THE LAKE #014 by THE LAKE MAGAZINE

MOLOTOV FIRE IN THE WESTERN WORLD

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THE LAKE WE ARE FOOLISHLY Ambitious

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MOLOTOV “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.” - Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

CONTENTS REGULARS:

PUBLISHER

News 06 Print Run 54 Fashion Mens 58 Plimsoll 56 Fashion Ladies 60 ART: Pushing Thirty Dirty Boots Area 51

14 34 44

MUSIC: Mashup 08 Empires of Decay 22 Wax Junkie 48 LIFESTYLE: Girl Adom In Transit

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

PHOTOGRAPHY: Stalker

THE LAKE MAGAZINE PTY LTD info@thelake.co

28 40 50

COVER Jansen Van Staden Photography Linda Buthelezi Sonic Soldier Jansen Van Staden Art Direction / Styling Stefan Naude Art Direction / Styling Studio The Ground Floor Studio Studio GLOW HIRE Lighting GLOW HIRE Retouching Naomi e’Camara photographers

FASHION

Hayden Phipps Oliver Kruger Jansen Van Staden Scott Peter Smith The Seppis Luan Nel Ross Hillier Gontse More

Kristi Vlok kristi@thelake.co

CONTENTS PHOTO

COPY EDITING

Scott Peter Smith

Christine Stewart

2016 - ‘GSAND’

ONLINE / SOCIAL

www.submedia.co.za

Contributors Rick De La Ray Xavier Nagel Lloyd Gedye Dan Charles Matthew Partridge Diane Awerbuck Len Cockraft

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.

Advertising / MARKETING Brett Bellairs brett@thelake.co

thelake.co.za Submissions info@thelake.co

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

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NEWS VANS / Anaheim Factory DX The Anaheim Factory DX pays tribute to our first Vans factory in Anaheim, California, by borrowing details from the original silhouettes and offering modernized comfort with upgraded UltraCush sockliners. The Anaheim Factory styles also includes throwback details, using the original style number and color palette, higher glossed foxing tape, cotton laces, original drill lining weight and a heavy 10 oz. canvas to complete the look. Some longtime fans of the brand are hailing the Anaheim Factory collection as true remakes of the original pre-90’s Made in the USA lines that we reminisce over. INFO: www.vans.com

ASICS Tiger Knit

REEBOK CLASSIC

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Styles evolve, but one thing stays true. The Classic Leather gets an update with a new eye-catching Paisley print for SS17. Luxe suede uppers, tonal midsole and retro gum outsole. Each sneaker aligns with paisley apparel and accessories, for a complete look. The paisley print incorporates the Starcrest for that Classic Reebok twist.

Its traditional lace system and heritage-inspired midsole make for an inventive fusion of iconic style and advanced technology. The Birch/Birch GEL-KAYANO® TRAINER Knit Low colourway is available exclusively at Cross Trainer for R2,299.

Born in 1983, the Reebok Classic Leather has sprinted from affordable running shoe to streetstyle favourite. Throughout time it’s been updated with nylon mixed uppers, premium materials and on-trend prints – but has always stayed true to its heritage DNA. Join the likes of Kendrick Lamar and add the profile to your sneaker rotation.

INFO: www.asics.com

INFO: www.reebok.co.za

not on my waTCH NIXON At the heart of the Nixon brand are our watches. Custom-built creations focused on an original point of view, backed with quality materials and handcrafted workmanship, delivering worldclass design one watch at a time. We work with some of the most ridiculously talented athletes, artists and personalities to create watches for the life we live.Team-Designed, Custom- Built. NIXON - We make the little shit better! Karma is the official licenced distributors for NIXON SA. For general enquiries on product, batteries and serves please contact us on 021 020 0152

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NIXON CANNON ALL GUNMETAL

NIXON SENTRY SS ALL GOLD / BLACK

NIXON SENTRY SS BLACK / STEEL

NIXON BASE ALL BLACK

NIXON BASE ALL GOLD

NIXON LYNX ALL BLACK

NIXON LYNX ALL GOLD

NIXON STATION ALL GUNMETAL

NIXON CLUTCH ALL BLACK / WHITE

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Nixon_southafrica 021 020 0152

MASHUP the independent spirit of Durban’s music scene Ask most people about South African music and they’ll tell you local Hip hop is making a scene and there has never been a more exciting time to be a musician. Plenty of fresh talent appears to be coming out of the woodwork more recently and it’s not only Jozi that produces musical greats.

Durban is fast becoming a Hip hop hub, spawning musical kings and queens along the coast and bringing a different take on the evolving genre in the process. And it’s not only Jozi that produces musical greats. Durban is fast becoming a Hip hop hub, spawning musical kings and queens along the coast and bringing a different take on the evolving genre in the process.

townspeople – a bank clerk, grocer, policeman and even a local lawyer. Like his whiskey, music brought together people from every walk of life. Along with playing at saloon openings, the Silver Cornet Band played at Independence Day celebrations and political rallies. It would finally disband when its members left for World War I, but the music would never be completely silenced.

Scouting for real beats made on Mzansi’s streets

After his death, Jack’s spirit continued to live on through music. His whiskey would become the unofficial whiskey of choice for Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack. Rock ‘n’ roll would take over the mantle in the ‘60s. In fact some have said the history of music is dripping with Jack Daniel’s.

Started in 2013, Jack Daniel’s Music Scouts was created to give a valuable platform to these fresh, unsigned musicians and DJs across the country with authentic talent and importantly, hustle and drive to do things their own way.

Jack’s love affair with music lives on

Through collaborations with legendary music mentors such as Khuli Chana, Culoe de Song, Vinny Da Vinci, DJ Ganyani, Spikiri, DJ Speedsta and T-Bo Touch – all of whom have chartered their own unique path in the industry – Jack Scouts has provided a stage to numerous exciting up-and-coming artists. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate their unique talent, build their fanbase and further develop the next step in their own independent story – and we think Jack himself would approve.

Jack Daniel’s Music Scouts continues Jack’s love affair with music by helping showcase up and coming artists who are creating their own authentic sounds and staying true to their craft. This is certainly the case for three extraordinary artists hailing from Durban. Selected by Jack Daniel’s to perform on the coveted Jack Daniel’s SoundCity stage at Vodacom Durban July last year, Breeze, DJ Wobbly and Nelz are making waves with their unique sounds.

The start of the story

Shooting the Breeze

Jack’s own story began in Lynchburg, Tennessee in 1866. Over the years, his whiskey would travel across the world, both backstage and on stage for many well-loved artists. As with all great stories, Jack’s was born from a passion and determination to do things his own way. And we’re not just talking whiskey making: Jack began one of the oldest recorded music sponsorships in the 1860s – of the Silver Cornet Band. Jack’s band was made up of local talented

Quintessential entertainer Breeze, has earned himself the title of ‘Stage God’ for good reason. This exceptionally talented rapper and dancer delivers highly energetic performances that are garnering him fans from across the continent.

Describing his sound as an authentic African genre, which speaks to a pan-African and worldwide audience, Breeze is the uncontested king of Zulu Bass. Consisting of a mix of EDM Dub-

step and Hip hop, he raps in both English and Zulu allowing him to identify with a very broad high-energy fun-loving audience. It seems that for Breeze, the only way is up. His mixtape, TrendSetter, released in 2012 earned him five nominations at the Original Material Awards. Meanwhile, his EP Zulu Bass King peaked at over 100,000 downloads; and his music video for Amanga was debuted on MTV Base and was on rotation for six weeks on the channel. He also featured on Nasty C’s mixtape, Prince City and DJ Dimple’s album Zeal. Breeze’s latest release, Icathulo, featuring 2015 Jack Daniel’s Music Scouts winner Gigi LaMayne has topped charts and trended on social media in three African countries. Preserving his language is important to Breeze and through his crafting of these fresh Zulu Bass sounds, Breeze is creating a unique musical identity that is all his own. DJ Wobbly is on a sound footing Hip hop DJ and producer DJ Wobbly epitomises passion for his craft. He was the guy at school who was always making music and it’s this unwavering drive from early on that appears to be paying off. DJ Wobbly’s first song called Game changers ft. Breeze, Nelz, Bistah and Tarmasha got him a lot of attention in the industry. His single Ubusha Bethu (Going Up) which features Nasty C, Dreamteam and Mgarimbe released early in 2016 got the streets talking and Hip hop lovers across South Africa were begging for more. He describes Ubusha Bethu as the moment he truly found his sound, ‘It’s hard knocking 808s, sharp snares and sharp hi hats. It’s a trap feeling but with the South African rumble on the low ends’.

