Category Archives: Illustration

Kampala Art Biennale 2014 | Call For Submissions

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Kampala Biennale

Kampala Art Biennale is a showcase of contemporary art from Africa with the aim to expose, educate and create debate about the value of art in our society. They are calling all artists working in Africa to apply to partake in the first Kampala Art Biennale. Applications are now open and you are requested to apply online through their website. Application is free of charge and deadline for entries is March 31st 2014.

Theme

The first Kampala Art Biennale 2014 is themed: Progressive Africa. The theme is derived from the current Pan African – and increasingly global discussion and discourse that Africa’s economic growth and development is booming and happening right now. Popular phrases heard are: “Africa Is The Future” and “Africa Rising”,

Today…you will come across divergent conversations between different kinds of people; African with African, African with European, Indian with American, all talking about the status of Africa in the global village. Some will say Europe and the rest of the world are moving to Africa for opportunities while others will say African economies are growing into Global markets. In these conversations there is talk about which strategies are the best to accelerate Africa’s progress towards fulfilling the millennium development goals (MDGS) such as curbing poverty, improving formal education…There is increased concern from the west about increased Chinese investment on the continent…All these vibrations suggest one thing; that something is happening on the African continent whether right now as it moves into the future.

The Kampala Art Biennale 2014 is part of this discussion and is calling on African painters, photographers, illustrators, cartoonists, writers and all 2D media artists to present their perception of the current status of Africa through visual art. The verdict will result in over 100 images pro or against the purported progress, with viewers and visitors joining in on the discussion with the help of the visual aids. They believe that this will result in the questioning of African political, social and economic practices.

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The End of eating Everything by Wangechi Mutu

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Capture3

Capture2

Animated video (color, sound)

8- minute loop,

edition of 6.

Courtesy of the artist. Commissioned by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University presents Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu’s first animated video, created in collaboration with recording artist Santigold and co-released by MOCAtv on YouTube.

The 8-minute video, The End of eating Everything,marks the journey of a flying, planet-like creature navigating a bleak skyscape. This “sick planet” creature is lost in a polluted atmosphere, without grounding or roots, led by hunger towards its own destruction. The animation’s audio, also created by Mutu, fuses industrial and organic sounds.

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Escape to New Lagos, 2081 A.D.

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Idumoto Market
A city so crowded that it is impossible for one to find himself without a mirror and some purposeful soul-searching. Like a modern day Atlantis, New Lagos became an oasis in a desert of global despondence. On top of the bomb-blast rubble, and in the wake of the political pariahs’ exile, its people dared to build something beautiful…and they dared to build it so high, the whole world would see it and stare.

New Makoko Village
Once, the fishermen of Makoko village would feed their families with what their hands were able to pull from the water at dawn. They built homes on top of the water; an African Venice created from sheer resolve and necessity. It was within one of these dark recesses that a tailor desperately hoping to keep his business open took in an unlikely apprentice. A young boy who would later become the man that they all whispered about.

Victoria Island
On the day of the Great Crude Explosion, the ground parted, erupting a rich blackness that crept over the landscape. Barefoot children whose parents hadn’t been able to afford shoes found themselves ankle deep in more wealth than any could have conceived. Far away, in foreign boardrooms, fattened oil executives whispered amongst themselves. This was a land of a hundred dialects, but there would be no Babel. The people spoke in one voice, and they spoke of freedom. New Lagos was born.

Ikoyi
Later, few remembered what his real name was; or what he actually looked like.  There are few accurate accounts of his sacrifice. However he came to his end, all readily conceded that it was his end that ushered Lagos, and ultimately Nigeria, to its new beginning.
When they spoke of hope, the future, or merely spoke of a child with too much ambition for his size, they would speak fondly of him: IkiréJones.

What a pleasure it was to find these incredible images on one of our favourite blogs AfroFuturist Affair.

Escape to New Lagos is a collaboration between Vigilism (Lekan Jeyifous, a Nigerian-born, Brooklyn-based architect, artist and designer) and menswear designer Wale Oyejide. This set of illustrated scenes are part of a fashion campaign for Oyejide’s Ikiré Jones Menswear line. Oyejide is also a musician and a lawyer by profession.
Jeyifous describes it as a ” perfect opportunity to further extend the boundaries of Architectural Representation and (his) interest in exploring new aesthetic vocabularies.”

Wale Oyejide wearing the Black Danté jacket by Ikiré Jones

Wale Oyejide wearing the Black Danté jacket by Ikiré Jones

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