View Booklet – Jazzuary Art Exhibition `Considering Genius`

Introduction
Kaya FM presents the Jazzuary Masterclass
2016. Jazz is not just a musical choice. It is
a calling. From its African roots and African
American influences, it transcends music. It
becomes poetry. It becomes literature. With
every played note representing a thousand
words of angst and introspection, jazz becomes
a conscience.
The Jazzuary Masterclass showcases an indepth, holistic focus on Jazz. Music is just a
fraction of the content and Kaya FM will explore,
Jazz literature, poetry and film along with Jazz
inspired Fashion, Art, Style, Design, Food and
finally, local and international events. One of
the highlights is our Art Exhibition, Considering
Genius, curated by Boitumelo Tlhoaele, taking
place at the The Res Gallery, 140 Jan Smuts
Avenue, Rosebank from the 15th until the 28th
of January 2016. Kaya FM promises only the
best art through Jazz and great entertainment.
KAYA FM 95.9 reflects the lives of the
predominantly black, urban listener between
the ages of 25-49 living in Gauteng. Our
listener-ship is at 1.5 million per average
seven days. KAYA FM 95.9 is a rich mix of
music, news, sport and topic driven focus.
Visit www.kayafmco.za for more.
“The Masterclass is about
finding the connection and
beginning the Jazz conversation
between generations. Kaya FM
has also launched a digital
platform – www.Jazzuary.fm
showcasing the Masterclass
2016 – have a look and share
your views with us.”
Greg Maloka,
Managing Director of Kaya FM
Considering Genius
Curatorial Note
Considering Genius gives recognition to seven
South African jazz greats, namely; Dr Philip
Tabane, Hugh Masekela, Johnny Dyani, Letta
Mbulu, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Pat Matshikiza
and Winston Mankunku Ngozi – through the
artistic responses of six emerging contemporary
artists alongside an established one.
The seven chosen musicians are but a handful
in the canon of the jazz genre and are masters
of their craft whose work isn’t always lauded
or even known by the various publics despite
the multi-dimensionality and significance of
their work in the broader South African cultural
history. These are creative forces, whose sounds
have shaped, in many ways the current jazz
milieu and as such should be played more often,
studied and preserved.
Referencing American jazz critic and essayist
Stanley Crouch through his book Considering
Genius, the exhibition attempts to interrogate the
historical settings of the music, the musicality
of the compositions and the ever existing
connection between jazz and the visual arts.
Under the umbrella theme of the Jazzuary
Masterclass, the exhibition brings to light ideas
of ingenuity, creation, historical moments and
influences, heritage, public and personal
memories.
It uncovers the notions of genius; what does it
mean to be a genius and what burdens may or
may not come with this state of being?
Inspired by the current, exciting and robust South
African jazz scene, the exhibition also brings to
contact the relationships between the “old” and
“new”, young and old, the past and the future and
the re-imaginings and negotiations of these
seemingly disparate spaces.
Considering Genius invites the six artists, namely
Ayanda Mabulu, Bambo Sibiya, Layziehound Coka,
Malcolm Jiyane, Neo Matloga and Palesa Mopeli
to create works that interrogate the music
of the seven musicians. They are encouraged to
respond to, reflect upon and interpret their music
using their various forms of visual language.
Acclaimed photographer, Neo Ntsoma, makes
up the seventh artist who presents a body of
seven images, mainly taken at the Cape Town
International Jazz Festival. Her artworks add
more names to the list mentioned above as she
offers images of some of her outstanding work
she’s produced over the years. The exhibition
sees various media including painting, print,
and installation and a live performance, all
of which function in conversation with the
intricacies of jazz music as an art.
Edited by Boitumelo Tlhoaele
Ayanda Mabulu
Ayanda Mabulu was born in King William’s Town, in a township called Zwelitsha
in 1981. Mabulu is a self-taught artist, whose work focuses on the current
political climate that affects black people in the African continent and the
world at large.
His work seeks to look deeper at the world obsessed with race, power, and
violence, greed, political over indulgence, opulence and economic deprivation
of the marginalized. Mabulu’s work also addresses issues pertaining to the
black body as a turf of violence which come with racial, cultural appropriation,
slavery and narratives of apartheid.
Through the use of satirical imagery depicting
government leaders, masters and mistresses
and defenceless victims, Mabulu tackles head
on issues of inequality and the depth of the
grotesque history of apartheid and slavery.
