Durbanites write for us @ Fashion Week
We’re always going on about how much of our great artistic talent comes from Durban, the hot spot of creativity. Well prepare yourselves for the 4th MTN Durban Fashion Week that’s set to shine all over the east coast. Represent is looking for hip and happening Fashion fundi’s to cover this years Fashion Week for us. Please email editor@represent.co.za and tell me why it should be you. You’ll need to be able to write in fluent English although we always like a touch of spice, and have your own ditigal camera or a friend that’s a good photographer. Young, energetic and funky MTN Durban Fashion Week, now in its fourth year, is once again set against the backdrop of Durban’s vibrant ambiance, magnificent Indian Ocean coastline and mixture of African, Eastern and Western cultural influences. MTN Durban Fashion Week 2008 is set to be a visual feast, presented by award-winning South African and international designers. Positioned as the cradle of South Africa’s young and emerging talent, MTN Durban Fashion Week 2008 will marry creativity with business, youth with experience and fashion with a cause, to present a truly spectacular and memorable event. Developing and supporting young and emerging talent has always ranked high on the list of priorities for convener and co-owner of MTN Durban Fashion Week, Vanashree Singh. Concurrent with their annual young designer search at top design schools, MTN Durban Fashion Week has embarked on a ground breaking initiative, partnering with the KZN Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism (DACT) to launch an exploratory programme across KZN, whose main aim is to seek, cultivate and nurture would-be designers who have the talent but lack the means to achieve success in the fashion industry. “MTN Durban Fashion Week has always taken the fashion business seriously and intrinsic to the success of any business is investment at a grassroots level. KZN has a wealth of exceptional design talent and our event presents exciting opportunities to showcase to a wide audience. The South African fashion industry is under continuous threat from foreign imports. We believe by investing in young South African talent, we are promoting Proudly South African brands and thereby making a positive impact on South Africa’s emerging fashion talent. Young talent – their creativity and hard work – is the very essence of what makes MTN Durban Fashion Week a success and we are proud of their achievements.” said Vanashree, This was reiterated by Evan Schiff, spokesperson for, African Fashion International (AFI) who are joint owners of MTN Durban Fashion Week, “MTN Durban Fashion Week fulfils a vital role on the local fashion calendar which falls in line...
Represent Recommends: David Goldblatt
We’re delighted that David Goldblatt, one of our favourite South African photographers, is being shown at the Goodman for an entire month. This exhibition, entitled Joburg, will showcase photographs by Goldblatt from 1960’s to the present time, including amazing scenes shot in Hillbrow in the 70s. GO GO GO! David Goldblatt is renowned for his documentation of the progress of societal changes and how these impact on the landscape and South African communities, without being judgmental. His works are widely collected, both locally and abroad, in public and private collections. His work is a real statement about the changes currently taking place in South Africa. Goldblatt says about the show, “Over the years I have become interested in different aspects of the city. Some of these photographs I have not printed before, some I have not exhibited before, some I showed at the Market Theatre Photography Gallery in the 70s and 80s, others I have shown more recently. Together they come from attempts to get to grips with something of the life and places of this city.” The exhibition will include early black and white images of Johannesburg, some of which have never been seen before, as well as Soweto, Structures, and more recent colour works from the Johannesburg Intersections series. The exhibition opens on the 26th of April 2008 at noon and closes on 24th of May 2008. David Goldblatt Photo from the Goodman Gallery website: She said to him: You be the driver and I’ll be the Madam. Then they picked up the fender and posed. Hilbrow, 1975 Image size: 50.5 x 50.5cm | Print size: 56 x...
