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neo maditla
neo maditla

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Sep 19, 2022

Wanted Magazine: Art issue

Before the Covid 19 lockdown in 2020, two friends and I had planned to go to Dakar for the art biennial. But after it was cancelled we had to cancel our plans as well. This year, since I have been living in Niger, I decided that my birthday would be spent in Dakar, with friends, surrounded by art. That’s exactly what I did and you can read about a small bit of the trip in the piece I wrote for Wanted Magazine’s September issue. The trip definitely pushed Dakar into the top 5 of my favourite cities anywhere on the planet. I cannot wait to go back there soon.

Dakar

2 min read

Wanted Magazine: Art issue
Wanted Magazine: Art issue
Dakar

2 min read


Jul 12, 2022

Home is where the art is

If you are in Cape Town, please go by the Zeitz Mocca at the V&A Waterfront to get a copy of Home Is Where The Art Is. I contributed an essay to this book in the form of a love letter to Cape Town. …

Home Is Where The Art Is

1 min read

Home is where the art is
Home is where the art is
Home Is Where The Art Is

1 min read


Jul 12, 2022

Lesela Magazine vol 1

Some time ago, Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg asked me to contribute an essay to a publication she was putting together called Lesela. I wrote an essay about my late mom. I am literally counting the days till I next see Nkuli so I can get my hands on a copy and read all the stories in the magazine from the all-woman team. With the project, Nkuli wanted to honour and explore connections between people and textiles across the African continent. The magazine explores contemporary African textiles through the lens of makers, craft and materiality.

The Ninevites

1 min read

Lesela Magazine vol 1
Lesela Magazine vol 1
The Ninevites

1 min read


Jun 24, 2022

Greer Valley’s curatorial practice of care

The black writing on the floor reads “unsettled”. As one steps over it, the names of four participating artists are seen written on the wall to the right: Bronwyn Katz, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Nolan Oswald Dennis and Zayaan Khan. A few paces further the writing states “Curated by Greer Valley”. The…

Greer Valley

2 min read

Greer Valley’s curatorial practice of care
Greer Valley’s curatorial practice of care
Greer Valley

2 min read


Aug 17, 2021

Hidden Messages, Repeating Patterns

Artist Lawrence Lemaoana on coding narratives into textiles and his uneasy relationship with the art world. Picture this scene: A toddler is trailed by his mom and dad as he plays in the gardens of an iconic art museum in Paris. The three of them are on the grass behind a spectacular ultra-contemporary museum that, according to ArchDaily, catalyzed “innovation in digital design and construction” while “evoking the tradition of 19th-century glass garden buildings.” As he walks, the dad notices several signs in French with the words Jardin d’acclimatation, but doesn’t pay too much attention. Later, back at the hotel, he googles the name, and discovers a shocking truth: less than 80 years ago, that site was a human zoo.

Lawrence Lemoana

1 min read

Hidden Messages, Repeating Patterns
Hidden Messages, Repeating Patterns
Lawrence Lemoana

1 min read


Jul 14, 2021

Longtime friends reunite to transform an 80-year-old cottage in Cape Town

Photographs by David Southwood via Douglas & Company website. Derek White was only in his second year of college when he “started vetting architects” for his future home. “That’s when I met Liani — I don’t know if we would have been friends if we didn’t share a sense of…

2 min read

Longtime friends reunite to transform an 80-year-old cottage in Cape Town
Longtime friends reunite to transform an 80-year-old cottage in Cape Town

2 min read


Apr 16, 2021

Sethembile Msezane on history, commemorative practice and making space for omitted stories of black women

The women in Sethembile Msezane’s work demand your attention. They stand, on top of mountains, on plinths in the middle of Rhodes Must Fall crowds. They wake up on beds in the middle of a field. They stand defiantly with their fists up on public holidays; ring large bells to signal the return of those women whose deaths are quickly forgotten. They kneel on top of World Heritage sites diagnosing the world’s illnesses and drawing attention to our disconnect from nature. In whichever medium we meet her work — film, photography, performance, sculpture or drawings — Sethembile Msezane is always commemorating the stories of women. Black women in particular.

Sethembile Msezane

1 min read

Sethembile Msezane on history, commemorative practice and making space for omitted stories of…
Sethembile Msezane on history, commemorative practice and making space for omitted stories of…
Sethembile Msezane

1 min read


Mar 24, 2021

On Isolation, Heirlooms and Solidarity

How the Sankara Rug became a comfort away from home. The lockdown was only meant to have lasted for 21 days. At the time, there were only 61 recorded positive coronavirus cases in South Africa. In announcing the national state of disaster on March 15, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that…

Covid-19

1 min read

On Isolation, Heirlooms and Solidarity
On Isolation, Heirlooms and Solidarity
Covid-19

1 min read


Feb 1, 2021

Graffiti artist finds a way to paint the city

WESTRIDGE Senior Secondary School in Mitchells Plain seems an unlikely birthplace for South Africa’s graffiti movement, but in the late 1980s, that’s what it became. The school provided the first canvases for young, frustrated graffiti artists who wanted a space in which to express themselves.Graffiti artist Falko is one of the pioneers of the art form in Cape Town, and started developing his skill while at Westridge.

Falko

1 min read

Graffiti artist finds a way to paint the city
Graffiti artist finds a way to paint the city
Falko

1 min read


Feb 1, 2021

Spraying for love

The urban landscape includes the world of the down-trodden and faceless, who sleep under bridges and stand like landmarks at traffic intersections. It is from this nuanced, strange and challenging existence that graffiti artist Faith47 draws inspiration. “In the years of painting in the streets I have explored many hidden-away spaces, empty Joburg high-rise buildings, old factories and pockets of broken architecture. I have been documenting the marks I find — scrawled poems on the walls, gang tags, love stories, complaints and observations carefully pencilled on walls, drawings and sentences written by stowaways who sleep under bridges,” she says.

Faith 47

1 min read

Spraying for love
Spraying for love
Faith 47

1 min read

neo maditla

neo maditla

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