art | the black coca-cola

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Images from Tony Gum & her Facebook 

To paraphrase the Notorious B.I.G., if you didn’t know about Tony Gum, now you know. A visual artist, creative, the mind behind Tony Gum and half of The Local Collective – she’s basically an all round cool person, and she’s been doing some cool things lately.

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art | lucid; psychosis

it’s about that time to get carried away again.

i thought about a lot of things when deciding to take these photos – i thought about the ankara fabric in my mother’s closet and the song jungle by jamie n commons x ambassadors; i thought about tony gum and her ever-afrocentric flair; i thought about baby doll simone battle (rest peacefully); i thought about grimes and rihanna’s mash up of go and pour it up, while dancing in my bedroom by myself – but in the end, i kept thinking about phfat and their song with jungfreud, lights out, hence the title, lucid | psychosis. (their soundcloud)

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art | from where i stand: maboneng photo diary

as the official first week of my holiday draws to a close and my older sister is about to return to cape town, a last-ditch effort to enjoy johannesburg was made by the three of us which resulted in a beautiful morning at the his people rosebank church, followed by a wonderful afternoon in the maboneng precinct in town. similar to the braamfontein/neighbourgoods vibe, maboneng is filled with food, drinks, fashion, but in particular, art. there are galleries upon galleries filled with trippy and beautiful exhibitions and people proclaiming “these hipsters…” with less venom than draco malfoy spat ‘mudblood’, but only just. it’s days like this that make me wish i could art, but since i can’t, i just want to enjoy it and be absorbed by it. my sisters and i took turns being typical hipster/tourists posing with graffiti and street art, only on the premise that no one actually knows us so their judgement is meaningless (or so we [or i] told ourselves). lime cordial beverages and passion fruit slushies, chicken curries, falafels and burgers – the smell of crepes and ethiopian coffee and the subtle clicks of cameras, today was a day to revel in johannesburg and the culture it provides; to feel like a cool kid and rebel against the system by walking (douchebaggily) in the road. God-willing if i go to cape town next year, i know that it may seem better than this, but it can never feel the same as this.

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read | tips for when you’re feeling creatively stifled…

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as someone who wishes to be able to call themselves a writer, i am often plagued with writer’s block. there is a story within me, sure, and it’s waiting to burst forth… and maybe that is the issue in itself. it’s waiting… and waiting… and waiting… and waiting. therefore i have to wait… and wait… and wait… and wait. i often tell people that my book/novel is a book/novel that i just am not ready to write, so i’ll just wait until i have more life experience, or until my vocabulary is more eloquent and mellifluous and my grammar is without fault, or until i go to university, when i’ll have time to write and take a class in writing – yeah, that’s it! i have to take a class in writing. but all of these are just excuses, and thinly veiled ones at that.

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