'African Air'

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Liberate Tate Shames BP

From Liberal Conspiracy: 

Yesterday at the Tate Britain [gallery in London], Liberate Tate (website) staged another of its headline-grabbing performative protests in the Duveens Hall of Tate Britain. A naked man lay down in the foetal position while several veiled figures covered him in an oil-like substance. The performance lasted for 87 minutes to commemorate the 87 days over which oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, beginning exactly one year ago today.

According to the Telegraph: BP spends over £1m per year sponsoring the Tate Britain, the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the National Portrait Gallery.

*** 

If the London School of Economics could be shamed into cutting ties with the Gaddaffi regime, then the same should apply to the Tate and BP- not just for environmental reasons but for political reasons too. Unsurprisingly it has big stakes in Libya. Up to $900m (£545m) worth of initial investment deals was facilitated by Tony Blair when he renewed British relations with the Brotherly Leader of the Arab Jamaharihya. BP also promised to invest up to £20 billion over the next 20 years, in 2009, at a time when 200 Nigerians were on death row in Libya for immigration offences (and later released after diplomatic intervention by the Nigerian government) while Libyan citizens faced persecution or repression for various acts of civil disobedience.


Following the Brotherly Leader's threat to nationalize all the oil fields, its in Britain and BP's interests to ensure the Libyan revolutionaries topple Gaddaffi. But can the Tate, as a site that hosts creative expressions of cultural and political resistance in Britain and the world (like Ai WeiWei), really be associated with a corporation that operates on a profits before all else policy?


(As for the British Museum, well its a place that harbors stolen items so more than just cutting ties with BP, it needs to return the stolen goods, like the Rosetta Stone, on which the museum markets itself as a repository of 'world history'.)

copyright Immo Klink

see more pics here.

postcard from jerusalem...

Ultra-orthodox Jews use a welder's helmet and a glass filter to view the partial solar eclipse

Fotocredit: Abir Sultan

postcard from beijing...

Beijing, China: Visitors look at a tour pamphlet in the Forbidden CityFotoCredit: Petar Kujundzic/Reuters

Worth A Thousand Words

Boy, Haiti: Haiti is a tragic place in need of help. This image was taken before the recent earthquake. I hope this young boy was unharmed, although I can't help feeling that his life may be full of struggle

Mursi Woman and child, Ethiopia: It is traditional with the Mursi tribe for women to insert a clay dish in the lower lip from an early age. Around six to 12 months before marriage, the woman's lip is pierced by one of her kinswomen, usually at around the age of 15 to 18

Hamer girl in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia: I spent three weeks journeying through Ethiopia to record the faces if its various tribes

Maasai bride, Kenya: I stumbled across this young bride while photographing a wildlife story in the Amboseli National Park. This was a brief moment of calm reflection before the ceremony

Sacred Waterfall, India: Local people flock to stand beneath this sacred waterfall in Kerala. I love the serenity of these women lost in thought

From the series:  Travelling Light: an exhibition of recent works by Philip Lee Harvey showcased in London earlier this year.

All jacked from The Graun. 

Zanele Muholi: I Am Just Doing My Job

When multimillionaire businessmen like Kenny Kunene spend hundreds of thousands of rands on lavish birthday parties, where sushi is served from the half-naked torsos of compliant (and hopefully well-paid) models, they would probably expect criticism, and this is just what South African artist, Zanele Muholi (pictured lying on the table) has done.  The self portrait shows Muholi laid out on a table, representing one of the models at the party, while two women eat boerewors and offal off her naked torso. It is titled "I am just doing my job,"  after the response given by one of the models (and sushi servers) when asked what she thought about the whole event. In a macabre twist, the meat is placed on Muholi's body in such a way that it seems the women are eating her internal organs. 

This exhibition will be shown at the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, S.A. as from Thursday 3 December 2010.

jacked from mg.co.za

foto credit: Robert Hamblin

postcard from shenyang...

 Acrobats from the Shenyang acrobatic troupe are seen during a rehearsal

Fotocred: Sheng Li/Reuters

What Would Jesus Say?

Banksy Mural in Islington, London (2008) Children Saluting the Tesco Supermarkets Empire.

As if imitating art, a former Methodist Church is now a Tesco Express in Westbourne, Dorset.

Get your Prayers, Ciggies and Lottery Tickets all in one go.

 Banksy fotocred: Paul Flannery 

postcard from ireland...

