screen printing, drawing, ceramic sculpture, digital illustration, three-dimensional computer gaming… THE LAKE

THE LAKE

EVENING HOURS MORNING PAGES WRITER - Valeria Geselev

PHOTOGRAPHY - JANSEN VAN STADEN

“I learnt to appreciate the depth of Morning Pages music while cooking by candlelight in my kitchen. Just across a wall, in the living room, members of the band gathered every Tuesday for their weekly rehearsal, hosted by my housemate Frank Lunar, one of the founding members.” I knew it was the time for my mind-massage. I didn’t have to be in the same room, or look at them while they are playing. The music travelled through the floor and the walls like a 360 degree sound system. Morning Pages mastered the art of 3D sound, shaking the old wooden floors and ceilings of the Victorian houses of Observatory.

you get”. Lunar describes the music as storytelling – “you can close your eyes and imagery will come up. We communicate these concepts and feelings without words, just through soundscaping”. How about terms such as alternative or experimental music? Lunar: “People still want a familiar term they can associate us with. If someone was

ly hours train of thought into a more convenient time-slot for the contemporary mind. They perform both at local venues and festivals, and in more intimate spaces like the forest or an abandoned building. They could have no audience – and they would behave, sound and look the same. “Even if we have three people in the au-

Now that we have moved to separate homes, and I know that every time I need to clear my mind, to have a deep relaxing experience, all I have to do is find out when and where they are having their band practice. Some people do yoga or can sit silently meditating with their thoughts, I need Morning Pages, and preferably live.

Today Morning Pages consists of six band members - Imraan Samo (guitar, bow, screwdriver, pedals, samples, drones and percussion), Frank Lunar (bass, bow and percussion), Caitlin Mkhasibe (drums and percussion), Simone Rademeyer (guitar and percussion), Rhea Dally (electronics, samples and drones) and Adam Linder (guitar and percussion) who is currently on hiatus. Like their music, also their structure of attendance is flexible. “The cool thing is that it doesn’t matter if we are two or six people playing”, says Samo. “We accept that it’s not eternal, people will come and go”, adds Lunar.

In their being and in their music, Morning Pages are the opposition of mainstream. They are all free-spirited artists, self-employed, independent and mostly self-taught musicians. Despite being actively exceptional, they present the perfect experience for the mainstream audience – the majority that does work nine to five, subjected to daily authorities and in a constant state of rush. The best introduction to Morning Pages would be the origin of the band name, which is inspired by Julia Cameron’s book ‘The Artist’s Way’. Cameron describes a practice termed ‘morning pages’ – writing 3 pages of what is going on in your head every morning. “You wouldn’t necessarily read the pages again or try to perfect them,” explains Frank Lunar, one of the band members, “it’s rather a form of release. The idea of doing it in the morning is to let it all out so you start the day clean”. How does that daily spiritual exercise translate itself into music? According to Imraan Samo, “we play as if we are writing our thoughts. We know that it’s not going to sound the same again and we accept it. A lot of people in the music industry are aiming to sound like their album every time they play. That is counter to what we are doing”. Band member Caitlin Mkhasibe: “there’s peace that comes with feeling purged, it’s like meditating. You reach a point where your mind is not filled with clutter”. Even though they have been active for three years, with more than 25 performances in the last year alone, two gigs a month on average, they refuse to describe their music in genres. According to Samo, “it’s a mantra. If you sit in the forest with your eyes closed humming – it’s the same feeling

to join”, Samo recalls. After that they decided to create a band. Lunar: “We tried to find like-minded folk. Six months after the first gig I bumped into Caitlin at the train station. We worked together before and I remembered that she played drums. On that day she took the wrong train. It was Saturday afternoon and we were having a band practice, so I invited her to join”. Samo: “since then she fit in perfectly. It was all because she took the wrong train”.

“People still want a familiar term they can associate us with. If someone was to look for a word to describe us, we could fit into either. You can find a lot of elements from different genres in our music”

to look for a word to describe us, we could fit into either. You can find a lot of elements from different genres in our music”.

