Vernissage: Nicholas Hlobo and Lerato Shadi
Apr30

Vernissage: Nicholas Hlobo and Lerato Shadi

Nothing like hanging out with arty types sipping on house red at an art opening in Jozi, always lots of eye candy around of both the artistic and human kind -after all, you can always hang out with the smokers outside if it gets too hot for you in amongst the talented. Tempted? Shimmy your touche over to the vernissage (très french for art exhibition opening) of Nicholas Hlobo and Lerato Shadi at on Thursday 6 May from 6 – 8 pm at Brodie/Stevenson gallery. The exhibition runs until 4 June 2010. Image: Left to right: Nicholas Hlobo, Isitulo samaNgesi sihlal’ iBhulukazi… 2010, ribbon, rubber on canvas; Isisele, 2010, ribbon, rubber on canvas Brodie/Stevenson is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Nicholas Hlobo, comprising new works on canvas. Any traditional notions of ‘painting’ technique are soon discarded as we encounter surfaces that have been slashed and then delicately stitched with ribbon and rubber, pockets of swollen canvas about to burst open, and ghostly allusions to real-world objects and spaces that seem to collapse in on themselves under the weight of imagined space. The artist has made the following comments on this new body of work: “The notion of pathways is carried out through this work. The lines that suggest these paths are drawn on a white sterile surface that I read as a landscape, or as skin. The lines bring with them energies that fertilise the landscape, resulting in certain areas swelling up as if impregnated by higher forces from faraway universes. The bulging areas are almost synonymous with skin trying to deal with ailments that have taken over. The skin of these objects also has to do with the space that exists somewhere deep in the core of one’s soul or imagination where everything moves with freedom that cannot be easily understood. Everything in this space is held tightly together and yet allowed to roam free. “One of the new works is titled ‘Icephe ifolokhwe ne bhoso yi five Pounds ten, isitulo samaNgesi sihlal’ iBhulukazi…’, which translates as ‘A spoon, a fork and a knife is £5.10, on an English chair now sits an Afrikaner woman’, and draws its title from a children’s game popular in the Eastern Cape in the early 1980s, where kids would sing this rhyme while running around chasing each other. I believe its origins have to do with the end of the Anglo-Boer war.” Nicholas Hlobo was born in Cape Town in 1975, and has a B Tech degree from the Wits Technikon (2002); he lives in Johannesburg. He was the Standard Bank Young Artist for 2009 with a solo exhibition touring...

Read More
LIKWID TONGUE on Saturday @ the Drill Hall
Apr21

LIKWID TONGUE on Saturday @ the Drill Hall

It’s for charity. Just do it. Oh and there’s an open mic. Get all over it. * HOSTED BY QUAZ, VALLENTINE AND FLO * 24 APRIL 2010 * DRILL HALL * 13 TILL LATE * R20 or HALF PRICE WHEN  You donate clothing or non-perishable goods * Bring YOUR MUG FOR COFFEE AND TEA (if its...

