Not a bag, but the beat of Bantu heritage
At Thursday afternoon’s opening of Lukhanyo Mdingi’s exhibition at Constitution Hill, my eye is drawn to a black perforated pleather object in the shape of a women’s clutch perched on a glass box.
“I love the bag!” I exclaim to the Cape Town fashion designer who is both a joint recipient of the LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Prize and the 2023 Amiri Prize winner (which saw him pocket $100,000 and a year’s mentorship from the eponymous American emerging luxury brand).
“That’s not a bag, it’s a beat,” Lukhanyo points out. While I am more familiar with “beat” as a term for a musical pulse, I have now learnt it’s also the name given to a hand-held, homemade musical instrument in the form of a padded cushion which is tapped rhythmically to a gospel hymn not unlike choir Amadodana Ase Wesile’s rendition of Siyakudumisa Thixo, which is pumped on repeat through Kramer speakers in the space.
Titled The Provenance Part II, Lukhanyo explains that the exhibition, co-curated by visual artist Banele Khoza and held in conjunction with photographer Trevor Stuurman’s The Manor project, isn’t about fashion but “textiles, literature and music and the idea of us looking at Bantu heritage and to see how the three different themes coexist within Bantu culture”.
I greet Trevor, who’s sporting the sort of straw cowboy hat he’s been fond of wearing long before the Beyoncé country music inspired revival, before shifting to the other end of the Women’s Jail’s exhibition wing.
There, visitors such as designers and besties Ephraim Molingoana and Thula Sindi (quipping that he thought I would have been on day seven of Bassie’s birthday), take in exhibits including a collection of archival papers, various mixed mediums of yarns and a setting complete with mahogany furniture, doilies and those kitsch ceramic ornaments you usually find in granny’s sitting room.
I also catch up with another artist, Mel Madiba, who tells me about a project she’s working on. “It’ sa mixture of self-portraits and abstract works about consent a subject we need to be constantly reminded of, especially regarding sex and intimate relationships,” explains the self-taught pyrography artist.
As dusk falls, guests such as entrepreneur Koleka Lwana and interior designer Bilala Mabuza continue to arrive. For me, however, it was time for the next stop: the launch of a new experiential concept called Cre8tor-Con held at Usurpa, the gallery space/photographic studio off Oxford Road in Riviera near Rosebank in Joburg.
A sort of mixer for emerging creatives, this is an offshoot of marketer Jay Kayembe’s Spaces Africa vehicle, which has gained a following among the cool crowd for its fashion events which don’t follow the usual grind.
Between sipping gin cocktails and munching on snacks from a food truck set up on the grounds, we listen to two discussions moderated by Rudzani Netshiheni and Shamiso Mosaka (who, like Mom Azania, can now add radio host to her résumé, after joining youth station Y a few days ago).
On the panels are many young
’uns I had never heard of and a couple who I have, like Ntsikelelo Meslani, who is better known as Lelowhatsgood.
Afterwards I talk to Lelo about his groundbreaking outing Vogue Nights Jozi, which takes its cue from the ballroom culture that emerged underground among the LGBTQ+ community in New York and gives young Jozi queers and their allies a chance to dress up and party.
“Dressing up might feel like such a small thing, but I think that’s when people are able to truly be themselves,” says the cultural curator, DJ and writer.
Someone who opted to suit up for this particular occasion was Sam Turpin, a young rapper whose beats aren’t peppered with the cussing favoured by his musical cohorts.
“I don’t rap about your usual rap things,” explains the artist who turned to music to cope with the loss of his mom, the anti-apartheid activist and photographer Gisèle Wulfsohn who died from cancer in 2011.
On a different note, if you’re a follower of the arts you might have come across the work of artist Vusi Beauchamp, whose paintings and drawings offer a wry and often uncomfortably comic lens to our sociopolitical ills. Unfortunately, the acclaimed artist has been diagnosed with severe heart failure and needs urgent surgery.
To raise funds to assist with his medical expenses, auctioneers Aspire Art and Kalashnikovv Gallery have come together to host an online auction of Vusi’s works as well as pieces donated from other artists in support. Do check out the auction, which runs until April 16 at aspireart.net.