“The cool thing is that it doesn’t matter if we are two or six people playing”, says Samo. “We accept that it’s not eternal, people will come and go” In their being and in their music, Morning Pages are the opposition of mainstream. They are all free-spirited artists, self-employed, independent and mostly self-taught musicians. Despite being actively exceptional, they present the perfect experience for the mainstream audience – the majority that does work nine to five, subjected to daily authorities and in a constant state of rush. Their sound would be best ‘consumed’ as an evening ritual for the working class – a transformative experience from day-job into night-life. Those young musicians found the way to relocate the ear-

dience– we will give them a show” says Samo. He suggests calling their gigs “a ritual or a rite”, and he uses a reference to spiritual healing: “it’s like going to speak to a shaman”. One of the biggest challenges in non-commercial music-making is finding rehearsal spaces. Morning Pages used to activate their rented rooms, but sometimes the body-corporates or neighbours would oppose. This year they relocated for a few months to The Drawing Room in Observatory, and once that arrangement expired, they started doing acoustic rehearsals at their over-regulated homes. The spirit is the same when unplugged. The weekly practice is a key ingredient in the development of the band. “The more we play together, the more we find out when the music is ready for audience” says Samo. “I can look at Frank or Caitlin and know exactly what we’ll do next. That’s what we perfect while practicing”. Mkhasibe: “we don’t speak using theory, we use feelings or weird sounds to describe the music”.

Their dreams for the future are not about glory or money. Samo: “Some people care about record deals, fame, pictures. We don’t care about that. We are about creating connections between people, trying to understand higher consciousness”. So money is not an issue? Lunar: “our relationship to money is practical, only since petrol and food cost money. But it isn’t a factor of how we produce and express ourselves”. Currently they have an exceptional period with no performances, which they are using to work on new materials with prospects of recording. They are also planning a tour along the Garden Route in September, contacting possible backpackers for a barter of performance in exchange for accommodation. INFO: www.soundcloud.com/morning_pages

AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD morning pages Vernal Equinox - EP 2016 SOUNDCLOUD

The band was founded in 2013. The core duo Lunar and Samo met through mutual friends. “I was invited to play at a party and asked Frank if he wanted

THE LAKE

WAX JUNKIE Sean O’Toole WRITER - Sean O’Toole

PHOTOGRAPHY - OLIVER KRUGER

“Music made me want to be a writer. And it was also music that got me interested in art, the furrow I now plough as pretentious hack slash art critic. My selection for this column is a mix of things that shaped my music sensibilities early on, as well as music linked to my nomadic life with the Gypsy caravan that is the contemporary art world. Most of the music I listen to favours a black wardrobe, hence the ridiculous shirt for my portrait. Anyone from school reading this will likely say, “Ag shame, he’s still into that lame emo kak.” Nailed it. Music ruined me early on, for which I’m eternally grateful.” Fad Gadget Fireside Favourites 1980 / Mute Records

Cabaret Voltaire Red Mecca 1981 / Rough Trade

My music tastes are pretty much synchronous with the plot of the Terminator movies: it’s all about what happened after the machines switched on. Synths, basically. Depeche Mode introduced me to Fad Gadget, whose name I used as my handle whenever I got a high score on an arcade game. When I first heard this album I had to look up the meaning of the song “Coitus Interruptus” in a dictionary, which was a kind of sexual education. Music journalist Paul Morley is eloquent on Frank Tovey’s contribution to avant-pop, his mix of camp artfulness and dark romanticism. I swopped a rare Aphex Twin seven-inch I received at a 1994 London gig for this album. Everyone says I was mad. Whatever.

I stole this album from a record library in Pretoria – and promptly got caught. The woman who called out to the morose youth with spiky hair and a long coat had a good heart. She let me off with a stern warning, an inexplicable kindness that compounded my shame. But the music! The primitive drum machine, processed guitars and growling vocals of its songs challenged my 702-coached music speak. This was music you had to read NME and art books in order to understand. Neville Brody’s sleeve design, basically analogue static, amplified my confusion. In a peculiar twist, I bought the exact record I tried to steal when the record library closed in the late 1980s.