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Currently working on finishing the Ubusha Bethu music video, DJ Wobbly is also busy with his next single and his album. Through his highly anticipated work he wants to show people that Durban is capable of producing music genres beyond just kwaito and house. With his humble approach and luminous skills, he’s already doing just that. Knighthood for Nelz With just six years in the music industry, female Hip hop rapper Nelz is already known by her fans as the ‘Queen of the coast’. While she prefers not to be limited to the title of rapper but rather musician and entertainer, Nelz is known for her raps and her melodies. In 2016 Nelz dropped a single called Chasing produced by Shoutout beats, a brilliant choice to play when the turn-up is in need of a jumpstart. This track sums up the female rapper’s sound and the lyrics talk to her tenacious work ethic. In just six years Nelz has already amassed exciting achievements such as sharing the stage with legends like Black Coffee and working with greats such as Kwaito star Professor (from Kalawa Jazmee). Nelz’s recent single ‘The Top’ is doing well on national radio stations and the music video has music bloggers admiring her art, calling it one of 2017’s greatest visuals in SA Hip hop. Nelz grew up listening to the music that her aunts played and would always manage to learn the lyrics before they could. She describes her own sound today in terms of production as constantly evolving because she feels that as an artist you need to always stay relevant and reinvent your sound. But her catchy raps and melodies, they aren’t going anywhere. INFO: www.facebook.com/JackDanielsSA

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QUESTIONS - RICK DE LA RAY

PHOTOGRAPHY - GONTSE MORE

GONTSE MOrE / PHATSTOKI “I think it happens organically? But I usually shoot in places I’m familiar with, whether it be in my hood or my homie’s hood, or whether it be at a musical festival I go to every year…how I get to the image can be different.” What is your first memory of a camera and looking at photos and what impact did it have on you?

either. But generally a lot of the film pictures seen on my blog are from borrowed cameras because I couldn’t afford my own at the time.

Growing up all the cameras I got my hands on were not operating, or people I knew who had one, didn’t know how it worked. Come to think of it now, they probably all worked fine, just needed a new roll of film. I remember seeing images of my eldest brother on a school trip in the early 90s; they gave him a camera to document it and those pictures were absolutely beautiful. I remember the ones I thought were great were considered pointless because they were images of obscure objects or portraits of his friends we didn’t know. I still have the camera he shot them with, I keep it in my room and now that I think about it, it’s more than it just being an accessory in my personal space, it’s more a genuine reminder that that’s where my love for photography perhaps started. I was younger than 10 years old when I first saw those photographs, but I remember them so clearly.

You shoot mostly on film. Is there a reason for that or do you also cross over into digital?

What was your initial interest in taking photographs? Initially, it was the camera phone. I was like 12/13 years old when I was exposed to them, and when a friend at school got one, I just wanted to take pictures all the time. When people wanted pictures of themselves on their phones, I’d be like “let me do it.” I think it was just the joy of being able to create something from what you see. By the time I got to high school, camera phones had become popular enough to be everywhere, I got a second-hand one myself, lol a Samsung flip phone. It was only in later years when I considered it seriously. In one of my Visual Art class handouts about different mediums artists use, photography was mentioned briefly. When I found out photography counted as art, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I took a gap year, got a job and bought my first camera the same year. Horrible point and shoot digital camera, but it felt amazing, that’s when I really got into it. What camera are you shooting with at the moment? Standard Nikon D5100, it was given to me by a friend who didn’t use it much and believed I was too talented not to have access to my own camera. I’ll admit it’s not the greatest device, but the shutter works - yo, that’s all I need man. I don’t come from a very privileged background; money growing up was either for food, clothes and/or transport, it still kinda is. Spending money on equipment is a luxury for me. Getting myself a “professional” camera would have taken forever, so I am eternally grateful that she thought I deserved the camera more than anyone else, including her. She might not know it but she saved my life. I also have a second-hand Sounex 2000N from a friend who is equally supportive. He saw the camera and got it for me because he loves my work. I can’t even thank him enough

Haha I wish. I shoot mostly on digital and cross over to film when I can afford the expenses. I’d choose film over digital any day though. What makes you decide on what subject matter you would like to focus on or do you just shoot randomly at scenes or occasions that interest you? I think it happens organically? But I usually shoot in places I’m familiar with, whether it be in my hood or my homie’s hood, or whether it be at a musical festival I go to every year…how I get to the image can be different. Sometimes I know what I want because I saw something before but the time of day wasn’t quite right? Other times if I’m at a shoot for work or whatever and see something that intrigues my eye, I’ll seize the moment. Sometimes I’m feeling a certain way so I get out of bed and go hang out with my camera. I don’t really have a formula, my formula only begins the moment the frame of my eye touches the viewfinder, only then am I carefully thinking, focusing, preparing to create an image. There seems to be a touch of minimalism in all your photographs – is it something that you deliberately look for within your framing? I don’t know if it was deliberate in the beginning but it’s safe to say it is now? I didn’t know that’s what I was doing until someone pointed it out. I’m just very into the broad idea of “space” and its ability to promote a lot of different feelings, even if it’s just an empty space. The feelings space gives are usually strong and almost indescribable. It leaves room for feeling, mood, interpretation, and so many other things. I’ve never been into images that give away all/too much information. I don’t want to force any ideas on anyone. I’d prefer people to look and then they can take it from there.

ing with light, which is what photography is for me. I don’t know. It also just feels better man. It feels undeletable; a part of the earth, like, film is a lot more tangible you know? Do you see yourself continuing or is it just a medium that you are interested in for the moment?

I had to do this to prove that I love what I do. But over the years I realized that my process is a little different, maybe like my work itself, and that’s okay. I got tired of shooting just for the sake of it and opted to create when it feels better. Sometimes I’ll shoot 100 pictures in a week, other times one photograph in a month. I do what feels right not what is said to be right.

Definitely continuing. I plan on setting up a darkroom in the future; I have most of the equipment, just not the space yet.

What do you feel is the essence or the story or subject matter that you feel you are documenting?

What is your line of work and how much time do you spend on your photography?

This is hard to say, it’s like: I remember this one time when a white woman who is prominent in the art industry asked what my work is about, when I said it’s about being a black woman… she stopped me right there and asked “how?” She told me she “couldn’t see it.” I walked out of that room so confused. Like what the phuck does she mean? Because there are no images of a baby on a beautiful black mother’s back with a sack on her head - it doesn’t quite seem like a black woman’s narrative? That aesthetic is true and valid and still very relevant but it isn’t mine.

Currently working at the independent film company Goodcop. I recently got into motion pictures so I’m exploring that a little further. Just shot my first music video for a Berlin-based artist and I’m part of an artist collective founded by award-winning film maker Zandile Tisani. I also DJ so there’s that lol. I found in the past that I would pressure myself into thinking I must always shoot, all the time. I thought

HIGH FIVES Buckshot LeFonque

What do you think appeals to a lot of younger photographers to shoot on film again?

BEWILDERBEAST

Jai Paul

Raphael Saadiq

Real Estate

U Know

BTSTU

RAY RAY

Days

1997

2011

2004

2011

Sony Music

bandcamp

Navarre

Domino

Music Evolution

I don’t know, I would think it differs? I can’t speak on behalf of others but I would think a lot of us grew up looking at film photography, and with time one realizes that the digital image doesn’t quite have that film “thing”. I guess for some it’s because they can afford to? Just to have one up on likes and reposts, it’s the best way to get that photograph texture that social media filters try to get right. For someone like myself, it embodies the idea of paint-

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“I don’t know if it was deliberate in the beginning but it’s safe to say it is now? I didn’t know that’s what I was doing until someone pointed it out. I’m just very into the broad idea of “space” and its ability to promote a lot of different feelings, even if it’s just an empty space. The feelings space gives are usually strong and al”

It was on that day I decided to never let anyone tell me what my work is or isn’t about, on the basis of how narrow people’s visual language is. So the essence of my story or subject matter would definitely be about me. People who aren’t like me might not get me. And when I say like me I don’t necessarily mean my blackness/my queerness, I mean my open-mindedness, my refusal to be depicted in a certain way in order to be considered by others, my awkwardness; it’s about validating the people I love, the spaces I grew up in and the thoughts I have. My work is about a visual language; to me it’s a way of seeing. I just do me and hope those who can relate do, and those who can’t, like my shit regardless. How long have you had your blog and how often do you update it? It’s a visual diary for you. How would you compare the person in your first posts to your most recent uploads? I’ve had the blog since 2013, I believe. It started off as something I had to do for school and then I just kept at it. Apparently I don’t update it as much as I should for someone using a blog as a platform to share work, but I didn’t put the blog up to become an internet sensation or anything, it was just a means of sharing work I thought would be cool for others to see. The person in the first few posts was someone who had hopes of exhibiting in galleries and though that’s still me, that person considered the audience a little more than I do now? The more recent uploads make me feel like I’m still learning about myself, I’m still wide-eyed and stuff but more content in my style. Do you always carry your camera with you or do you plan days out to go on missions and explore possible ideas? I wish I could always travel with it, but I travel with public transport meaning I commute on foot in areas were mugging is a 9 to 5 job for many. The thought of losing my camera makes me incredibly anxious, that baby is how I help feed my family you know? So I tend to opt for the safer route and leave it home on most occasions. But generally my shoots aren’t planned unless it’s just a location I wanted to go back to. What do you wish you knew back then when you started shooting that you know now? What advice would you have given yourself a few years ago? I wish I knew how being a woman in this industry could really be a hindrance to your chances of success. I mean I knew a little about inequality, constantly going to exhibitions only to see male narratives over and over and over again, but I didn’t quite get the seriousness of it all. I wish when I was younger I wasn’t so naïve in thinking that my 12