Pic by Patricia Moriarty:

New Year's Day 2010, Mt Brandon, Ireland. The coldest winter since 1963

Mr Fuzzy Slipperz

Something Has Changed in Me

Fuzzy Slipperz, born Lisolomzi Pikoli is an up and coming artist from South Africa who fuses tradition African imagery with street graffiti art in his work. This 21 year old has just had his first solo exhibition called Something Has Changed in Me at 38 Special Art Gallery (Johannesburg) where he sold 60% of his work on the first night. Fuzzy Slipperz paints on backpacks, skateboards and canvas and below are a couple of his paintings I shamelessly stole from his website: Mafuta Ink which is well worth checking out, as well as Mahala, click the link for a full interview (http://www.mahala.co.za/art/something-has-changed-in-me/) and read about the how, why and where to next in this young ninja's life.

"Troubles in the sky" said a bird with a microphone.

Skateboard

Handouts

pics 2 & 3 jacked from Mahala

all fotocredits: Adam Kent Wiest and Mafuta Ink

My African Mind

Film: My African Mind

MY AFRICAN MIND from BOFADACARA on Vimeo.
I saw this on Love(me)less's blog (http://aimemoimoins.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/my-african-mind) and have tried to find out more info, but alas nothing could be found apart from that it was posted by Bofadacara on Vimeo. If anyone has more info, hit me up, otherwise kickback and enjoy a six minute history lesson on the construction of race.

postcard from san carlos...

San Carlos, Venezuela. A farmer spreads urea fertilizer over a rice field. 

Pic by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters, jacked from The Guardian

postcard from miami...

Miami, US: A man has glitter applied as he prepares to take part in the Miami Broward One carnival. 

The event celebrates Caribbean culture.

foto & caption cred: Lynne Sladky/AP& TheGuardian

Zef Side

Evil Boy is the latest track from Die Antwoord, a South African band of three friends (Yo-landi, Ninja and Waddy Jones (aka Max Normal)) creating their own brand of zef beats. iLike this group, questions of authenticity aside (see www.africasacountry.com for a good, long discussion on this) but this video just sucks to the nth degree. Evil Boy sounds so much better when heard rather than seen, the excessive freakishness takes away from the valuable criticism the song had of circumcision, bling culture and sexual prudishness. Too much masculine penis envy and obsession with racial undertones agwan there, it's not even artistically gaudy, it doesn't work for me. 


As a general comment about Die Antwoord's music and videos, there is something to be said of their excesses as performances of race, gender, class, power and identity in post-Mandela, post-apartheid South Africa and they seem to be aware of what they are doing if you watch the second short video and the beginning of Enter the Ninja when Ninja says all identities are mixed up in him. But just how much are things mixed up in him that Die Antwoord's gangster attitude, imitation prison number tattoos and alleged gang connections can pass off as 'authentic' or is Ninja the mash-up the trajectory of whitesploitation consuming and producing itself in more radical and satirical ways over and over? Radical yes, but satirical - of what exactly? Die Antwoord are the edgy pop hip-hip embodiment of White working class angst fused with a 'discovered 'inner' Coloured' to use Rustum Kozain's phrase. Given this interesting fusion of working class identities, to what extent are they performing critique in their music and to what extent are they themselves the joke when they're speaking... BS?....Life is zef, china.


Their album drops 12 October and is available on iTunes.



STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S PIEL from Die Antwoord on Vimeo.

Qaphela Caeser:

a multi-disciplinary adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar set in present-day South Africa by theatre-maker Jay Pather. Based in a world of power struggles and politics, Shakespeare's classic text about honour, patriotism and friendship has been reworked by Pather to examine corruption and political power from a modern African perspective. 

At Cape Town City Hall this weekend.

pic n blurb jacked from Mail and Guardian SA

The GTW: #dontsmokethecigarette

10. PATA PATA by THE GTW

                                                                                fisttap africasacountry

This is a phreshhh track by GTW (Greater Than Wealth), a Nigerian hiphopper livin' n hustlin' in Chi-Town. He riffs off of the Late Great, Miriam Makeba's 'Pata Pata' - luv it and iHope it goes viral! Correction (see Sonja's comment in the box) : The good folk over at AfricasACountry don't suggest that this track sounds lie 'Ye's 'Blood Diamonds', but instead arguethat his mention of poverty and Africa's mineral wealth does remind one of Blood Diamonds esp because they sound alike. True, dat GTW does sound alot like 'Ye and uses the drums like 'Ye does on 'College Dropout'.

Anyway, here's the link to your free download, in spirit of the World Cup, he's dedicated this to the Naija Soccer Team. The other track 'Runnin' All My Life' doesn't sound quite suited to a house sound, the music's dope, but not for these hiphop bars. Feels to me like somebody needs Pharrel on speed dial to go to work on these bars and give this track the uber trendy feel it sounds like it should be aiming for, but not quite gettin' - but hey, that's my 2cents from the stands up in the nosebleeds...