Ben Frost Theory of Machines 2007 / Bedroom Community

Sunn O))) Oracle 1900 / Southern Lord

For a while in the early eighties I was sure it was over for music and me. Then I heard Black Dice, and later on Australian musician Ben Frost. After the rampant beats of the 1990s and anal glitch at the roll over of the old millennium, electronic music got interesting again when it decided to tap into its underground roots. Black Dice were part of that Rhode Island School of Design new no-wave thing. Their debut album Beaches & Canyons (2002) anticipates the slow build-ups and sustained intensity of Theory of Machines. I saw Frost play a private gig in the New York Public Library in 2011, a high-intensity drone symphony that channelled the early 1980s guitar ensemble vibes of Glenn Branca.

Recorded music is, in some senses, a proxy for being there. In 2010, I travelled to the Catskills Mountains north of New York to see Sunn O))) play a live set with Japanese doom metal act Boris. The event was more mental than metal. Sunn O))) live is like being soothed by defibrillator. I have infinite patience for this kind of shtick, in large part due to Napalm Death’s album Scum (1987), which did for rock music what Samuel Becket did for theatre. Sure, the idea of Sunn O))) is sometimes more interesting than their music, especially their recent collaboration with Scott Walker. But this industrially-tinged ambient co-lab with expressionist sculptor Banks Violette is the satanic nightmare Christian National Education warned us against

Francis Bebey African Electronic Music 1975-1982 2011 / Born Bad Records

William Kentridge & Philip Miller The Refusal of Time 2013 / Private Edition

I know its mandatory to stop and pray at the Church of Fela Kuti, whose forthrightness makes Fallists look like dour Protestants: “Fuck off. Who are you? Go and die. Fuck away. Get away. Who are you? Go and shit”. But being a punk was not Bebey’s thing. A prolific journalist and novelist, Cameroon-born Bebey was a classically trained guitarist and flutist who began releasing music in 1965. While living in Paris in the 1970s, he plugged into Europe’s new machine music. This quixotic album of soundtracklike experiments and spare pop ditties made on primitive electronics charts the drift of one of Africa’s foremost musicologists into nob twiddling. Like Jimi Tenor’s schmaltzy techno-cabaret of the late 1990s, it is music grounded in joyful experiment.

I wanted to include Wie Is Bernoldus Niemand? (1985), but opted for this instead as it highlights the difference between the critic and the collector. Art criticism, much like music criticism, is a low stakes game. It is easy to call out so-and-so as a great artist. Praise, though, is a lot like water vapour on a mirror after a hot shower. Collecting requires a commitment beyond opinion. For all his surplus production, I think Kentridge is a remarkable artist, more so when he collaborates. This record, one of only 20 pressings compiling Miller’s music from Kentridge’s installation The Refusal of Time (2012), took me two years to pay off. It is parked between my copies of out-there vinyl releases by artists Matthew Barney and Mike Kelley.

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UNPLUGGED RAY - BAN / PAUL WARD INTERVIEW - SUPPLIED

PHOTOGRAPHY - PAUL WARD

Paul Ward, photographer and filmmaker from Cape Town, shares a personal journey of his life with his online followers. Being connected allows him to let people see parts of the world through his eyes and inspire them to get out of their comfort zone. We convinced Paul to take part in something of a social experiment for 48 hours in the radio free zone in Greenbank, West Virginia. By disconnecting from all things digital alongside 6 other influencers, we documented Paul as he re-discovers life beyond the screen.