work is better than theirs, thinking that it’s more than enough to be given the space to share it. I was wrong; instead what they do is give you this little ass space (if you’re lucky) to keep proving yourself to them, not even the space to share it how you imagine it deserves to be. With time it hit me that I am not even seen in a room with them, it’s a strange feeling. The world is a shitty place for a black woman with a dream, especially if she’s not from a financially stable environment. If I had known this sooner, I would have avoided a lot of conversations and engagements that have now resulted in a lot of triggers. What is it about film and the final product it produces that keeps you drawn to this medium? Must be the grain lol. Film and the development process is quite a pricey exercise these days. Do you think it makes you think more about the subject matter that you choose to focus on? Naturally so, all my life I’ve been trained how not to waste food, water, electricity, how to use things sparingly or in some instances to re-use resources. All this knowledge definitely becomes like second nature when using something as expensive and as limited as film. I have two rolls I’m holding onto right now, and because of this, I don’t want to just use them because I have them. Is there any photographers’ work that you follow locally or internationally that influenced your growth as a photographer? The photographers I follow locally… I love Mbali Mdluli’s, Mack Magagane’s and Andile Buka’s works. Internationally, it would have to be Alec Soth. What appeals to you most about your personal work when you look at it? Lol I don’t know how to answer this. I guess what appeals to me the most when I look back at my work are the parts the viewers can’t see. Like, when I look at the work I remember the feeling I got when I first saw the picture outside of the viewfinder and then in it. What appeals to me most is knowing where the pictures were taken and being able to find beauty in spaces commonly disregarded, just like the people who live in them. Any advice for anyone starting out on film? Try getting a feel for your camera before spending a lot on good film. Fool around with older cheaper film first, uhm…what else?... Oh! STAY AWAY FROM HARSH LIGHT! INFO:www.phatstokiphotography.blogspot.co.za THE LAKE

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WORDS - Matthew Partridge

PHOTOGRAPHY - SMAC

JODY PAULSEN

As his first solo show, Pushing Thirty is what Jody Paulsen describes as a “millennial approach to becoming an adult”. Beneath its playful veneer lies a nuanced meditation on aging that situates time as a material commodity inherent in Jody’s production.

Born in 1987, Jody will be 30 in October this year. He is the definition of a millennial; the generation born after 1982 who came of age at the dawn of the new millennium. Yet in this show we do not see a sentimental coming of age story; rather we are presented with Jody’s means of understanding the contemporary culture that informs his practice. “I’ve never thought about making work that looks laboured”, Jody confesses, suggesting that his interests lie more in the intersecting processes of patterning and composition. In retrospect however, he adds that the works themselves reveal the “love of hours of solitude” evident in their production. “These represent the past five years of my twenties” he says speaking of his enormous collages; “listening to podcasts, watching series and glueing spots”. To grasp the productive impulses that sit beneath the pop sensibilities of his large felt-based assemblages one can begin by tracing the development of Jody’s early work at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT where he majored in printmaking. His early exploration in repetition and multiples gave rise to the overriding sense of pattern that has come to be a distinctive marker of his work. Jody cites Cameron Platter and Julia Rosa Clark as early influences which helped him realise the potential of “installative ceremony” in his arrangements. Unlike his peers who at the time were experimenting with a clean, minimalist aesthetic, his early work presents the beginnings of an ongoing affair with maximalism where the material spills off the surface of each work, exploding into the gallery in a chaotic revelry that celebrates colour, composition and pattern. This genesis is an important part of Pushing Thirty because it orientates the thematic relationship between time and material that underscores the exhibition. But Jody is quick to point to the fact that the process is controlled “because otherwise you’re throwing away your time”. Therein lies the key to the exhibition; Jody’s maximalism is about controlling the expression of his materials and not letting them chaotically dictate the direction in which the work moves. Now, on the brink of Pushing Thirty, his material labour comes to reflect the consequence of time. It is not the subject of this new body of work, but rather the means that Jody uses to situate himself at its centre. To merely see these works in the terms set by their surface would be to undermine the socio-political nature of their content. Instead it is necessary to see them as the extension of how Jody locates

“the self as fictional character” within the exhibition as a whole. In Emotional Ninja, Jody uses this protagonist to explore the way in which “millennials approach adulthood” and “relationships in your twenties” where “you fall harder but at the end you don’t really change”. Here we are confronted with an inner voice that parodies the millenial experience as a way of making sense of the emotional conflicts of youth. Jody is careful to emphasise that these works are “honest” more than “confessional”. “Maybe you can call it sharing... but it’s not Tracey Emin”, he says, adding that, “I’m not the only 29-year-old watching Netflix, mainlining Afghan Kush, sometimes afraid to go outside”, referencing the title piece of this show. This is an important distinction because it presents the flip-side of millenials’ relationship to social media where “people are far more confessional on Instagram or Facebook than they are in real life”. Jody sees the work as an embodiment made in the “spirit of now” that reveals a parody of himself as the “perennial millennial” coming to terms with living and aging through this mediated existence. These are elaborate memes coded by experience and imbued with personal significance. “I’m not a political artist”, Jody maintains, “but sometimes I read The Economist or meet somebody that sends me on a tangent”. Evidencing this is his series of illustrated coats of arms, which subvert the fascist LGBT laws of countries such as Uganda and Jamaica. Appropriating these insignia, Jody turns them into a utopian vision of a “homotropical” paradise that celebrates rather than derides sexual differences. Similarly, the celebration of ‘the self’ finally comes together in his series of photographic compositions where the audience is given a glimpse of Jody’s body in the flesh. Adorned by his hand-cut fabrics, in a felt-filled jungle, we see his figure abstractly performing the character described in his textual murals. Inhabiting the space between object and subject, his form now physically embodies the work as a living testament of time. Pushing Thirty is the first instalment in the chronicle of a self-professed millennial and his negotiation with the boundaries of age and the limits of making.

Jody Paulsen - Marni Boyzclub - 2016 - Felt Collage / 217cm x 186cm

HIGH FIVES Philip Glass

Fargo

Kanye West

Janet Jackson

The White Stripes

Dance Nos. 1-5

Season 2 - OST

Late Registration

The Velvet Rope

Get Behind Me Satan

1988

2016

2005

1997

2005

CBS

Music On Vinyl

Def Jam

Virgin

INFO: www.smacgallery.com THE LAKE

Jody Paylsen - Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never have Jamaic - 2016 - Felt Collage / 200cm x 200cm

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Jody Paylsen - Emotional Ninja - 2015 - Felt Collage / 250cm x 236cm

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Jody Paylsen - Flaneur - 2011 - Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper / 59.5cm x 84cm

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Jody Paylsen - Mirror Men- 2017 - Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper / 59.5cm x 84cm

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adidas Originals EQT

Adidas originals started a story that drew the parallel between young born free originals in Johannesburg and the birth of EQT in 90’s Berlin. The focus was placed on individuals being recognised for creating culture and who form part of a unique generation of creators. Now they broke the rhetoric of exclusivity dominating the cultural scene today and move the focus from the individual to the people. An open invitation went out to South African’s born in the 90’s for an inclusive casting call utilising a mobile street studio at locations across Johannesburg.The result is a photo essay of portraits that document a generation. Capturing the images was 24 –year - old photographer and digital artist Aart Verrips, who’s worked with the likes of Vogue Italia and who’s acclaimed Gazelle collage received Global recognition on adidas Originals social platforms in 2016. THE LAKE

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WORDS - Lloyd Gedye

PHOTOGRAPHY - JANSEN VAN STADEN PHOTOGRAPHY LIVE - SCOTT PETER SMITH

FINDING Linda Buthelezi

Opening with a simple acoustic guitar run, repeated, before the synths emerge. The rhythm section playing like a jazz outfit, swirling about with precision, their laser focused on atmosphere. Vocalist Linda Buthelezi drifts into focus on top of the cascading milieu, singing from a life-raft adrift at sea.

Directed by a taut undercurrent only visible in its never-ending flow, Buthelezi is crying out to the world, crying out to the cosmos, crying out to himself. “Out of sight / out of mind / to be seen/ to be heard”, he sings delicately, with the lines repeated behind him by Mpumi Mcata. This narrator is in-between speakability and unspeakability, in-between visibility and invisibility. Like a character in China Mieville’s The City & The City, wandering the borders of two cities that co-exist but refuse to grace each other with any form of acknowledgement. In this landscape, people shape-shift between worlds; life or death, poor or wealthy, rural or urban, black or white. “Our hearts like empires of decay”, Buthelezi cries out into the abyss. The music is haunting, disorientating, propping up the sense that the narrator is a mere flash of poetry. Disconnected memories, disjointed events, some imagined, some real, some

otherworldly, but together creating a composite, a feeling, a mood, an atmosphere, just like the rhythm section. The voice in service to the greater whole, sometimes audible, sometimes just fragments carrying a melody. “Hello, do you know what you are searching for”, Buthelezi sings at one very intimate moment in the song. Is he talking to us, to himself, to both at the same time? Later at the three-minute mark, the song breaks down into a more freeform jam and Buthelezi begins to repeat the lines, “All these recurring dreams”, “Damn, that phantom sea”, “There is a virus in me”. It’s as if the narrator, adrift from the world, is tormented with visions of his role in its past and its inevitable destruction. Like a sage, a prophet, his murmurings, mutterings and cries of pain are a warning to us all.

