Author: Mmutle Arthur Kgokong/mmutleak

All is not permanent…

[As] this year neared its end and people started to shrug off the lethargy that hovered above this year, the sayings; it has been a difficult year, what a strange year it was, became somewhat expected tags to our conversations. I am sure you have encountered many phrases that truly clarifies what this year has been about closest to these phrases.

For some of us the memory of March to August 2020 will remain blank professionally. A shock resulting from an interrupted routine.  Even though the isolation period gave us time with family, honestly it was a forced situation. Suddenly all the issues we have been avoiding as far as family matters are concerned had to be faced head on. Indeed life would never be the same again.  

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Limbo

/an uncertain period of waiting/

Like the rest of everybody these days, I am uncertain when I think about the future. Though, at the start of this difficult moment found myself trying to convince those around me that these dark days will pass. In hindsight I was actually talking to myself when I said that our world was being cast anew. These days, I often lose track of time and live for the moment. Sometimes I have to stop and think what day it is and what I did yesterday. It has been a bit easier over the years though, that is under normal circumstances. The days of the week flowed naturally. With their own rhythm. Even one of the most hated days of all, Monday flew with its charm.

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Translucency

[D]ear reader ever since 21 days lockdown announcement I have been extra conscious of my feeble existence. Don’t get me wrong I know that it’s a fact that there will be a full moon one day without me in this world to expecienc it [you are more than welcome to rewrite that sentence in a manner appropriate to your current state of mind].

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Grip

noun/
The act or instance of grasping and holding firmly.

 

[T]here is a paucity that grips the world in a dazed haze today. It’s like going through an experience you are not equipped to tackle with no choice but to do whatever it takes to go through the experience. It’s a buzz around in circles, but you have to cross the bridge even though you are not sure whether you will make it to the other side or not. But if you do make it to the other side is there anything there?

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Grandmother Hearth

i looked at her face

And i was confronted by engraved tributaries

Spidying in trickles trinkets in a thousand cracks impressions

 

Hair bleached

By the wink and dosing suns

That peer, skip and dunked away during her lifetime

Silvered not by artificial means, nay-nay

But a grey of knowledge

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COACO: Morena David Mthubu Koloane

At certain points in our life we meet people who influences how we see things. At the very best such moments are not really prolonged. It could be a conversation lasting for a few minutes or under fortunate circumstances it can turn out to be a philosophical exchange that lasts for years. However such finer moments in our lives are not really marked by their prolongations. They are marked by the exchange itself. They are marked by what one take away from them. From there on wards it really doesn’t matter how often one can be exposed to the one who have insight into things that we wrestle with. They have cleared the cobwebs. We return to them to iron whatever creases that may remain. This might be an extended privilege on our part because we already know what needs to be done.»»

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COACO: Perhaps to the river we will arrive

» Sometime in 2005 the exhibition Take Me To The River (TMTTR) took place at the Pretoria Art Museum¹. That exhibition featured a group of international artists amongst them South African artists, Nicholas Hlobo, Sharlene Khan and Churchill Madikida (now Songezile Madikida). At that time the Genesis II exhibition was at its infancy. I recall how at the opening of that exhibition on the evening of Wednesday 25 May Together with some of the Education Assistants (Museum Volunteers) of that time, Thami Msimango, Nthabiseng Rachel Montshiwa and Mxolisi Xaba, we looked at what the TMTTR as a project had achieved; which was the group exhibition as well as the incorporation of art made by learners from Gatang Secondary School. This left us with a satisfied feeling that the learners eventually when they arrived that evening to for the opening would see where art can take them and where it eventually belonged when an artists is established; when their work became heritage.

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EarVasion – SAKHILE MOLESHE: The Final Call

SAKHILE MOLESHE: The Final Call

Released: December 21, 2018

label: Imilozi Music

Number of tracks: 15

Length: 1:09:12

Here is an album that challenges monotonous conventions while proving that an album does not have to be one thing; it can be many things held together by artistic innovation and creativity.

sakhile moleshe screenshot_20190122

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Tekkies

  1. Introduction

In this essay my aim is to discuss the Biography of the Jack Purcell sneakers. It will emerge that there is no way that the story can be told without considering the space within which the shoe has been bought and the processes that leads to its acquisition.

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What do painters do all day?

»When I first received the invitation to this exhibition I thought I would perhaps see an array of paraphernalia of what amuses artists when they are at home chilled and not occupied with the uncertain nature of the visual art object. After all can one really work all day long without rest? As an artist, unless you are employed in a dimly lit sweatshop, there must be something else that occupies you during your art practice on any given day. I walked away from my viewing of the exhibition fortified in the idea that artists wrestle all day long with making art; even when they are suppose to be taking a breather«

IMG_20181220_144307.jpg

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