Inspired by music, predominantly the hip hop
culture, its politics and jazz music, he draws
inspiration from musicians like Johnny Dyani
and Winston Mankunku Ngozi. He uses this
music to navigate through his practice and
invites this music to bring to the fore, struggles
of the black community and the black body.
Mabulu uses mixed media, paint, magazine
cut-outs and even text to demonstrate the
displacement, distorted and the de-humanized
black figure.
Mabulu tackles head
on issues of inequality
and the depth of the
grotesque history of
apartheid and slavery.
Some of Mabulu’s solo exhibitions have taken place in South Africa as well as
in China namely the Art-hotel Gallery (2014), the Chenshia Museum and State
of Blackness in Commune1 Gallery (2014) and ‘Un-mute my tongue’ at the
WorldArt Gallery in Cape Town.
Bambo Sibiya
Bambo Sibiya completed a design certificate at Benoni Technical College in 2005. He received
his art training at the Artist Proof Studio, (APS) where he attended his printmaking classes.
His serious attitude, maturity and sense of self,
positioned him as a candidate for support by Clive H.
Viveiros, an executive director and founder of Pinpoint
One Human Resources and a long-time partner of APS
which has supported several other artists over the years.
As a student he was encouraged to develop his
personal content through cultural and art-historical
research as well as by participating in social advocacy
programmes. Sibiya found himself drawn to the social
realists and became interested in artists Hogarth’s
Social Allegories, Goya’s Disasters of War as well as
Diane Victor’s Disasters of Peace.
Sibiya’s work has
received recognition
from several local
art competitions.
His subsequent themes, based loosely on the experience of his mother, led to a very accomplished
series concerning single mothers as heads of their households. Bambo was in a household
headed by women when his father left the family. He lived with a culture of alcoholism and
grew up amidst the disintegration of his own family structure as well as that of his community.
He is the winner of the (2013) Gerard Sekoto Award of the Absa L’Atelier Awards. Others
include being a finalist in the Thami Mnyele Award, the Ekurhuleni Art Award and a
recipient of the (2012) Arts and Culture Trust awards for the most promising visual artist.
Follow Bambo @bambolwami.
Layziehound
Mpumelelo “Layziehound” Coka was born on November 18, 1982 at Bilanyoni,
situated in Northern KwaZulu Natal. Coka matriculated at Sinethemba Agricultural
and Technical Boys School.
In 2001, he moved to Gauteng and started his higher learning at Pretoria
Technikon in 2003. He initially registered for engineering but later dropped out
in order to pursue his passion for the arts. In 2005, he attended the Artist
Proof Studio (APS) where he learned his print-making skills. He now works
as a full time artist.
His process of creation is borne from an attraction
to these messages, which he translates into a visual
product. The metaphoric symbols and imagery used
in his work are subtly provocative yet assertive in their
approach to the punch lines in each particular piece,
which include the use of sweeping lines, boxed text
and a microphone – his signature icon- which serves
as a representation of society’s internal dialogue.
He intends for his work to connect people with their
feelings, as an advisor or teacher or a visual conjurer
would do, in order to elevate minds to transcendent
levels of reasoning. The experience of his artwork
is not simply visual but allows for the movement of
philosophical contemplation as the viewer is exposed to
thoughts that are unique in their commonness.
Coka’s work takes a
critical view of social
patterns and illnesses,
political and cultural
issues with expressions
made in hip hop lyrical
content and poetry.
Malcom Xorile Jiyane
Malcolm Xorile Jiyane is both a painter and a multi-instrumentalist jazz artist.
He started his music career at the age of 15 at the Music Academy of Gauteng
in Daveyton, under the leadership of Dr Johnny Mekoa. His first instruments
were the drums and then he fell in love with the trombone and the piano. He
obtained his grade 8 theory of music and grade 8 practical for trombone in 2007.
Jiyane has travelled and performed worldwide to
countries such as Germany, France, New York,
Sweden, Russia, Amsterdam and Holland. He has
worked with other jazz greats such as Jonas Gwangwa,
Hugh Masekela, Andile Yenana, Abdullah Ibrahim,
Julian Josef, Yusef Latif, and Kevin Mahogany amongst
many others.