Read More
Donna Karan you’re so two and a half years ago
Jan30

Donna Karan you’re so two and a half years ago

“The Black Coffee everyonecanbeadesigner dress – designed 2.5 years before Donna Karan’s infinity dress…”Need we say more? Actually, yes.  Johannesburg-based (yes, that’s in South Africa) design team Jacques van der Watt and Dannica Lepen, otherwise known as Black Coffee, launched their superb concept dress known as “everyonecanbeadesigner” to market in 2007.  Not that it’s needed, but we can testify to this date as it was the year I got married and Jacques’ partner had proposed I wear one for my wedding dress… I wish I had now, as I’d have had a photo of me looking oh-so-2007 to tie down the facts (actually, when I look at the photos now, my hair was clearly plucked out of a childhood dream hairstyle ergo ’89). Anyway, the point is, Black Coffee’s byline was ‘a new way of looking at clothing’ and the campaign around the dress was a gorgeous 360 concept that included a video showing you all the ways you could wear the dress.  Just go see the site. Come 2010 and suddenly we see a very similar looking dress rehashed as a ‘Donna Karan’s Infinity dress’. Pfft. Something seriously fishy going on people, what you reckon? Coincidink? I don’t know how you feel, but in general, I’m getting a little bit tired of the ‘big overseas chiefs” helping themselves to African goodness, minerals, inspiration…and scuttling off. For how many centuries will we be their buffet table?  We sit perched on the end of our struggling continent just minding our business and producing high quality, exceptional work and then get stomped over by a big western made-in-china foot. Genoeg is genoeg. Africans, it’s really enough now, time to STAND UP and of course I’m talking about everything here… I’m so chuffed the World Cup Soccer is taking place in South Africa so we don’t have to make movies to prove what a sublime place we live in… and so that the 1 million visitors who would never have stepped foot in Africa before, can get a hands-on real time lesson and go back and re-educate their brethren about Africa, and in particular Southern Africa and just how much we rock. But of course, just the thought of going up against a US mega-icon like DKNY to say ‘i had that idea first!’ must be freaking daunting… this tiny little speck of dust from Africa daring to lay claim to genius that was born outside of the U S of A. We say STUFF THAT – go for it…! We support you and of course ♥ you long time Black Coffee. If you are tired of bullshit too – let your...

Read More
Celebrate the end of January with Party People
Jan28

Celebrate the end of January with Party People

Everyone else that’s happy to see the backend of January stand up! What a mindblow start to this year… It can only get better…Go and usher in the beautiful month of February at Party People and our famous BLK JKS boys fresh from NY. This month Kenzhero brings to you the out of this world Rock fantastical astronomical historical shifting ever-growing band BLK JKS, for a first time live performance. Here is a little history about the fellas and what they have installed for you: It’s been too long since anyone was able to bring this much soul and heartblood to progressive rock, a medium that has been left cold and dry by a misguided focus on technical show-offery. But by entangling the music they love — township blues, fringe jazz and renegade dub — into the DNA of prog, BLK JKS have provocatively pulled afro-futurism into a new century. After Robots has all the ingredients of a party record — young, joyous musicians; surging, afro-drumming; aggressive horn blasts (supplied by the cultishly famous HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE) — but this is not party music. It’s at times disorienting and overwhelming, but it always maintaining a cool, alluring mystique. It’s in Mcata’s patient, complex and enviable jazz chord vamping. It’s in Makananise’s from-the-pocket-to-the-stars bass approaches. It’s in Buthelezi’s blues-inflected phrasing and searing guitar leads. It’s in Ramoba’s super-polyrhythmic, flailing beats. Come and see this great South African Phenomenon perform live for the first time at Party People on Saturday the 30th January 2010. The Doors of OST, Corner Henry Nxumalo and Bree Str, Nextown 9pm R100 www.myspace.com/partypeople or...

Read More
Shake hands with the Devil @ First Wed Film Club
Oct30

Shake hands with the Devil @ First Wed Film Club

We just checked and it’s been nearly 5 years since the First Wednesday Film Club was started by John Barker and Ziggy Hofmeyer with Johnothan at Atlas Studio’s – and as we’ve always said, if you live in Jozi and love film, you should be going at the beginning of every month… in fact, the first Wednesday of every month. This month features the Canadian drama “SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL” and the actors will be present NOGAL for questions. GO GO GO DIRECTOR:  Roger Spottiswoode GENRE:  Drama STORYLINE: Shake Hands with the Devil is a Canadian drama feature film starring Roy Dupuis as Roméo Dallaire, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in August 2007. Based on Dallaire’s autobiographical book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, the film recounts Dallaire’s harrowing personal journey during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and how the United Nations failed to heed Dallaire’s urgent pleas for further assistance to halt the massacre. FILM NOMINATIONS: The film received 12 nominations at the 28th Genie Awards and tied with the film Eastern Promises for most nominations. ADDRESS: 33 FROST AVE, MILPARK      TEL: +27 11 482 7111      EMAIL:  INFO@ATLASSTUDIOS.CO.ZA    WEB:...

Read More