From his site, Greater Than Wealth:

Music impacted my life around my Freshman year in Highschool. I fell in love with the crazy antics of Eminem and the Soulful delivery of artist like Kanye West and Little Brother. Deep Down I always had a burning passion to come out with songs that people would enjoy and relate to. For the past 2 years I have been scratching clawing, climbing the ladder of musical politics in my city. Trying to get music noticed in Chicago is as easy as crashing an Obama Dinner party. (TRUTHFUL HUMOR). I threw the thought away of trying to impress these Chicago politicians.

...I wanted to come out with a musical project where I can express my thoughts through, singing, rapping or whatever way i can express my thoughts. I wanted to make something that the whole world could relate to. Therefore the phrase Dont Smoke The Cigraette came about for my first solo project. Dont Smoke The Cigarette is a short way of saying “Dont do what everyone else is doing.” This project is filled with my me and friends singing and going on the adventure of musical bliss. I would like to thank everyone who supports me, from the south side of Chicago to the green plains of Berlin. I present to you. #dontsmokethecigarette.

pic by Sadiyya Coates

jacked from GTW.

WAfrica

fisttap AfricaIsACountry

This is the work of Sergei Mouangue, a Cameroonian living in Tokyo, Japan who has used African java prints to make fusion style kimonos.

From the youtube page:

The name WAfrica is a combination of the word for Japanese spirit, "wa," and Africa.

"In 2007, I experimented with Japanese kimono by producing them with African fabrics," says Serge Mouangue, who has been working in Tokyo for the past three years as a conceptual car designer for Nissan Motor Company. "After showing them to Japanese audiences, many people felt the resulting garment existed beyond boundaries it was neither Japanese nor African, it was part of a heretofore unknown world, a 'third aesthetic'."

A Cameroonian, Mouangue has produced his kimono in collaboration with Odasho, a 150-year-old Kyoto-based kimono maker. "I want people to experience the birth of totally new cultural dimensions," Mouangue says. "West Africa and Japan have never truly met when it comes to their historical traditions, thus with the WAfrica kimono, I realized that there is the possibility of creating something complete original a third aesthetic that is more than a simple blending of two existing cultures."

The New York magazine Paper says: "By highlighting the histories and beauty of the two (cultures), Serge Mouangue creates something glorious and sublime."

My Two Cents: The work is beautiful no doubt, but I'm reminded of Dr Ivan van Sertima (see African Presence in Early Asia) and even more, I'm thinking of Yinka Shonibare and what he's doing with his art. The notion of one creating something 'new' is something I tend to avoid making claims to and co-signing on (although at times I do), but I think Shonibare makes the point, very clearly in his work that African textiles are borrowed, no kultcha is authentic - even that to which we fervently cling to as the real mccoy is borrowed or modified through intercultural encounter, be it violent or peaceful. Some of the java print patterns are sourced in Holland (I'm sure peops from the Big A have seen the name Vlisco on chitenges (the printed cloths) - it's a Dutch company). They are also printed and exported from the UK and on-the-cheap; Thailand and Malaysia then they are sold in the markets from Lusaka to Victoria to Accra to Bamako. So if we're talking about Asian and African textiles we're actually talking about global appropriations coming together to make something seemly authentic fuse with another globally appropriated kultcha. Africa and 'the Far East' have had many cultural exchanges at many historical periods, but perhaps not in a contemporary form such as this, so yes Serge Mouange brings summin' phresh to the game - maaad props to him. From the perspective of a cultural critic there is much to be said about how this work symbolizes the implicit and explicit intimate connections of people.

Naija Art

The Fire Next Time

It is a full moon

The recipient of a thousand

Folklore told by toothless griots
And matriarchal grandmothers

Here is the history book

Where warriors and heroes

Become myth and martyr

Also the laughing canvass

Where eunuchs are painted with mockery

And their balls hung dry like

Dry fruits

extract from the poem Full Moon by Victor Ehikhamenor

 

Point of View

and I'll say it again, blogger's pic margins suck!

Victor Ehikhamenor was born in Edo State, Nigeria, and grew up sorrounded by the folk traditions, spiritual festivals and art that now flower in his paintings and poems. He says of his works, "I am looking beyond the surface of everything…to commune with the spirits I have to look beyond the surface. And if we all do we will be surprised at what we see."

from Nigerians in America.com

postcard from burma...

pic by Steve McMurry

Mandalay, Burma 2010

jacked from The Hairdryer Treatment (Tumblr)

*this shrunk version doesn't do this foto justice : ( click here for a better pic.