What was the hardest aspect of being ‘unplugged’ for 48 hours? What would you say you missed the most? At first I really thought that 48 hours unplugged wouldn’t make much difference to my life at all, after all it’s just a weekend. I’m not sure if it was because we were all so aware of being unplugged and that it was being forced on us that it stayed uppermost in our minds the whole time, but it really became almost an emotional thing, being disconnected. Your online world is your happy place I guess, you can check instagram and see new followers and get a sense of worth or positive reinforcement from good feedback, of course it can go the other way but more often than not you get a positive feeling from your online following.

flew from Africa to Asia, to America then back to Asia, and back to Africa in less than two weeks. If I wasn’t able to be connected and have a mobile office wherever I went, none of this would be possible. Traveling would mean being disconnected and potentially losing work or missing out on opportunities. When I was starting out as a photographer, having a photography blog and sharing my images with my online community played a big role in

what it is good for, but not to be consumed by it. And maybe it’s a good idea to build in a 48-hour detox session into your lifestyle where you step away from it and get a chance to gain perspective. I think it’s the same as everything in life, it’s all good in moderation. For today’s generation, internet connection is their lifeblood, their driving force, disconnecting them from the emotions of the real world. How do you feel this impacts on the

‘Internet and being connected is a double-sided coin. It gives you complete freedom, but you never really have absolute freedom.’ I did start to think about what other people were up to, was I missing any events, these days you’re always connected to your community, so I always know what’s happening with my friends in Berlin or America or Tokyo and you almost get a blow-byblow of their lives, but once you disconnect you start to wonder what else is going on in the world. This is probably a new phenomenon as, before social media, you would never have had access to this information, and thus never missed it. I guess what I missed the most was having this instant access which enabled me to leave my current place and step out into the digital world for a minute or hour or how ever long you get trapped in the social world, but once you accept that you have no access, you start to engage with your mediate reality. The guest house we stayed in had a massive library, a pool table, a jukebox, board games; all these old fashioned forms of entertainment which were amazing to engage with. I don’t remember when last I sat down and played a game of chess. It was really a great experience once you got through the initial “down” feeling of being disconnected. How does being connected impact you and the work you do? To be honest I don’t think I would be anywhere close to living the life I do today, if it wasn’t for being able to stay connected. I travel a lot for work, like a lot a lot. I think this year I’ve been on more than 40 flights. Actually during this experience I

and support them in their down times from continents away. Sometimes I’m away from South Africa for three or four months at a time, and besides my closest friends I won’t really directly communicate with anyone, but I will still be able to watch and participate in people’s lives via an online connection. It’s an amazing thing. The problem however is that often people, myself included, stop living in the moment and become consumed by their online world. Or they split themselves up where they end up neither here nor there, they are not focused in the reality, with their attention divided by the online feed, and they don’t connect with the human in front of them. I remember a friend of mine telling me how once, she was on a picturesque beach on some exotic location with family, and she saw a picture of her friends partying in cold Europe, and got fomo for not being there, when in reality she was in a much better place, but because she had disconnected herself from the reality and gone into the online world she wasn’t able to appreciate the moments she was sharing with people in front of her. So I guess because you are able to have so many more relationships now via an online connection, you can easily fall into the trap of diluting your relationships, whereas in the past you would have much deeper connections with far fewer people. I also believe this is something that can be managed and that maybe with generations to follow they would have learnt how to have a good balance of both. What did you enjoy most about being ‘unplugged’ for 48 hours?

attracting the attention of brands and potential clients - if it wasn’t for the connected community that celebrated my work online I’m not sure how I would have progressed to where I am today. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of work, hard work. But being connected allows one certain opportunities, you just have to have the skill and determination to take those opportunities, if and when they present themselves. After having experienced being digitally disconnected, do you feel that you could be less dependent on technology in your everyday life? I would like to be, but I’m not sure if it’s realistic. I think what is certain is just to be more aware of it. To understand its role in my life and society, to use it for

type of relationships people have with one another? Wow that’s a pretty intense question, I feel like we should be getting a psychology major to be writing a thesis on this subject but here are my two cents worth: I think maybe the biggest thing is that there are now two worlds which co-exist: there is your real physical world, and your online virtual world, and you have to be involved in both, you have to interact, you have to be “present” in both to be considered of value to either community. But this is a new phenomenon and you have to learn how to divide yourself between both worlds. This obviously affects the type of relationships people have with one another in many ways. On the positive side you can have friends from around the world and be connected in their lives, “celebrate” their victories

