Category: Artist

Macaque [(selfie)] Effect


The Macaque is the ‘other’, he cannot speak for himself he is spoken for. Worse thing, he might not even care. For all that we may take a light guess: he had fun and that was that. He has moved on. On the other hand the equipment belonged to David Slater without whose equipment the jolly loving Crested Black Macaque Monkey would not have been captured. Fairness has it that credit must be given where it is due – Macaque or Slater? My verdict: I think both made the image possible. … Read More Macaque [(selfie)] Effect

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong/Intraparadox

Connect Disconnect


In this short article I will limit myself to the viewing of four installations included in the exhibition as I feel that they specifically demonstrate Ingrid Bolton’s competent manipulation of copper as an artistic medium and they also represent the continuity of the artist’s artistic approach in her art making which I hazard to call the ‘concretization of scientific themes within the visual art domain’.… Read More Connect Disconnect

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong/Intraparadox

Poorvi Bana’s search for Serenity


Viewing this art exhibition with the awareness of the artist’s earlier work the viewer will realise a remarkable move towards suspended installation. Punctuating this recent development is the fact that the five works comprising this exhibition are traditionally viewed on pedestals with a top down view. Whereas the ‘108’ installation is at eye level.… Read More Poorvi Bana’s search for Serenity

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong/Intraparadox

Neo Resistance Art and its Fallacy (final edit!)


Now as I jot this article that artwork has evolved from being an aggravating work praised as brave and avant-garde to a vandalized artwork following two men who entered the gallery, apparently total strangers to each other, and took turns defacing the painting. While the white man crossed both the face and the genitalia with red paint the black man smeared black paint both on the face, part of the right side of the figure and the genitalia area. While the black man who vandalized the artwork after the white man was the first to be arrested the white man almost fled the gallery uncaught if it weren’t for the press that pointed out he should be also be arrested. I shall stop here with this description of the work and the incident surrounding its defacing lest I lose sight of what I am concerned with here. But I wish to venture that the artwork now has attained a state of a performance piece with the added actions of the two men. Though defaced, it has not lost its gravity as offensive and vulgar. It has now being relegated to a pseudo avant-garde by bourgeois standards but far from kitsch considering its genesis and the new meaning it is pregnant with.… Read More Neo Resistance Art and its Fallacy (final edit!)

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong/Intraparadox

Within the Class Coach, interview with Michael Selekane


‘Most of my work address personal narratives, including my mom, most of my pieces, have female figures. I talk about the importance of women and their contributions to our lives. You know no matter how bad it can become our mothers are always there for us. In some of my work I deal with my experiences. Also with the children, child abuse, it is always happening and we ignore it. I also deal with social exclusion, like what Africans are doing now to Africans – Afrophobia. You see an African calling another African a foreigner despite the fact that they are both black, however if it was a different colour they seldom are this critical. I also deal with political issues.’ Michael Selekane, 2011.… Read More Within the Class Coach, interview with Michael Selekane

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong/Intraparadox

Down The Rabbit Hole…


Pule Diphare’s film, Sister In Wonderland is a harsh exposition of a world our society is familiar with, yet through social conditioning steeped in moral values, this is a world that is easily shrugged away at and pretentiously ignored as if it does not exist. Yet this world is out there. The world of the pleasure girls, the world of prostitution. The world that will endure many moons to come because there remains a demand for its services despite our so called evolved culture…
The making of Sister I Wonderland precedes the legalization of the pleasure girls’ services in South Africa2, and in actuality it does not campaign for the legalization whatsoever of the trade (this will be revealed in the questions and answers section of the present jotting). Sister in Wonderland is an artwork that beckons the viewer to take that journey into the dark recesses of our social psych. It is also an artwork that expects nothing in return except that you’ll be left with its messages etched into you mind. Suddenly you will walk around in the twilight of any given night of any city or drive around in the comfort of your car in any city and when you see the ‘pleasure girls’ at the street corners, their world, the world you shun, will affirm itself on you. You will be humbled by the knowledge of what they have to bare every evening or day when they conduct their trade to our society.… Read More Down The Rabbit Hole…

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong/Intraparadox

5 Minutes with an Artist: Tshepo Mosopa


Tshepo Mosopa is a contemporary artist based in Tshwane-Pretoria whose work has been shown in exhibitions such as The New Signatures Art Competition 2007, The Rehearsal Exhibition 2008 and For Sale Project Exhibition 2008. He is currently part of the final selection exhibition for the ABSA L’Atelier Art Award 2009. Mosopa is a member of the Creative Industries Consortium Tshwane and at the time of writing he is attending training in printmaking at the Artists Proof Studio in Newtown Johannesburg.… Read More 5 Minutes with an Artist: Tshepo Mosopa

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong/Intraparadox