Johannesburg's vibrant art scene: An insider's guide

DW (English)

Award-winning visual artist and activist Lady Skollie, is taking us on a tour to the city's hottest art spots and to some of its most talented creatives that are revolutionizing the way we see African contemporary art.

Transcript

00:00I'm Lady Skoli, and I'm a visual artist living and working in Johannesburg.

00:10And this is my city.

00:14Nelson Mandela lived in this, the largest city in South Africa.

00:20But Johannesburg is now home to a thriving and diverse art scene.

00:24Wow, look at that!

00:27When I was growing up, art was not considered a very serious profession.

00:37And this place that we're in right now, August House, that has all of these contemporary

00:41artists' studios in it, was completely unknown to me.

00:52Since graduating, I have made printmaking and painting my art forms.

00:56It has been rewarding to create pieces that have been featured in major exhibitions in

01:01Europe and South Africa.

01:10I'm going to introduce you to some Jo'burg artists that are revolutionizing the way we

01:15see African contemporary art on this continent.

01:18Let's go!

01:20This is Mabuneng, a vibrant cultural district in the inner city.

01:25Mabuneng is a Sotho word that means place of light.

01:29And Mabuneng is the domain of Dibongs Machlati.

01:34For Dibongs, the streets are his canvas.

01:39Dibongs was shy about his art as a boy, but the strong woman in his family encouraged

01:44him to persist and eventually create his supersized public artworks.

01:49So I'm about to show you some of my work in Mabuneng, stuff I've done in recent years

01:53and the progression from how I started doing portraiture.

01:55You like this one?

01:56Look at the scale!

01:57Look at these bees!

01:58Yeah, these are part of the storytelling, as I was saying, part of the narrative that

02:05I'm actually pushing.

02:06And for the fact that these two women are closer and it's so rich with heritage and

02:11culture and tradition.

02:12You have a lot of control.

02:16I try, I try.

02:17You painted straight onto this?

02:18Yeah, I painted straight onto, we did, so it's part print, part painted.

02:22So I painted the portraits and designed the background patterns and then printed those,

02:27then painted the portraits.

02:28Amazing.

02:34I love this hair piece.

02:36Yeah, this is sort of a crown type of thing.

02:40I love this work.

02:41It even makes me want to grow my hair out.

02:44We are visiting Johannesburg's art scene.

02:47This is Victoria Yards, a cultural space which is strongly connected to the street

02:52life around it.

02:54Visitors can walk right in and get to see studios of a number of artists.

03:00We're visiting Blessing Gubeni to see his work that has been a hit in Europe and New

03:04York.

03:05Blessing focuses on disrupting colonial narratives about Africa.

03:10Now it's time for Blessing and I to do some colourful collaboration.

03:14I'm glad that you're here.

03:16Let's see what we can do together.

03:20The faces of the struggle.

03:21Do you know that it's quite a modern invention, pink?

03:24Don't sell my work, I know you want to.

03:27This is for the studio.

03:28Let me add some other colour.

03:30Wow, look at that.

03:32It's nice, no?

03:33So what do you think?

03:34What do you think?

03:35What do you think?

03:36I love it.

03:37The energy, the colours.

03:38The energy, the colours, the vibe.

03:41You know, this is me.

03:43You know, I think I must start inviting you every day.

03:46Yeah, yeah, dude.

03:54My time with Blessing has inspired me to visit Keys Art Mile.

03:58It is a popular cultural and creative destination for many young people.

04:03It is also home to the Circa Gallery and Everard Read Gallery where I exhibit much of my own work.

04:13I love to paint ostriches and I think it's because they symbolise so many things to me.

04:19It has all these contradictions within itself.

04:21It's this thing that kind of looks so silly and stupid.

04:24Yes, it's completely deadly.

04:26And the ostrich, I kind of sometimes use it to symbolise the fact that people like to ignore things that they shouldn't.

04:33So within violence in South Africa, gender-based violence, which is a massive problem here,

04:38the ostrich is always trying to ignore something by pushing its head into the sand.

04:42Being a brown woman in South Africa is a very complicated thing.

04:47Our racial identity is deeply ingrained in rape, in violence, in oppression.

04:54And I think within my work and within my own identity, I'm trying to find a perfect middle ground

04:59where I can feel hard against things that's happened to us, but also be open enough

05:04to figure out what it means in a modern world to be a brown woman in South Africa.

05:09And my worst fear is to fizzle. I'd rather go out in a giant bang than fizzle out.

05:21So I'm back in Maboneng and I'm about to meet up with Debongs

05:24because he's going to help me leave my permanent mark on the streets of Joburg.

05:28Wow. Hey Debongs.

05:30Well, I want you to teach me actually how to use spray paint properly.

05:33You teach me how to sketch and I'll teach you how to use spray paint.

05:35Cool. This colour's wild.

05:38Oh my gosh. I never thought it was this difficult.

05:47I approve this Debongs interpretation of a lady's scrawly piece of work.

05:53Let's go.

05:55Let's go.

Category

Transcript

Recommended