THE LAKE

The freedom. Being disconnected was a beautiful thing once you came to terms with it. Nobody could contact you, you couldn’t see what others were doing, you just had to dive into the moment, and embrace the now. And we had a lot of fun, and made real deep connections with one another, far more than if we still had our phones, I feel. We all had to give 100% of ourselves to the moment and thus our experience was much richer. All the social influencers were super famous online, but it didn’t matter once you were disconnected. You weren’t a famous youtuber or blogger in that moment, you were just yourself and were judged on that, and every one of the people I met on this trip were really exceptional people so it made sense that they had such big followings, but it was nice to interact with them before acquiring a preconception of their online persona. INFO: www.ray-ban.com INFO: www.whoispaulward.com 57

print run REVIEWS - XAVIER NAGEL

SUPPLIED BY - BIBLIOPHILIA

Morbid Curiosities The Initiation

Star Wars /

The Initiation by Mogorosi Motshumi (R275) is the first graphic autobiography by a black South African. Set against the turbulent backdrop of a nation in transition, the first book of Motshumi’s autobiographic trilogy begins in Batho township, Bloemfontein, in the early ‘60s, and runs through to the late 1970’s when he arrives in Johannesburg as a budding political cartoonist on the run from the security police. It’s a unique and compelling document of township life at the height of apartheid, providing a first-hand glimpse into the rising political consciousness amongst black youth that culminated in the Soweto rebellion of 16 June 1976.

Star Wars - A Poster Collection (R350) features 20 removable, frameable prints of the very best artwork from across the entire George Lucas-curated Star Wars Art series. Sixteen selections from Visions, Comics, Illustration, Concept, and Posters – including art by John Alvin, John Berkeley, Ralph McQuarrie amongst others are joined by four newly commissioned artworks created specfically for this book by Max Dalton, Phantom City Creative, Tiny Kitten Teeth, and John Vermilyea. These high-quality, large format, crease-free prints will be sure to transport Star Wars fans of all ages to a galaxy far, far away… as an independent creative operating from his collaborative space in Woodstock called “Only Today”.

A Poster Collection

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Visual Impact

ARTREPRENEUR

Visual Impact – Creative Dissent in the 21st century (R500) is an accessible and richly illustrated exploration of how art and design have driven major social and political change in the 21st century. Featuring the work of over 200 artists, from the famous such as Ai Weiwei and Shepard Fairey, to the anonymous influencers working through social media. Richly illustrated with over 400 images, this is a visual guide to the most influential and highly politicised imagery of the digital age. Exploring themes and issues such as popular uprisings (the Arab Spring, the London Riots) social activism (marriage equality), and environmental crises (Hurricane Katrina), as well as the recent Je Suis Charlie protests.

Artist + Entrepreneur = Artrepreneur. Today, more than ever before, creative professionals from all creative domains are beginning to realize that in order to pursue a creative career you need to think like an entrepreneur. Yet as we discover in Artrepreneur (R295) by Lukas de Beer, the motivating factors between what drives an entrepreneur and an Artrepreneur differ greatly. It is about the intersection between being an artist and being an entrepreneur, hence the title of the book. Part selfhelp, part coaching, part delve-intoyour-soul-to-find-the-real-you. Why? Because without the real you, art will always be a copy and never a creation.

Do It Yourself

Seismographic Sounds

Sight & Sound

Seismographic Sounds – Visions of a New World (R450) introduces you to a contemporary world of distinct music, sounds and music videos trough a collage of articles, quotations, photographs and lyrics. Produced in oftentimes small studios from Jakarta to La Paz, Cape Town to Helsinki, these works experiment with the new possibilities of the Internet age and illuminate new spaces beyond the confines of commercialism, propaganda, and bigotry. They foresee a changing geography of multi-layered modernities.