THE LAKE

For Buthelezi, the BLK JKS is the past. Like his narrator adrift at sea, it is a mere flash of events and moments. Since 2012, his focus has been on a project he calls Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sons And Daughters or GSAND for short.

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However, the existential dread is less menacing, seemingly replaced by a tenderer, nourishing questioning of the meaning of life. Buthelezi is no less enigmatic, he just appears to be wiser than in his youth. He appears calmer, more accepting of the attention his musical genius attracts. While the column inches and headlines may have gone to the more high-octane songs in the BLK JKS repertoire, the song that captured my imagination most on the BLK JKS 2009 debut album After Robots was Standby. In retrospect, I realise that it had everything to do with the way Buthelezi creates these shimmering visions, existential narrators or shaman if you will, to thread the song’s essence together for the listener. It’s something he employed to great effect on Lakeside, that haunting tune which captured so many people’s attention back in 2006, in grimy bars all over Johannesburg, with Buthelezi singing, “Your life flashed between your eyes / Where did it all go wrong / Happiness is here /Happiness is near”. It can be heard on Lonely, from the 2007 BLK JKS EP, and the existential angst can certainly be heard in the decision by the BLK JKS to interpret Carlos Garnett’s spiritual jazz classic Mystery of the Ages. The band’s own Mystery sees Buthelezi exploring human existence as source material. However, Buthelezi repeats the line “nobody knows” with such dread and spine-tingling anxiety, that it’s more agonising pain than spiritual quest. Paired with It’s in everything you’ll see, a solo performance from Buthelezi on the band’s 2009 Mystery EP, with its murmured snippets about “secrets” and “following rabbits”, the two songs felt like transmissions from a different planet, one that Wayne Coyne and his acid-fried Flaming Lips has not even had sight of, never mind set foot on. Existential yelps from the outer frontier, Buthelezi was treading dangerously close to territory that Syd Barret would recognise. Add to that the fact that at every turn Buthelezi attempted to shield his face from view when the BLK JKS were photographed, and the impression is created of a man at odds with the growing attention the band was receiving. Buthelezi was on a collision course with fame and he didn’t like the look of it.

been on a project he calls God’s Sons And Daughters or GSAND for short. 2012 was the year that he passed around some recorded songs under this moniker. However, things went quiet again until 2014 when Buthelezi secured a Thursday night residency at the Afrikan Freedom Station. The performances took the form of freeform acoustic jams, with Buthelezi often collaborating with one other musician at a time. The shows were patchy, but their best moments suggested that Buthelezi was finding his musical footing again, even if his confidence hadn’t returned in full. Then last year in a series of shows at the Afrikan Freedom Station, Buthelezi demonstrated that he was clearly back and meant business. His new music was essentially freeform, often based around a repeating guitar line and vocal phrase. Prowling the stage, he poured out guitar riffs that had more in common with blues guitarist John Lee Hooker and Tuareg desert-rockers Tinariwen than the perpetual BLK JKS references of Pink Floyd or Harari. It was also clear that the influence of Zulu Mskandi’s guitar, central to the work of Busi Mhlongo and Phuzekhemisi, is also burnt into the music’s DNA. GSAND’s music doesn’t feel arranged or sculpted; their shows

tend to feel like a journey into a dream world, a spiritual world. Key is that Buthelezi’s lyrics are less overwrought than the drama of the BLK JKS days, but it still feels like Buthelezi is playing the role of the shaman, guiding us mere mortals through his music. However, the existential dread is less menacing, seemingly replaced by a tenderer, nourishing questioning of the meaning of life. Buthelezi is no less enigmatic, he just appears to be wiser than in his youth. He appears calmer, more accepting of the attention his musical genius attracts. It’s clear that Buthelezi is back and GSAND is definitely one to watch. When the band finally drops their debut release this year, South Africa should sit up and take note. At any time GSAND could consist of any combination of Sello Skhalo Montwedi, Trio Mofokeng (bass), Malcom X Jiyane (grand keys & trombone), Tebogo Mokoena(sax), Skhalo (drums). With alternate fellow drummer & understudy; $mash (2nd drummer) INFO: www.facebook.com/GSAND INFO: www.soundcloud.com/gsand

HIGH FIVES SADE

JAMES BROWN

BLK JKS

Jimi Hendrix

Ali Farka Touré

Stronger Than Pride

Super Bad

After robots

Hendrix in the West

Ali Farka Touré

1988

1971

2009

1972

1987

Epic

King

Secretly Canadian

label

Mango/World Circuit

Fast forward to 2017 and for Buthelezi, the BLK JKS is the past. Like his narrator adrift at sea, it is a mere flash of events and moments. Since 2012, his focus has THE LAKE

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Styling - Mandy Nash

PHOTOGRAPHY / Art Direction - The Seppis

MUA - Neveen Scello / Gloss

Model - Charleen / 20 Management

Look 1 / Sheer top and velvet culottes both at Topshop - Look 2 / White knit Witchery at Woolworths and pink slip Agenderflux by Luke Ruiters. Look 3 / Pink jacket Sol-Sol at Corner Store, nude T Cotton On, pink crop and lilac sheer culottes both at W35T

THE LAKE

WORDS - LUAN NEL

PHOTOGRAPHY - OLIVER KRUGER

BELINDA BLIGNAUT

Belinda Blignaut’s work is evolving. This artist marches to her own rhythm, not intent on merely producing what’s expected of her and also not producing when there is no need to.The most recent work by Belinda Blignaut appears on Instagram. Although associated with a Punk aesthetic, with its resistance to the mainstream, and usually set within an urban environment, she seemingly has rejected such in favour of ceramics in the town of Somerset West in the Cape.

With old-school punk playing in the background we setttle to talk about her new venture, which sees a fully functioning clay studio and the most recent development, the creation under her guidance of the new NPO called ARTISAFIRE. Belinda: Would you like me to turn the music softer? It might be distracting. I still listen to this stuff from long ago. Luan: Sure Belinda: Sound has always been part of my work. I do not mean I am a ‘Sound Artist’ but that from the beginning it has been part of what I do or make. I work directly from life and there’s audio attached to that. Anyway, everything vibrates. Sometimes we just need to listen. Belinda cites her work in 1994 where she distributed posters of herself, her half-naked body bound by red tape with her name and a number blazened across it. In this work a recorded message said, “Hi, you’ve reached Belinda, leave a message”.

Belinda: I am doing some sound recording in clay at the moment. Different parts of the making process have different sounds and it’s a part of the experience I want to translate into the finished work. When recording in the earth during my digging of wild clay, if the recorder is closer to the surface, there are surface sounds such as birds, water trickling, insects. Deeper under the earth it changes. In the studio, the making of the work has sounds, preparing clay, joining, work sounds. My concept is “working from the inside” and I am literally working while standing inside the piece. It was this experience that made me want to document what I hear to translate how it feels. And it feels amazing. The most important part of the work though, is form. Although I’ve always made objects, this is different, it’s fully engaging, an intimacy with my material which constantly teaches me. Luan: How did you get to working in clay, ceramics of all things? Belinda: A friend invited me to a pottery studio. It was pottery for the mass market. Not at all what I like, but the second I touched the raw clay I was in

love. I felt this is the medium I had been searching for. This is the one that can enable me to say everything I want to say. Not the glossy wares but the clay in its natural form, it just felt right. I had never done ceramics in my life but suddenly I wanted to. And did. The more I worked the more I wanted to explore this medium. The link was not conceptual or aesthetic for me, it was emotional. It came from within. I think it also draws on earlier childhood experiences that most of us share. Playing in the mud, making mud cakes and being immersed in the Earth. I liken it to a child exploring any number of ideas and shapes and feelings through working with mud. It goes back to this somehow. It is a material that can tap into the psychology of a person. The earliest makings of an individual and the larger historical context, its infractions on the psychological make-up of the person, it will all find a way of being made concrete, solidified through intense heat, in mud and in stone. (When one sends a WhatsApp message to Belinda at a time she is not available you are greeted with the message: I am in mud).

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Luan: This is not the first time you worked in ‘plastics’ though. You have done work in Bubblegum. Is it similar? Belinda: Yes, I worked in Bubblegum for a number of years. I chose Bubblegum because it is a material that everybody is familiar with. Unlike bronze or marble it is in direct contact with every person. Everybody has chewed a Chappie at some stage. I also value that it has a relationship to the body, to everyone’s bodies, because it has to be chewed in order for it to be malleable or enjoyed. This familiarity and association with the body both attracts and makes one uncomfortable. I like this duality. It speaks to an uncomfortable familiarity with our bodies and ourselves. We are most familiar with our own bodies, yet at the same time our bodies are the most alien thing we experience. The act of blowing bubbles led to the masks I made. I would chew a large amount of Bubblegum then blow a bubble big enough to cover my face. It would pop and be spread all over my face thus creating a type of mask. These were the final artworks. I like the randomness of this method and 35

Artisafire clay collective. Collaborative pieces made by a mix of cultures in a community project run from the studio. Sculpted by adults with Alzheimers and dementia.

