From Tumi's 'In Defence of my Art' to illustrations by Albino Creations
MADEYOULOOK Re-Look the Banal
MADEYOULOOK is the moniker under which Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho create work together. Mokgotho is a creative researcher for Velocity Films and a freelance copyrighter, and Moiloa is national director of the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA). “Working day jobs affords us some creative freedom and relieves some of the pressures that can come with having to make art for a living. Because we are occupied (and paid) by our day jobs, we can make art because we really want to, because we are absorbed by certain ideas,” they say.
“It also means we have the luxury of making work that isn’t so sellable – ephemeral and temporary works for which the form is dictated by the idea. It’s also had some affect in the way with think, we have different perspectives, different approaches influenced by where we spend our days.”The works of MADEYOULOOK are, as the name suggests, tongue-in-cheek interventions that encourage a re-observation of and de-familiarisation of the ordinary.
The works engage daily urban routine, lived and practiced by people every day. In reworking and interrupting these, viewers and/or participants are made to re-look and question societal relations. In 2012 MADEYOULOOK was nominated for the MTN New Contemporaries competition. They currently have an exhibition, Corner Loving, on at GoetheonMain in Maboneng.
Tumi’s ‘In Defence of my Art’ Music Video
The lyrics are strong and so is the video for Tumi Molekane’s track In Defence of my Art, featuring Reason and Ziyon from Liquideep. In it, striking imagery in black and white carries symbolism and significance. Shaky shots blur to the beat while Molekane, positioned as chief on a throne of guns, defends his legacy. The second single from Molekane’s soon to be released album Return of the King, In Defence of my Art is about “defending your right to be who you are in the world”.
The edgy scenes in the music video were directed by Arcade Content’s Kyle Lewis (who recently won a SAMA for the Parlotones’ Sleepwalker, and directed the video for Toya Delazy’s bold song Forbidden Fruit). The flashing imagery is rich in meaning, from a mouthful of bullets to women on leashes – which Lewis says was “to highlight how women are being treated in hip hop in general, exploited like animals. I wanted it to shock and give the viewer a call to action to change how women are perceived. The whole concept is to stand up and defend yourself from being generalised, from prejudice and exploitation.”
Documentary: The Caretaker in a Cut-Throat Industry
To feed their love for storytelling and as a form of catharsis, Cape Town-based film production company, Shoestring Productions, often work on personal projects. “Sometimes it’s really important to do something with no commercial purpose, rather focusing on our internal working relationship and the process behind simply making something,” they say. Their latest such project is The Caretaker, a short documentary about a clothing factory in Observatory and the man who runs it, Boris.
Boris started off on the more glamorous design side of the clothing industry but soon realised that the competitive nature of the sector required specific attention on the production side. He now works on this lesser seen side of the business – the engine room. He’s created a structure where a dozen factories work seamlessly together, enabling them to compete in an international market.
But that’s only one side to him – the other is the real love of his life, his daughter Vida, and he’s ultimately responsible for her livelihood as well as for those of over 1000 people who work in his factories. Shoestring Productions saw this when they him him, and they made the documentary to “capture who Boris is, what he does, and why he’s a much needed Caretaker in a cut-throat industry.”
Beautifully Odd Illustration, Animation and Design by Albino Creations
With a vast combined creative skill set and a shared love for whiskey, bikes, sci-fi and making music, long-time friends Werner Burger and Louis Minnaar started Albino Creations. This animation, illustration and design studio specialises in 2D and 3D animation as well as print, static and interactive design and illustration and have created everything from a spaceship to a 3D billboard to labels for beer bottles.
“The power of collaboration became apparent to us over the last few years. We always wanted to work on something together as we share a similar approach to our work. After many ideas for self-initiated projects we decided to tie the creative knot and launch Albino,” they say of the studio’s origins. Albino Creations believe that with every brief lies a perfect solution that is striking and communicative. They are inspired by the odd beauty in the world – a flower growing in a slab of concrete, a deserted theme park in the dusk – and are wholeheartedly engaged in the pursuit of these rarities, like storm chasers hunting down perfection in the most unexpected places.