Self-fulfilment is the primary reason I do the work. That is why I insert and immerse myself in the work. Even when I am doing painting or textile work, I find a way of portraying self in the work. Raising awareness of issues is the reason I do live art. I like it because the impact is direct and immediate. I almost force my audience to react instantly.
Africanah.org at 5: We celebrate the 5th anniversary of this magazine with the re-publication of a number of remarkable essays. This one is on Kerry James Marshall. In 2013 he said in an interview with Rob Perrée: “We could not refer to our role in art history, because we did not play a role in that history.” (https://africanah.org/kerry-james-marshall-i-call-attention-absence-black-presence/). Now you can say that Marshall has a place in the Western canon of art. The exhibition ‘Mastry’ made that very clear. Julia Geerlings wrote this article on that show. In December 2016.
A typical example of contemporary censorship under democracy was enacted by South African curators, students and art-world activists in Cape Town, featuring the burning of around 75 paintings, including ”Hovering Dog” by South African poet, visual artist and veteran anti-Apartheid dissident Breyten Breytenbach on the Cape Town University Campus in February 2016.
On July 9, editor Rob Perrée and I decided to take a trip together, separately. Rob was home in Amsterdam; I was in Paris. It occurred to us that we might not be in the same city during the summer, so we decided to rectify that by buying train tickets to meet in Brussels — a city geographically in the middle, and one rich in things to see for those of us interested in African art. Moving between cities and countries in pursuit of cultural knowledge, Rob and I chose to participate in the “Afropolitan Age”, a concept central to the two major exhibitions on view in Belgium that inspired us to go on the road in the first place.
For me performing is an extension of my art production, I get to channel suppressed traits like confidence, I get to speak and heal from issues that bother me, but most importantly physically engaging the space takes the work to another dimension. So it makes sense to physically connect with the audience because the issues I engage aren’t translated into an art object since I am mostly interested in invoking emotion. So what better way to be present and illustrate, my journey of learning which has been an uphill experience, than to use my body, voice, and presence?