“Sound has always been part of my work. I do not mean I am a ‘Sound Artist’ but that from the beginning it has been part of what I do or make. I work directly from life and there’s audio attached to that. Anyway, everything vibrates. Sometimes we just need to listen.”

making something with breath keeps me fascinated with using this as a medium. To create something out of nothing. I also like its irregularities, it is easily manipulated but also unpredictable. The shape you might have achieved by moulding it does not remain, it falls back into itself again. These imperfections are exciting and always unexpected. In this sense the clay is similar. One has to forego complete control over the outcome of any piece one makes. No two are alike and the imperfections actually contribute to the work and in my mind lend it a depth that one cannot easily achieve by using more traditional materials such as oilpaint. Clay is also a commonly found material. There is clay literally everywhere on Earth and this accessabillity appeals to me. Once I had done sufficient work in clay I felt it too good a thing to keep to 36

myself and wanted to share this, so I opened my studio in Somerset West. Luan: Tell me about the studio, who does it cater for and also about the NPO you are in the process of starting. Belinda: I wrote an Art Manifesto some years back and over time, have rewritten several versions. My main concern is that art must be useful. It has to contribute positively to society or humanity. It must be of service to people and the community. I believe clay has therapeutic capabilities. What I felt and experienced that first time I touched the clay and also subsequently, I wanted others to also experience. It has actually taken me this long to bring together my intense desire for social change and my relentless passion for art-making. Basically I have classes, but they aren’t really classes, it is more a space for people to come and sort their shit by working in mud. It is that simple.

And it had to be open to everybody. We welcome everybody. If you have the time and are willing to try it, this is the place. We also welcome specifically those with special needs like adults with Alzheimer’s and dementia, those who have forgotten, those who are forgotten, all ages with Autism and also children coming from trauma or abuse, sexual and other. We cater to those who are hearing-impaired, those who have no sight, the physically disabled, and those who need to find a way to communicate. The idea is that we find ways to make the experience fit around each individual’s special needs. Participants are not expected to conform to any curricular format or structure. We fit around their needs and structures. They have absolute freedom as to what they make. It is very important that we do not apply pressure to produce or constraints regarding what gets produced. It is Clay as Therapy and expression. Healing. Using the earth

THE LAKE

which has evolved over millions of years, touching, shaping, a way of knowing that everything changes. A way of coping. We have individuals who come and we also have school groups who participate. We needed to extend this to those truly outside society. To the most needy, like the homeless and those in severe poverty. Once again through the help of a local NPO, Halli Trust, I got into contact with the informal settlement of Smartie Town at Macassar, a settlement close to Somerset West. It is from Macassar that we sourced people to come and be trained to assist in the studio. Currently we have four part time assistants whom I personally introduced to clay, trained them to be able to work in a ceramics studio and whom I will, as soon as we receive funding, employ fulltime. This will be a dream come true. It sounds like very few, only four people but the circle of lives those four support and the lives they touch is wide. It does not end with only them. One has to start somewhere.

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Artisafire clay collective. Works made by various special needs groups finding a voice through clay at the studio. Sculpted by adults with Alzheimers and dementia.

“It also stems from the idea of making something from the inside and working towards the outside. I am not producing pretty ceramic ware. That is not what I am trying to do here at all. I want to build a work that starts from within”

This is how our NPO started. BASA commissioned the studio to produce work done by the studio through the work we do within this underprivileged community. The work is commissioned and paid for. From this came news that the National Lottery is interested in funding more projects from us. The money raised goes straight back into creating more opportunities and to further the work within the community. There are no profits to be made from this. We are currently almost a registered NPO. It is called ARTISAFIRE and we hope to change many more lives. It all comes back to clay, its commonality and its abilities to heal and to be a therapy unparalleled by most other. Art needs to work likethis, from the inside out. Only then, to me, will it be able to be useful. The team was formed out of a desire to learn from, teach and collaborate with people of various cultures, while at the same time being art as action. It’s about art taking social change into its own hands. This is as “activist’ as I know how to be right now. Luan: Coming back to your own practice, how does this balance work?

Belinda: I work on my own from 7 to 10 a.m. every day. That is the time of day I am able to set aside for my own practice. Then from 10 onwards it is spent on Clay Therapy. Luan: You don’t produce traditional ware within your own practice. At the moment you are building this massive pot. Could you tell us more? Belinda: It also stems from the idea of making something from the inside and working towards the outside. I am not producing pretty ceramic ware. That is not what I am trying to do here at all. I want to build a work that starts from within. It is not unlike work I have done before, be it the posters from ‘94 or the more recent Masks made from Bubblegum that was made pliable by my chewing. I place my body in my work, physically, if possible. My work has always been a quiet visceral investigation into how we adapt, overcome and grow. So no, I don’t make vases.

One aspect remains constant, its need to counter the mainstream. It affronts consumerism and attempts to lend a voice to the working class, the downtrodden. In this regard Belinda Blignaut’s work rings true. Hers is not a purely aesthetic exercise or beautiful object only belonging in a gallery or prized collection, it strives to be active on a social level, to interact with people, to serve people and to do good. The organisation she guides hopes to lend a voice to the voiceless. In that sense it is pure Punk.

The work with clay, with the Earth, also speaks to a current Zeitgeist of Art that has a relationship to our planet, with social responsibilities. INFO: www.facebook.com/BelindaBlignautArtist INFO: www.facebook.com/Artisafire INSTAGRAM: belinda_blignaut

STUDIO HITS Sonic Youth Goo

Lou Reed John Cale

Cindytalk

Free Kitten

KOOS

Up Here In The Clouds

Unboxed

KOOS

Songs for Drella

1990

2010

1994

1989 - issued 2008

DGC

Sire

Editions Mego

Wiiija

Warren Siebrits, One F

Punk can be very malleable, it morphs constantly, finding a home in as diverse a place as sociopolitical activism on the one hand and punk culture that appears to be apolitical like psychobilly, horror punk and punk pathetique, on the other. It differs from place to place and time to time. THE LAKE

THE LAKE

WORDS - Diane Awerbuck

PHOTOGRAPHY - Ross Hillier

SURFER - Avuyile Avo Ndamase

Mami Wata Every morning when he paddled out Adom wished for the end. But every time the ocean sent him back and spat him out. Moyo, they called it, the same word all the way up his contrary continent: the heart spirit inside you.

Black & White photography - Nicolas Frigerio

Adom felt it now, warming his chest as his blood picked up. It always did when he thought about surfing the Black Mamba. From here it looked like a long, smooth right-hander, sheltered and easy to enter. He knew the stories – what surfer didn’t? – but the warnings couldn’t stop the wanting. It was said, long before surfers ever took to these waters and before even the fishermen, that a snake-goddess guarded the bay, and only the most daring came back. Most did not. Mami Wata granted your heart’s desire – but it had to be the truth. My wish is the same as always, Adom thought, feeling his heart squeeze with pain. I wish I was someone else. I wish I was strong. Adom had seen enough tears on dry land. He ate the memories, his armpits burning with their own salt as he sat on the sand and counted his wrongs: his kind, thin father who disappeared in the mines; his fat mother who heaved with asthma; the ears that made his friends call him Sputnik; the job so lowly that he told people he was unemployed; and now, last and worst – faithless black-eyed Amina who left and married his cousin. He nudged his old single-fin hand-me-down board and looked up at another set peeling heavily over the boulders.

Even the man who sold fish in the market knew his shame. ‘Do you think you are the first man whose woman has left him? You don’t belong here. Go back to the sea.’ His gums were purplish when he smiled at Adom. ‘You have a bad wind in you, my brother, and the water will let it out. Here, for you – tilapia.’ Thanks for nothing, Adom thought, fingering the fish’s dull eyes, its zombie teeth. He knew that already. The endless sea held purpose: no human pain, and no human pity. In its living waters a billion creatures met and mated and murdered without calling it luck. But he’d had enough. Today would be different: today he would paddle out and face the Mamba, and himself. And if he didn’t come back, then he didn’t deserve to. Adom took a deep breath and got up. The warm greenish shallows took him; the uncaring salt moved his muscles; it licked him clean to the roots of his hair. Deeper now, he lay on his board as he had once lain on supple, shifty Amina. He paddled further out, the rip pulling him easily into the line-up. And he felt the old relief wash over him.