Must-attend: Fashion Battle in Jozi
What a fascinating concept, for anyone interested in fashion and culture, don’t miss this Fash-off. It started with people dressing up in Kinshasa… In January 2007, French artist Jean Christophe Lanquetin staged an exhibition of portraits photographed over a period of two years in the streets of Lingwala, Kinshasa (DRC). The images captured the legendary ‘Sapeurs’, documenting a practice that primarily revolves around street fashion and haute couture, the competitive rituals and performance of dressing up. Implicitly, the practice of ‘sape’ raises arguments around ‘body politics’ and its agency: how to claim one’s own, ‘clean’ and exclusive space in contrast to a disintegrating city and world at large? ‘100 Year War’ is the name of one of the ‘sapeurs’ gangs in Kinshasa and references the extended series of wars that started in France in the 14th Century. The practice of competing in the streets against other groups, such as the ‘Japanese’, to show off the most expensive clothes and ingenious poses, styles and dances, is a highly popular tradition in Kin’. Each ‘sapeur’ challenges the other’s territory – the codes of display, resistance and aspiration towards all that ‘Europe’ represents for them: colonialism, globalism, an affluent world of choices… And in Johannesburg: Continuing with this theme, Lanquetin is collaborating with Joburg designer and artist Athi-Patra on a series of public interventions that aim to explore the local geographies of ‘body politics’, as they are taken up by the Congolese Sapeurs in Yeoville, the Emo-kids and NuKool skool of Melville to Pantsulas and Swankers of Jozi. Leading up to the event on the 30th, the artists stage performances that include the posting of large prints of the ‘Sapeurs’ on the walls of the Fashion District, Yeoville, the Zone and the Drill Hall. This project developed out of the Artist-in-Residency programme facilitated by the Joubert Park Project at the Drill Hall and supported by the French Institute of South Africa in the framework of EUNIC projects, and the National Arts Council of South Africa. With thanks to: Nadine Hutton, Mbuso Kagebe, Lolo Veleko, Ra Ngoato and the Kelektla! Team, Vuyo Gope, Djoca Paulo, Frans Radebe, Tau Skosana and Sakhlie Madi, Adam Levine, Cleo-Patra, Laurent Clavel and the IFAS team, the sapeurs of Kinshasa and all particpants. A project developed by artist-in-residency JEAN-CHRISTOPHE LANQUETIN & ATHI-PATRA RUGA & the Joubert Park Project in association with the French Institute of South Africa WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL, 6:30pm till late Drill Hall, Corner Twist and Plein Street, Joubert Park Opposite Noord Street Taxies /Shell Garage Free Entrance, Secure Parking & Cash...
Youssef Nabil @ Art Extra
Catch Youssef Nabil – Sleep in my arms photography exhibition at Art Extra in Craighall. Opening Wednesday 9th April at 6pm.: Art Extra is pleased to present Sleep in my arms, a solo show of photographer Youssef Nabil. Presented for the first time in South Africa at Michael Stevenson in Cape Town in 2007, Sleep in my arms will be the first time Nabil’s work will be exhibited in Johannesburg. Born in Cairo in 1972, Youssef Nabil has always been fascinated with the glamour and style of early Egyptian cinema, the black and white photo-novels published at the time and the hand-coloured family portraits that still adorn most living rooms in Cairo. He started taking pictures after being rejected by the Institute of Cinema in Cairo and used his friends to stage scenes which he would ideally liked to have filmed. These early images set the stage for all his subsequent work which was further influenced by his close friendship with the legendary Egyptian-Armenian photographer Van Leo. Van Leo is celebrated for his glamorous studio portraits of famous Egyptian actresses of the 1950s and 60s and Nabil spent many hours watching him at work in his studio. While working as a photographers’ assistant in prominent studios New York and Paris in the 1990s, he started producing his staged, constructed and meticulously hand-coloured black and white portraits of celebrities, close friends and fellow artists such as John Waters, Shirin Neshat, Tracey Emin and Ghada Amer. Nabil tells ‘stories’ through his carefully constructed images. In his words: “I always like to tell stories through my work; the more simple the photo is, the more complicated the story becomes. What’s the point in making a photo if it doesn’t have something to say?” Nabil’s images have a cinematic quality and explore the interior and exterior worlds of drama, beauty, glamour, sexuality and identity. In his latest body of work titled Sleep in My Arms, Nabil gives us access to stories about his relationships with various male friends through his delicately coloured, quiet and intimate portraits. A voyeur by nature, Nabil places these young men in situations of his own imagining and sets up dreamlike moments that are imbued with a brooding sexuality. Youssef Nabil will be giving a walkabout on Wednesday 9th of April at 2pm 373 jan smuts avenue craighall johannesburg gallery hours: tuesday to friday 1030 – 1730 saturday 930 – 1500 t011.326.0034 f011.326.0041 email website Youssef Nabil, Ahmed in djellebah, New York 2004, Hand coloured silver gelatin print, 27 x 40 cm, Edition of 10 Courtesy of Michael...
BLANK in April
Blank has a blog, they also have various events planned for April… Wednesday 9 April – Friday 9 May ONS SKRIK VIR NIKS – Studio 2666 (group exhibition) The first group show by the 12 artists from Studio 266. Be afraid. Visit the blog for more info: www.studio2666.blogspot.com Friday 11 April (18h00) THE END – Closing event for Jeremy Purén. Don’t miss the closing of this off-beat shenanigan! The watermelons are hitting the (proverbial) fan(s), Wednesday 16 April – Friday 19 April Daniel Glaser/ Magdalena Kunz Daniel and Magdalena is a Swiss artist-couple working in photographic media – currently the BLANK/Pro Helvetia artists-in-residence. Voices, the new project by Swiss artists Daniel Glaser and Magdalena Kunz, is a verbal geography that gives a voice to people to talk about their hopes and fears. At blank Glaser/Kunz will show a Talking Head, one of their video sculptures. For more info: www.blankprojects.blogspot.com blank projects 198 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town Tel: 072 198 9221 Email: blankprojects@gmail.com by...
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