Sight & Sound (R115) is an international film magazine published monthly by the British Film Institute. First published in 1932, the magazine reviews all film releases each month, including those with a limited release, as opposed to most film magazines which concentrate on those films with a general release. Sight & Sound features a full cast and crew credit list for each reviewed film. In the latest issue there’s features on the female road movie, the life of Kirk Douglas, an interview with John Carpenter as well as a look at Hollywood in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Do It Yourself – 50 Projects by Designers and Artists (R630), 50 of the world’s most exciting designers and visionary artists have devised simple objects that anyone can make at home. Affordable, accessible and inspirational, this book redefines DIY for the IKEA generation. Each easy-to-make project can be made with basic tools and everyday items. Every project includes hand-drawn stepby-step illustrations and colour photographs to ensure success. Also provides photographic lists of tools and materials, plus details of the cost and time needed to complete. With a biography for each designer, the text also reveals the inspiration behind the design. THE LAKE

Sight & Sound PAY DIRT Pay Dirt – An Exhibition of Works on Paper (R230) is a limited edition zine by Hanno van Zyl and Salon Ninety One featuring an essay on PAY DIRT by Natasha Norman, images of works from the show, as well as a signed and numbered artwork. His work explores the underbelly of everyday South-African life, by examining scenes and details often forgotten by dominant cultural narratives and popular discourse. His starkly rendered line drawings aestheticise the banal, thereby highlighting themes of social stratification, fear, economic disparity and violence. After graduating Hanno established himself

Flying whales, ships sailing through corn fields, cows casually floating by and a curious cat in every scene – enter the dizzying world of The Bicycle Colouring Book – Journey to the Edge of the World (R325). Explore fantastical landscapes roamed by rider-less bicycles of every kind. Colour in the incredibly detailed, full page illustrations as you go and flip through the left-hand pages to animate the cat’s own adventure. Fixies, road bikes, tandems and tricycles are all being led on the same bizarre journey. Will you follow them … to the edge of the world?

PSYCHWIG PATTERN YOUR SOCIAL BEHAVIOR ABNORMALLY AND DEVIATE TOWARDS ILLOGICAL FASHION.......YOUR PSYCHWIG WILL DICTATE AND CREATE YOUR OWN INDIVIDUAL PERCEPTION OF REALITY WITH INFERENCES OF COGNITIVE BIAS........

ICONS Graham “Suggs” McPherson

27 16

26 13 3

12 21 6

17 18

1 Pringle of Scotland - Boswell RN Knit, Navy / 2 BEN SHERMAN - Silver Chalice Marl Polo / 3 VANS - reflective-full-patch-t/ 4 BEN SHERMAN - Bright White T-Shirt / 5 Hartford - Bucson Shorts (at / 6 Pringle of Scotland - Macmillen Styled Shorts, Black / 7 Dr Martens - Hawley / 8 Dr Martens - OXBLOOD QUILON / 9 VANS - Old Skool / Canvas Gum - green / light gum / 10 SATANS FINEST - TOTE / 11 MADNESS - COMPLETE MADNESS - LP 12 Dr Martens - Fabric Backpack / 13 VONZIPPER - ALT HOWL / 14 VONZIPPER - ALT PSYCHWIG / 15 Pringle of Scotland - Black, Aldis Trilby 16 VANS - Full Patch Snapback Hat - BLACK / 17 LEVIS - Tommy / 18 BEN SHERMAN - Matt Gold Shirt / 19 PRIVATE WHITE - ECOSEAM EcoStone Cotton Blazer (at CLOTH & LABEL) 20 TOE PORN - ASSORTED SOCKS / 21 Ben Sherman - 3-pack, Clyde grey / navy / stripe socks / 22 Ben Sherman - 3-pack, Dart claret / navy / argyle socks 23 Ben Sherman - 3-pack, Thames Black nepp/grey; marl/blue and red stripe socks / 24 Ben Sherman - 2-pack trunks, navy floral / washed blue 25 Ben Sherman - 2-pack trunks, grey / navy / 26 Ben Sherman - Staples Navy / 27 Ben Sherman - Black Bag / 28 Ben Sherman - Concrete Marl Jacket

CLOTH & LABEL)