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The endless sea held purpose: no human pain, and no human pity. In its living waters a billion creatures met and mated and murdered without calling it luck

Why had he waited so long? Quicker than he thought, he was at the backline. Another set stacked and broke, but he turned his back to the waves. He was here to petition Mami Wata. Adom shook his head to clear his ears and the water trickled out, warm as blood. He thought he could hear the sand below him as it shifted into new shapes, taking on her form. He sat up. ‘Here I am!’ he shouted, his arms held wide. ‘Grant my wish!’ Silence but for the water’s trickle from his hands and the rumble of the waves as they broke. Back on the beach the dark palm trees huddled, whispering against him. Where was she? He had expected the waters to roil and part. Mami Wata would rise from the white shells, naked to the waist, and take him in her dripping arms. She would crush him against her, and he wouldn’t resist her hand around his red human heart. Then death, or paradise: he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know what came next. Adom shuddered. His head was thundering. The roar seemed to be coming from below, somewhere deep in the crevassed ocean floor. He saw it from the corner of his eye: a big line building and deepening, wiping out the horizon. He turned and paddled knowing he was too far, too late. The wave reared and flicked him down, faster and faster, the water growling all around him. He popped to his feet and felt the acceleration. He tilted back to try and drive the nose of the board up, to project himself along the giant dark wall. Instead, the nose of his board dug in and the momentum carried him over and into the trough of the breaking wave. Through the violent turbulence that followed, his ankle was yanked down sharply and the rest of his body followed. His ragged leash was useless: he felt its snap like a broken rib. Down in the dark and cold he felt something other than water, and the shadow seaweed snaked

around his legs. Adom choked and struggled against the slimy shackles. I didn’t really think it would happen! he thought. It was just a story to scare children from swimming, wasn’t it? He kicked against the leathery straps in a frenzy, but he was caught. He didn’t want to die in this reversed mangrove forest, the starved clawed masses gathering to devour him: crab and lobster and bird. And woman. Because then she was here, filling his sight, the water stinging his eyeballs. She floated upright like a seahorse, radiant and pulsing with silver light stolen from undersea creatures. ‘You call, but your tongue is lying.’ Her thick tail swayed lazily behind her, the scales like coins. Adom’s stomach shrank with fear. ‘But your heart is loud. I hear what it is saying: Show me what is inside me. So this is what I give you: not what you want, but what you deserve. Another chance.’ She reached out, but not to enfold him. Adom felt the tidal pull and then the release, his body being shot up through the murky deep, his lungs burning but his heart buoyant. He passed through each ocean zone from blind dark to blazing light, the wild joy swelling as he ascended. When he surfaced his board was waiting. He scrambled on and lay shaking with the horror and delight. The sky was a prism of colours, and he couldn’t feel the difference between the sea and his body. He wiped the water from his face with his palm. Another set was coming. He was ready for the Black Mamba. INFO: www.mamiwata.surf INFO: instagram.com/mamiwatasurf

HOT WATER HITS Blitz the Ambassador

John Wizards

BCUC

Felix Laband

Tinariwen

John Wizards

Our Truth

Deaf Safari

Elwan

2014

2013

2016

2015

2017

Embassy MVMT

Planet Mu

Nyami Nyami Records

Compost Records

Anti-

Afropolitan Dreams

THE LAKE

WORDS - DAN CHARLES

PHOTOGRAPHY - JANSEN VAN STADEN

Selly Raby Kane The dust has long since settled from the time when fashion designer and Senegalese space alien - Selly Raby Kane - had crash landed into a warehouse in Salt River, Cape Town to begin her work as the first ever external creative director in the 21-year history of Design Indaba. For nearly two months, Selly had abandoned the world that existed beyond the confines of the walls of her warehouse and took residency in the world that she was slowly creating within them - a world full of twisted trees with eyeballs framed in thick caricature lips hanging from their branches, gargantuan flies from another planet and all sorts of other peculiar manifestations born from Selly’s imagination. Typically, these creations of Selly’s aren’t used to being cooped away from the world for too long. Since entering the world of fashion design, after spending some time in Paris to complete her studies in Business and Administration in 2007, the characters from her work have gone to live on in multiple collections under her SRK brand that have been welcomed into wardrobes all across the globe - namely that of one Beyonce Knowles. The link between designing a kimono and skirt that were adorned by Queen Bee herself and designing outlandish fly-like creatures in Salt River may not seem all that clear but Selly insists that there is an intertwined narrative within all of the works that she creates. “When I work on a new collection, I have the theme of the next collection in mind. So I guess that there’s a time when all of the ideas organically fall into place and then, from there, a greater theme emerges. I’ll then begin to write a story in order to bring the concept to life and the images and creations will come from there. It begins with me and then a story.” The stories that Selly tells through her clothing and her art are all linked back to her love and connection to Dakar, Senegal - her hometown. Through her choice of using supernatural imagery, akin to that of a science fiction movie, I wondered if perhaps Selly’s aim was to try to shift the world’s cultural perception - or at least Design Indaba’s perception - of Dakar into something more fantastical than what people who aren’t too familiar with the country of Senegal might imagine it to be. As I ask this, Selly sighs and admits that just trying to shift the global perception wouldn’t be the most effective use of her time although she does understand that it is a fundamental step in changing what is happening in the city. “At first my objective was to highlight Dakar to the rest of the world but, actually, the work that I do is mostly for Dakar herself. Dakar doesn’t have many platforms or concept stores that can regroup all of the creative people and distribute creative products so it’s important to start being able to connect the dots between what is being created within the city and the people who want what is being created. The growth of

this industry is an organic consequence of what happens as we grow and show our work to the world.” It’s easy to understand why Selly would seem a bit exhausted with the idea of trying to get the world to see the city of Dakar through eyes and understand it’s beauty and richness through the greater narrative that she is trying to tell within all of her projects and collections - only because each different element is so visually compelling in their right. I can just imagine that the crowds of smartphone savants sauntering through Design Indaba would be perfectly content with simply capturing and absorbing each installation individually as they use them to weave their own narratives into their Instagram stories. But I suppose that allowing people to interpret things for themselves and allowing their own imaginations to run wild with all of the crazy imagery that surrounds them is probably the best way to start opening them up to the greater ideas being expressed at hand. The next time that they find themselves in the presence of Selly’s creations, the eyeballs hanging from the trees might seem a little less alien - making it easier to see it’s role in the curious universe of Selly Raby Kane. The city of Cape Town has always seemed to see itself as the cultural epicentre of South Africa and, with that being said, it can be argued that it often finds itself in a bit of a bubble - focusing mostly on the activity occurring within itself. Of course, that’s not to say that Cape Town is oblivious to the artistic developments outside of itself but there is an argument to be made about how inclusive it should be with regards to having artists and designers from neighbouring being welcomed into the bubble so that we can hear their stories first hand - even if those stories are told through a series of intergalactic creatures from Senegal. Maybe then the alien creations of someone like Selly won’t seem so alien anymore.

This is why it was important to have a powerful platform such as Design Indaba - an entity that aims to connect artists and design thinkers from all across the continent of Africa and the rest of the globe - to welcome Selly Raby Kane as it’s first ever external curator. Granted that it would have made sense to welcome an external curator from a lesser known African country sooner in it’s history, this decision potentially marks the start of building stronger creative connections between Cape Town and the rest of Africa. “I suppose that the intention behind inviting someone like me to work with Design Indaba was to start building bridges between creative African cities and contribute in a measurable way to bringing the continent closer. If that starts with creativity - that’s great.” Looking beyond Design Indaba, Selly plans to soon build similar bridges between in Dakar and New York. Lately, she has been venturing into the world of VR film making - a medium probably best suited for her style of surreal story telling - and already has a 7 minute film that’s been selected to screen at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this year. “I love freedom that VR gives you - it’s the medium that helps me translate the best of my fantastic universe that I’d like to guide people within. Sometimes you feel as if people aren’t close enough so you’d like to find a way to have them enter the world and then close the door.” So as the world begins to open itself wider to the works of SRK, Selly will carry on creating new worlds for us to inhabit - be they within our wardrobes, a pair of Oculus Rift VR headsets or within the confines of secluded warehouse spaces where they will wait to be unleashed.

INFO: www.sellyrabykane.com

HIGH FIVES Tame Impala

Hiatus Kaiyote

Daara J

Ravi Shankar

Innerspeaker

Choose Your Weapon

Daara J

Chants of India

A Tribe Called Quest

2010

2015

1998

1997

1991

Modular

Flying Buddha

Wrasse Records

Angel

Jive

The Low End Theory

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“When I work on a new collection, I have the theme of the next collection in mind. So I guess that there’s a time when all of the ideas organically fall into place and then, from there, a greater theme emerges. I’ll then begin to write a story in order to bring the concept to life and the images and creations will come from there. It begins with me and then a story.”

THE LAKE

WORDS - LEN COCKRAFT

PHOTOGRAPHY - HAYDEN PHIPPS

WAX JUNKIE len cockraft My love for vinyl started when I was about eleven years old. I used to hire records, like library books, from a shop called Hey Jude, in Pietermaritzburg where I grew up. My real education started when I was 14 and started playing in bands. I was introduced to The Mob, GBH and Crass by the older guys in the bands. I’m still into this stuff 25 years later. I still buy records weekly and as long as they’re around, I think I always will. My selection isn’t an overall top 6, it’s just for today. These are albums I think are good and have been listening to lately. Siekiera Nowa Aleksandria 1986 / Tonpress

Killed By Deathrock: Vol. 1 Various 2014 / Sacred Bones Records

I don’t know too much about this band and there isn’t too much on them on the Internet, I first got turned onto this going down a YouTube wormhole, but this is one of the best records I own, Siekiera first released this in 1986 in the last years of communist Poland and it pretty much captures the period perfectly, highly recommended for lovers of dark post punk...super moody and dark, but will get a dance floor going.

