African artists going digital

Aseries of talks, workshops, exhibitions and special events at Wits University and other venues in Joburg this past week titled the Fak’ugesi Festival took a look at where Africa stands in this era of fast-paced digitisation and technological breakthroughs. The Fak’ugesi Digital Africa Residency was set up in 2014 to support digital artists from the SADC region and beyond. This year’s residency focuses on the theme: “Own Your Force”.

According to Fak’ugesi director Dr Tegan Bristow, the theme questions “who owns our digital value chain and how do we protect our creative and cultural equity in the digital world?” The month-long residency concluded with an exhibition that ran until today at BKhz Gallery in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. The 2019 residents spoke about their individual practices, the residency and what makes this year’s exhibition unique.

NATALIE PANENG

Although Paneng, top, calls herself a digital artist, she also dabbles in set design, video creation and digital collage. Based in Johannesburg, she saw the Fak’ugesi residency as an opportunity to learn: “I wanted to learn different technical skills that link technology to tangible infrastructure,” she says.

Paneng focuses on themes like the internet, technology and algorithms. “I use my practice to comment on what’s happening with technology by discussing some of the challenges I face as a digital artist, like the difficulty of packaging digital art for platforms in an effective way. Most of my work is online, so there’s often an awkwardness associated with selling my work when it’s already accessible online.”

She says it’s important to her to focus on process and the “digitalness” of her work. She displayed her work in a booth with a computer shelf and a screen, viewed in the form of vaporwave aesthetics (a microgenre of electronic music and Internet memes incorporating early internet imagery, late 1990s web design, glitch art, animé, 3D-rendered objects, and cyberpunk tropes). “It’s sonic, visual and tangible,” she says.

Paneng was part of Design Indaba’s Class of 2019 and is showing at FNB Art Joburg next week in the BKhz gallery stable in what she considers to be one of the only exhibitions that really does push the idea of digital.

NHLAKANIPHO MASHININI

Mashini, left, is an architect, graphic designer and creative director who merges these fields to produce his art. He came in the top five in his class at the University of Johannesburg’s Graduate School of Technology and landed a place in an exhibition at David Krut Projects called Radical Heritage Baby! “I like to expand the boundaries of architecture to make them more artistic.” He says he’s an “artistic architect” who doesn’t follow the rules of architecture but transforms its rigidity into digital art.

VANESSA LORENZO

Lorenzo, left, is from Switzerland. “Digital art is a poetic way to talk about bodies in space and territories that are site-specific to Johannesburg,” she says. “I’m working with asteroids as praxis of territories and space mining.” Her project for the residency is an interactive sculpture created using DIY and local open-source technology. The installation, a sound sculpture in nature, allows people to interact with asteroids using virtual reality. “I wanted to convey the idea that rocks have memories and stories to tell,” she says.

WAMYA TEMBO

When Tembo, left, shot a music video earlier this year he decided to add visual production skills to his music production knowledge. “I’ve done a lot with sound, now I’m interested in exploring the visual side of production,” he says.

The Zambian artist has lived in Switzerland and his work has been shown at the Red Bull Studios in Cape Town but he says Johannesburg is the city in which he’s experienced the most artistic growth. “Things move faster in Joburg in the sense that people are more willing to put themselves out there. It’s made me a lot more open to collaboration.” Tembo’s Fak’ugesi piece is a musical score which he’s set to visuals.