Jiyane’s artworks hang around the world; some being
owned by artists, Pat Metheny, Branford Marsalis,
Winton Marsalis and Christian McBride. He’s had three
solo exhibitions; I paint what I like (2015), (2013) and
(2008).
Malcolm Xorile
Jiyane is both
a painter and a
multi-instrumental
jazz artist.
Malcolm Jiyane, Umlingoma#6, 2015. Digital Print on canvas.
Neo Ntsoma
Neo Ntsoma established herself as a talented photojournalist since she began
in 1998. Practicing in a field that has been male dominated; Ntsoma was the
first female recipient of the CNN African Journalist Award for photography and
the National Geographic All Roads Photography Award in 2004 and 2005
respectively. Her thought-provoking photographs which are concerned with
socio-political issues; portraiture, music and popular culture have appeared
in major publications around the world.
With the understanding of the importance of mentorship,
she lectures within and outside of South Africa regularly.
She has been a guest at the New York International
Centre for Photography (ICP), Stanford University in San
Francisco, as well as Pathshala, the South Asian Institute
of Photography in Bangladesh, where she taught for a year.
Her other accolades include serving as a judge on
numerous photographic competitions such as the Fuji Film
Press Awards and the National Arts Festival Journalism
Awards. She is also a member of the National Adjudicating
Committee for the SADC Media Awards, as well as The
Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards.
Ntsoma is also
recognized as one
of the leaders for
the new breed
of photographers
in South Africa.
Furthermore, Ntsoma co-edited the book, Women by Women, which is a
celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March. Ntsoma
studied at the Tshwane University of Technology where she graduated
in (1995) and the Cape University of Technology (1992-1993).
Follow Neo @NeoNtsoma or www.neontsomaproductions.com
Abigail Kubeka at the Caesars Palace, Sepia Tone digital photograph on archival paper, 59,4cm x 84.1cm
Neo Matloga
Neo Image Matloga, born in Mamaila, a small village
in Limpopo in 1993 – a year before the dawn of the
South African democracy, is a representative of South
Africa’s young generation of post 1994 artists.
Matloga’s work starts
critical conversations
on issues such as
masculinity and
identity.
Matloga attended and completed his matric at
Sandringham High School, Johannesburg. It was
here, under the guidance of his art teacher Christian
Graser that his artistic talent was nurtured and
his passion for the subject grew which then led
him to pursue his studies in Visual Arts, at the
University of Johannesburg. Matloga graduated
in 2015 and he completed his residency at the
Bag Factory the same year. Influenced by one of his father’s understanding
of art quotes “art should heal psychologically” and the energy projected by
South African youth, Matloga rejects to limit himself to specific artistic media.
His paintings, drawings and collages explore trepidations faced by most of his
peers and associated stereotypes attached to cultural practices or beliefs. Matloga
has participated in various art competitions, exhibitions and fairs such as the SA
Taxi Art Award, the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, and South African Voices:
A New Generation of Printmakers in Washington DC, the Turbine Art Fair (2014)
and (2015), THAT ART FAIR (2015) as well as the FNB Joburg Art Fair (2015).
In 2014 he was the overall winner for NEWNOWNEXT, a competition
initiated by Port Elizabeth’s Galerié NOKO. Matloga’s work already lies in
the City of Ekurhuleni, the South African Embassy in Washington DC’s collection
as well as other private collections. He has recently participated at the Hamburg Art
Fair in Germany.
Palesa Mopeli
Palesa Mopeli was born in Qwa-Qwa
on February 15, 1991. She is currently
both a practicing artist as well
as a student at the University of the
Witwatersrand. Having been a part
of a number of exhibitions, hosted
by various galleries and museums
across South Africa, Mopeli continues
to work towards becoming a visible,
independent black female artist.
Mopeli continues
to work towards
becoming a visible,
independent black
female artist.
Her body of work includes spacespecific installations that interrogate
issues concerned with the body, using
the rubber material as a metaphorical substitute for the body, particularly
the female body. Furthermore, her studies have led to the engagement of
pressing issues of the broader landscape of the arts and culture sector such
as the need for sound implementation of cultural policy, management and
leadership in the arts which include matters related to funding and marketing.
Mopeli holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Visual and Performing Arts and
is working towards attaining her Masters in Arts in Culture and Heritage
Management at the University of the Witwatersrand.
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