This is a comp so I’m kinda cheating, but this is definitely worth the list, great compilation out on Sacred Bones Records out of Brooklyn New York .Back-to-back horror punk, but not the pretentious dramatic type, loads of jangly post-punk guitars and sing along choruses, heavy bass and thin high end, this comp sent me into a black hole digging up all the old favourites like Christian Death and Bauhaus and lots of new discoveries like Anasazi... Really amazing inner sleeve and artwork by my favourite artist Alex Heir.

White Car White Car 2010 / Rainbow Body Records

Hard Corps Clean Tables Have To Be Burn 2012 / Minimal Wave

Elon Katz is a genius! This is a really good E.P which breaks down any conception of what you think techno should be - big baselines, broken techno scratches over half time beats, whispered vocals ranting on, to computer funk rhythms, about over-consumption and isolation – “I’m so sorry you had to see that, his body spread all over the bridge, don’t blame yourself, about the bridge”, all running through delays to great baselines and angular melodies. Highly recommended!

Thank God for Minimal Wave Records doing a re-issue on this as it cost a fair bit before that; I luckily picked this up in Tokyo for a fair price at Disk Union, which is a bunch of chain stores all over Tokyo dealing in second-hand vinyl, completely worth going there just for these stores alone. Perfect mix between 80s pop and gritty lo-fi industrial beats. Imagine Siouxsie Siouxsie shagging the guy from Tetsuo Body hammer, standout tracks for me are Sacred Heart and Dirty.

Lost Tribe Lost Tribe 2011 / Blind Prophet Records

CUTE HEELS SPIRITUAL 2014 / Dark Entries

Really great deathrock record out on Blind prophet records reminds me a lot of early Amebix records and early Killing Joke, one for the spikey jackets and D beat fans on the faster tracks and one for fans of stuff like the Chameleons on the slower tracks, I picked this up at Heaven Street Records in New York, owned by Shaun Ragoon who runs Blind Prophet records, really great record, check them out if you’re into chocking on smoke machines and numbing your senses.

Something I’ve always loved about techno production is the space, that feeling on a dance floor like you’re floating through a tunnel or shouting in an empty warehouse, and the weird thing I always loved about Electro was the tight angular baselines, and straight forward danceable beats. Somehow Cute Heels makes these two worlds meet in the middle. Great funk drums running through way too much reverb, all done on classic analogue synths and drum machines. Half this album is made up of the dirty grit left behind by sparse kick drums running through delays and reverbs.

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IN TRANSIT MYCITI / Refinery Peter Mammes Human and animal skull drawings adorn the glass walls of MyCiTi’s Refinery station on the route between Du Noon and Century City.

The artwork at Refinery station, which is situated in an industrial area, is designed to get people thinking about nature and the effect people have on the environment through factories, says artist Peter Mammes.

He adds that, depending on who you speak to, the drawings could mean different things, as it all has to do with the perception of the individual.

He points out that his drawings are never just “black and white” and that there is always a duality in his work, as is the case with this station’s artwork.

Peter Mammes is a fine artist who attended the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg. He started working as an artist in 2004 and has exhibited at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Turbine Art Fair and at a number of solo shows in Gauteng. He has also done work for private clients in Cape Town.

“I try to retain grey areas. If you draw someone, that drawing will always be of that person. But, if you strip it down and draw a skull it means something different…We need to understand that we’re a part of nature,” says the artist.

About the Artist

INFO: www.myciti.org.za/en/myciti-art

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MYCITI / CIVIC CENTRE Julia Anastasopoulos / Strijdom van der Merwe Heath Nash / Garfield Taylor The Civic Centre station is the hub of the MyCiTi bus system, with thousands of passengers converging from all directions.

With the original shoreline not far away, the juxtaposition of old city and new is the starting point for two out of the four artworks commissioned for this site – Looking Forward and Looking Back, finely detailed cityscapes travelling in space and time, by Julia Anastasopoulos, and Shoreline, a metal relief sculpture by Strijdom van der Merwe. The other two works in this station also reflect the changing face of the city’s streets, with two very different treatments of the theme of transport by Heath Nash and Garfield Taylor. Nash has taken some of the sayings and slogans seen on the windows of minibus taxis and used them in a strong visual on metal panels, while Taylor’s cement-tile frieze relief illustrates the history of the bicycle and its impact on society and the environment. About the Artists Julia Anastasopoulos is an artist, illustrator and designer, known for everything from product design to children’s books, theatre design and performance, notably as the YouTube phenomenon Suzelle. See her work also in Thibault Square station. 52

Strijdom van der Merwe lives in Stellenbosch. He has a long list of exhibitions, commissions, awards and distinctions to his name, from countries all over the world. Celebrated as a land artist, he creates sculptural forms in relation to a landscape, using materials found at the chosen site. Heath Nash was born in Zimbabwe and studied sculpture at the University of Cape Town. A range of light-shades made of wire and recycled-plastic flowers has made him a household name in the design world. He works with rural craft producers in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Garfield Taylor established and ran a special effects company from the early eighties to 1994. Since then he has worked in South Africa and Britain as a product specialist, art director, project manager and designer.

INFO: www.myciti.org.za/en/myciti-art

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print run REVIEWS - XAVIER NAGEL

SUPPLIED BY - BIBLIOPHILIA

Hip-Hop Raised Me Aperture /

On Feminism

Aperture (R350) was founded in 1952 by amongst others, Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, to explore photography as a fine art. The latest issue “On Feminism” arrives at a moment when the power and influence women hold on the world stage is irrefutable, and the very idea of gender is central to conversations about equality around the globe. Focusing on intergenerational dialogues, debates and strategies of feminism in photography, it considers the immense contributions by artists whose work articulates or interrogates representations of women in media and society. Across more than one hundred years of photographs and images, the latest issue underscores how photography has shaped feminism as much as how feminism has shaped photography.

Ballpoint Art Ballpoint Art (R525) by Trent Moore is the first compendium of art made with ballpoint pens. It features 30 artists from around the world who are currently making masterpieces with this humble tool. Creating works on wallpaper, canvas, sculpture, enormous sheets of paper, and even buildings, depicting a wide range of subjects – from densely-layered portraits to abstract scribbles – these artists pick up the pen for many reasons: for its ubiquity and everydayness, for the particular feel of ballpoint ink, and even sometimes for its difficulty. Ballpoint Art is a compelling showcase of the remarkable ends to which they put this highly accessible tool.

GULP Gulp (R250) is die nuwe boek van die skrywer, digter en kritikus Johann de Lange. Die wenner van die Hertzogprys in 2011 word gesien as die voorste gay skrywer in Afrikaans. Sy nuutste boek is in die vorm van dagboek-inskrywings en handel oor sy ervaringe in Kaapstad tussen 1993 en 1999. de Lange het gedebuteer in 1983 met “Akwarelle van die Dors”, wat die Ingrid Jonker Prys gewen het. Sy vierde digbundel “Wordende Naak”, wen die Rapport Prys vir Digkuns in 1990. Hierdie boek bevat volwasse materiaal en dek die gay-subkultuur en plekke in die Moederstad.

Hip-Hop Raised Me (R990) is the definitive volume on the essence, experience, and energy that is hip-hop, and its massive and enduring impact over the last forty years. Packed with contact sheets, outtakes, and glory shots of artists, collectives and fans, it also features iconic photographers such as Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. With the help of definitive interviews with hiphop artists from the 1990s to today, conducted at key moments in their careers and including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Drake, Nicki Minaj, J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, and the Wu-Tang Clan, DJ Semtex examines the crucial role of hip-hop in society

Street Art World Neighbourhoods painted with murals are popular with tourists and tagged walls become backdrops for fashion shoots and music videos. Banksy is a global celebrity whose work sells for astonishing prices. Millions of photographs of street art are saved on smartphones, uploaded to social media, and displayed on T-shirts and other merchandise. Based on twenty years of research in the graffiti and street art scenes, Street Art World (R590) by Alison Young, is the first book to provide a history and context for the words and images that appear in cities all around the world. Artists working in the streets reveal both their passion for street art and ambivalence about its commodification.

Make your mark The Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature Dada: Art and Anti-Art “Where and how Dada began is almost as difficult to determine as Homer’s birthplace”, writes Hans Richter, the artist and filmmaker closely associated with this radical movement from its earliest days. In Dada: Art and Anti-Art (R395) he records and traces Dada’s history, from its inception in wartime Zurich to its collapse in Paris in the 1920s, when many of its members joined the Surrealist movement, to the present day when its spirit re-emerged in the 1960s in movements such as Pop Art. 54

The Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature - The World’s Greatest Kids’ Lit as Comics and Visuals (R360) master anthologist Russ Kick shows adults everywhere that great children’s literature is great literature, period. Fairy tales, fables, fantastical adventures, young adult novels, swashbuckling yarns, your favorite stories from childhood and your teenage years . . . they’re all here, in all their original complexity and strangeness, before they were censored or sanitized, from Little Red Riding Hood to the Brothers Grimm, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Heidi, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Tom Sawyer, the Hardy Boys, Harry Potter and Green Eggs and Ham!