THE LAKE

ICONS ELSA MARTINELLI

12 2

6 4

1 Miu Miu - Sunglasses / 2 Country road - Safari Pocket Shirt / 3 Ralph Lauren - linen shorts / 4 Hannah Lavery - fold over slip on mules / 5 PAILLARD BOLEX - Caméra 8 mm 6 little doe is love - birkin basket / 7 Lmad scarf - “Family Portrait” Micheal Taylor / 8 Cream - Disraeli Gears - LP / 9 LISA MARIE FERNANDEZ - Yasmin stretch-cloqué bikini 10 Aldo - Fabrizzia flats / 11 Henrik Vibskov - delay high waist trouser / 12 Topman x Jody Paulsen - T-shirt / 13 Gucci - Sunglasses THE LAKE

PLIMSOLL

VANS - Authentic Leather dachshund / potting soil

VANS - Old Skool Leather dachshund / potting soil

VANS - Old Skool True White

VANS - Old Skool Canvas Gum green / light gum

VANS - Old Skool Canvas Gum eclipse / light gum

VANS - Old Skool Canvas Gum Black / light gum

VANS - SK8-Hi MTE (Mte) multi / cappuccino

VANS - Sk8-Hi MTE (Mte) Glazed Ginger / Plaid

VANS - Sk8-Hi MTE (Mte) Black / Black / Camo

VANS - Iso 3 MTE Mid (Mte) Cathay Spice / Hummus

VANS - Sk8-Hi True White

VANS - SK8-Hi Reissue Leather dachshund / potting soil

PUMA - Duplex Evo mazarine Blue

PUMA - Duplex Evo WHITE / WHITE

PUMA - Duplex Evo Puma Black

PUMA - Duplex Evo SAFETY Yellow

PUMA - Duplex Evo RACING Red

PUMA - Duplex Evo rise ELEM

Havaianas Batman V Superman white. / black - MENS

Havaianas Star Wars White / White- MENS

Havaianas Hype White - MENS

Havaianas Slim Nautical White - womEns

Havaianas Slim Princesas White - womEns

Havaianas Slim Tribal White / Black - womEns

Onitsuka Tiger - VIN GREY / SULPHER

Onitsuka Tiger - VIN POSEIDON / DARK GREY

Onitsuka Tiger - Mexico 66 GREY / LIGHT GREY

Onitsuka Tiger - Mexico 66 METALLIC PACK

THE LAKE

Onitsuka Tiger - Mexico 66 METALLIC PACK

Onitsuka Tiger Mexico Delegation SULPHER / white

PLIMSOLL

ADIDAS - Tubular entrap PK W Blanc et noir

ADIDAS - Tubular Radial Crystal White

ASICS - gel lyte V X-MAS Pack - MENS dark green / duffle bag

ASICS - Gel- Lyte III X-MAS Pack - MENS blue mirage / india ink

ADIDAS - NMD XR1 olive

ADIDAS - NMD XR1 Pink

ADIDAS - Matchcourt slip Running White

ADIDAS - Matchcourt colour / way

ASICS - gel lyte V Snowflake Pack - WOMENS Red / White

ASICS - gel lyte V Snowflake Pack - WOMENS light mint/light mint

Havaianas origine renda tropical laranja branco

Havaianas origine renda tropical verde branco

Dune - Brightling grey

Dune - Brightling tan

Dune - Cape Cod grey

Dune - Cape Cod tan

Dune - Fencing navy

Dune - Fencing white

Palladium Boots PampaTech Hi TX Army Green / Flame

Palladium Boots PampaTech Hi TX Black / Formula One

Palladium Boots PampaTech Hi TX Maroon / Navy

Palladium Boots Blanc Hi Balsam Green / White

Palladium Boots Mono Chrome Sunkist Coral

Palladium Boots Pampa Sport Cuff WPN Amber Gold / Mid Gum

Dr Martens - EYE BOOT CHERRY RED SMOOTH

Dr Martens - EYE SHOE BLACK QUILON

Dr Martens - Will Black Greasy Lamper

Dr Martens - Will Gaucho Wildhorse Lamper

Dr Martens - Bodeco Dark Blue Cotton Mesh

Dr Martens - Bodeco Dark Grey Cotton Mesh

THE LAKE