Make your mark (R840) explores the work of thirty-five urban artists who use mark-making techniques – drawing, painting, and other methods – to create work from figurative painting, illustration, installation, collage and comic book drawing to tattoo art, poster design, textiles, zines, sculpture, ceramics and mural-making. Stylistically original, the works incorporate experimental techniques or elements of the handmade, placing it at the crossroads of traditional and “street” sensibilities. With more than 500 illustrations the book is an inspirational guide for practitioners, students and fans as well as anyone in commercial branding and communications not frightened by integrity. THE LAKE

The New Curator Curating has become a prolific concept both in and outside the art world in the past few years. What exactly a curator does has changed and expanded with each new exhibition or biennale. The New Curator (R950) examines the variety and richness of curating practices today, from public commissions such as Artangel and landmark exhibitions like dOCUMENTA to experimental projects such as the Ghetto Biennale in Haiti, and the Rhizome digital archive. Subtitled “Researcher, Commissioner, Keeper, Interpreter, Producer, Collaborator” the work of 26 curators cover large-scale shows and pop-up exhibits, permanent-collection rehangs and art fairs

The New Tattoo When tattoos become something more than ink is explored in The New Tattoo (R570). Tattoos always manage to be innovative window displays of a wide range of styles full of freshness. See how today’s tattoo culture is heavily influenced by art, fashion and contemporary visual culture, and be surprised by the evolution that each artist has imprinted on the traditional tattoo styles, achieving unique results and creating surprising personal styles. Featuring artists Sunny Buick and Amanda Wachob (both took part in the recent South African International Tattoo Convention held at the CTICC), and Manuel Winkler, Dots to Lines and many more.

www.scarhair.com THE LAKE

PLIMSOLL

VANS - SK8-Hi Reissue 1966 red / blue / true white

VANS - SK8-Hi Reissue 1966 true white / blue / red

VANS - SK8-HI 38 DX Anaheim Factory Black / Light Grey

VANS - Authentic Freshness floral / yellow

VANS - Authentic Freshness mixed tape / true white

VANS - Authentic Freshness boom city / true white

VANS - Old Skool 1966 blue / white / red

VANS - Era 1966 blue / gray / red

VANS - Era 2-Tone Check Citrus / True White

VANS - Era 2-Tone Check blue / True White

VANS - OLD SKOOL 36 DX Anaheim Factory Classic White

VANS - AUTHENTIC 44 DX Anaheim Factory Black

Reebok Classics AZTEC GARMENT AND GUM BLACK / WHITE / GUM

Reebok Classics CLASSIC LEATHER OL POPLAR GREEN / STEEL

Reebok Classics CLASSIC NYLON BREATHABILITY LILAC ASH / WHITE / LEAD

Reebok Classics CLUB C 85 OTC WHITE / LGH SOLID GREY

Reebok Classics CLUB C 85 HMG CLASSIC WHITE / URBAN

Reebok Classics WORKOUT PLUS VINTAGE CHALK / CLASSIC WHITE

Hi-Tec - Badwater BLACK / WHITE

Hi-Tec - Badwater MUSHROOM / BLACK OFF WHITE

Hi-Tec - Badwater CITADEL / LIMONCELLO / SILVER

Hi-Tec - Badwater Cozy W AMARANTH

Hi-Tec - Badwater Cozy W BLACK

Hi-Tec - Badwater Cozy W GREY

ETNIES - Jameson Vulc Stone

ETNIES - Jameson Vulc Navy / White / Gum

ETNIES - Jameson Vulc Black / Brown / Grey

ETNIES - Indicator Low White / Gum

ETNIES - RLV Reserve Black / Black

ETNIES - RLV Reserve White / White

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PLIMSOLL

ADIDAS - EQT SUPPORT 93/17 FTWR WHITE / CORE BLACK TURBO F11

ADIDAS - EQT SUPPORT ULTRA FTWR WHITE / FTWR WHITE TURBO F11

ADIDAS - EQT SUPPORT REFINE FTWR WHITE / FTWR WHITE TURBO F11

ADIDAS - EQT RACING 91/16 CRYSTAL WHITE S16 / FTWR WHITE TURBO F11

ADIDAS - EQT SUPPORT ADV MGH SOLID GREY / CORE BLACK TURBO F11

ADIDAS - EQT SUPPORT ADV CRYSTAL WHITE S16 / FTWR WHITE TURBO F11

ADIDAS - EQT SUPPORT ADV CORE BLACK / CORE BLACK TURBO

ADIDAS - EQT SUPPORT ADV KNIT FTWR WHITE / FTWR WHITE TURBO F11

ADIDAS - Iniki RunneR RED / FTWR WHITE / GUM

ADIDAS - Iniki RunneR NAVY / FTWR WHITE / GUM

ADIDAS - Iniki RunneR OFF WHITE / BLUE / CORE RED

ADIDAS - Iniki RunneR SOLID GREY / TURBO F11 / GUM

ASICS TIGER - GEL-Sight Meditation Pack

ASICS TIGER - GEL-Lyte V Trail Pack

ASICS TIGER - GEL-Lyte V Open Mesh Pack Women

onitsuka tiger - GSM CREAM / LATTE

onitsuka tiger - GSM BLUE HEAVEN / CORYDALIS BLU

onitsuka tiger - GSM TANDORI SPICE / OT RED

onitsuka tiger - Tiger Corsair TRUE RED / TRUE RED

onitsuka tiger - Tiger Corsair INDIGO BLUE / INDIGO BLUE

onitsuka tiger - Tiger Corsair BLACK / BLACK

NEW BALANCE MADE IN USA 1978 BURGUNDY

NEW BALANCE MADE IN USA 1978 BLACK

NEW BALANCE MADE IN USA 1978 NAVY

NEW BALANCE - 247 CLASSI CREAM

NEW BALANCE - 247 CLASSIC BLUE

NEW BALANCE - 247 CLASSIC RED

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ICONS JASON LEE

1 Brixton - Brood Snap Cap Washed Black / 2 ADIDAS - Rugby Polo / 3 GLOBE - Hikari- hino Black / 4 STANCE - SOCKS / 5 ADIDAS - INIKI RUNNER 6 onitsuka tiger - GSM 7 NEW BALANCE - 247 classic / / 8 RVCA - Wright III Park / 9 RVCA - barrycrowd / 10 SIMON CARTER - SUNGLASSES TSHE / 11 ALTAMONT - Hitch Trucker / 12 Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade LP 13 VANS - HOLDER PRINT / 14 VANS - MILFORD BEANIE / 15 SIMON CARTER - GREEN POLO/ 16 VANS - SIDE STRIPE POCKET TEE / 17 Brixton - Hooligan Cap Brown Taupe 18 Ben Sherman - Harrington Jacket /19 Ben Sherman - EC1 Slim Fit Chinos / 20 Ben Sherman - Mid Scale House Gingham / 21 TOEPORN - SOCKS 22 SIMON CARTER - PAYSLEY PKT SQUARE / 23 SIMON CARTER - Tan Lace up Shoe / 24 SIMON CARTER - Tan Lace up Shoe / 25 SIMON CARTER - Tan Lace up Shoe 58

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ICONS ANGELA DAVIES

7 4

1 Gucci - Suede Belted Trench Coat / 2 Cara - Boho Print Scarf / 3 Saint Laurent - Suede Rock Chelsea Boot / 4 Pichulik - Fire in the Sky Pendants / 5 A.P.C - Half Moon Bag 6 Angela Davies - Women, Race & Class (BOOK) / 7 Hobbs - Lara Roll Neck / 8 GIL SCOTT-HERON - A NEW BLACK POET LP / 9 Jil Sander - Yellow Linen PANTS / 10 Apples of Gold - 14k Gold Hoop Earrings / 11 Saville Row - Panto glasses / 12 A.P.C - Half Moon Bag / 13 Modcloth - Campus Enchantress Block Heel 14 Thebe Magugu X Woolworths - Midi Skirt / 15 Thebe Magugu X Woolworths - Ruffle Top / 16 ASICS - Komachi 60

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I N S P I R E D BY 3 D E C A D E S O F C L ASS I C S . T H E ZO KU R U N N E R C E L E B R AT E S O U R I CO N I C LO G O W I T H A M O D E R N S I L H O U E T T E . ZO KU M E A N S , “ TO B E CO N T I N U E D…” T H R E E WO R D S W E L I V E BY - T H E S P I R I T O F E N D L E SS M OV E M E N T. I T ’ S T H E CO N T I N UAT I O N O F O R I G I N A L I D E AS , SY M B O L S , A N D T H E P E O P L E WHO INSPIRE US. A M E TA P H O R FO R M O M E N T U M . I T ’ S T H E M A R K O F H OW W E CO N F R O N T TO M O R R OW. O U R PAST I N S P I R AT I O N S W E AV E D TO G E T H E R W I T H F U T U R E T E C H N O LO G I E S . AVA I L A B L E AT R E E B O K .C O. Z A , S H E L F L I F E & A N ATO M Y S TO R E S

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