Favourite photo of the moment

Favourite photo of the moment
Love this modern concept of the classic portrait

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Essay: Nontsikelelo Veleko 'Wonderland'

Nontsikelelo Veleko’s Wonderland Essay
By Nadia Arnold



Gone With...
FDB Fashion Studios Rockville, Soweto, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2008


Wafak’ingoma Phakathi
Kwam, Umdloti, KwaZulu Natal, 2007

Nontsikelelo Veleko was awarded the very prestigious 2008 Standard Bank Young Artist award for her Wonderland exhibition. She is the second photographer to win the award and her exhibition was displayed at the South African National Gallery. Wonderland is a photographic journey of the youth culture of South Africa. She portrays this culture by creating portraits of these people in their environment. She focuses on the fashion they experiment with and how they use art forms such as graffiti for expression. By demonstrating various labels she highlights how the culture is shaped by these products. She also uses herself, her identity and her success to understand herself and where she fits into this group.

Veleko was born in 1977 in Bodibe in the North West Province but grew up in Cape Town where she matriculated at the Luhlaza High School in Khaylitsha. Her father was a musician but her main artistic inspirations came from her art teacher Mr Ackerman and John Fleetwood at the Market Photo Workshop. She studied graphic design at Cape Technicon in 1995 and then photography from 1999-2004 at the Market Photo Workshop. (1. Anon, 2009) She came under the spotlight after being nominated for the MTN New Contemporaries Award in 2003 but it was at the 2006 New York exhibition of contemporary South African art ‘Judgements’ where she achieved international attention. She now lives and works in Johannesburg and the vibrant street fashion society is where her inspiration for her work comes from. (Murinik, T, 2007)

She uses fashion to highlight the issues of identity found in the vibrant youth of South Africa. She also questions the notion of beauty, by encapsulating her subjects and even herself, that have used fashion in way most people would think is too bright or just awkward. (Murinik, T, 2007) Her interest in fashion can be seen in Wonderland but also in other projects such as http://www.notblackenough.lol/ . In this project she used the clothes as tools to challenge identity based on aesthetics and historical background. In her project Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder she captures the edgy fashion of downtown Johannesburg and commented “I look at fashion and how it creates identity, because fashion plays with identity. It’s fun and it’s like play –my clothes aren’t me, I just have fun.” (Info Provided: Anon, 2009)

Identity is a common theme she uses to really question who these people are. With the influence of South Africa’s past it has created a way for the youth to break away and create a new form of identity. Now more than ever people are aware of their own identity or image. People’s identities are a vital part of who they are because it is a way for these people to be individuals in world of millions. Our identity and how we display this is done by fashion, how we dress is a way for people to express this individuality. At the same time that the fashion is an expression tool it can also be a way for people to judge you and place you into a certain box. Veleko portrays her subjects from the streets more as glamorous models but not so it can become a trend to follow but more to capture their individual uniqueness.





As seen in the above portraits the pose is very important Veleko has captured these people in way that represents something about themselves. The photograph of the lady is confident and strong. This image tells us that this is the type of women that knows she is sexy, because of the visible feminine top and pink bra. She has chosen to mix the sexy feminine elements, with tough male aspects, seen in her choice of shoes and baggy pants. The image has been taken in bright light with the streets in the background acting as her backdrop. The image of the man has a very different feel; Veleko has also captured a certain pose that is more relaxed. This man defiantly has a style of his own because he has deliberately matched his shoes to his jacket and his pants matches his top. With the choice of more softer light and shallow depth field there is more focus on the subject.

Veleko has used a playful selection of images in the Wonderland series, she incorporates portraits in environment, landscapes, she documents graffiti in surrounding areas and utilises self portraits to define her identity. Wonderland at first glance is a light playful place but by taking a deeper look into the images it is more than just a fun and amusing space. Wonderland is a representation of the identity of an important part of South African youth culture. This culture is vivacious and searches for a way to fit into the dynamics of the country.

She states 'In one of the (www.notblackenough.lolo) portraits... I look totally English: with this wig, standing in a pose looking high and mighty saying, "I am what I am. I'm all that you need". When people see that image, they don't think it's me. I notice this on a daily basis that people struggle to keep up with what I look like... I'm so much of a chameleon. So I'm ready to say, if people call me "coloured", or if people call me not black enough, I'm all this, I'm all that you need. This is Lolo.' (Murinik, T, 2007) Veleko describes herself as chameleon, illustrating that her identity is changing and evolving. She takes her personal problems with race, how people classify her and she tries to demonstrate that labels are not appropriate in the new South Africa. She is who she is and placing her in a category such as black or coloured is not the only thing that defines her.
After receiving comments like “you too thin for a black girl” and “you don’t walk like a black girl” from black people, she noticed that peoples’ judgements based purely on what you look like and not for whom you are. (1. Anon, 2009) These comments obviously inspired her to challenge these mindsets in her work. She incorporated critical comments into a piece for Wonderland, which she entitled ‘Self Portrait’. This was by far the best piece of the exhibition even though it is a more mixed media image the use of the graffiti styled text and drawings fits in with the concept of Wonderland. This is such a vital image because it displays her identity but the twist is that the identity has been determined by others. She has also used the use of race to refer to how South African’s past has programmed us to judge people depending on race.




Self-portrait,
Cape Town, Johannesburg, 2008

The choice of an incoherent layout where the images are all different sizes relates to Alice in Wonderland. Although there are no obvious references to rabbits, smoking caterpillars, mad haters or playing cards Veleko has chosen to transport the fictional characters of the story and create a contemporary twist on the popular tale. She has used the metaphor of a wonderland to transport her viewers into a world that is dynamic, colourful and has some mystery. (Bosman, N, 2009) She describes wonderland in this quote, “Wonderland is what you make it. It’s love, prejudice, tea, coffee; it’s anything. It’s a transitional state. It’s about young people en route – en route in life, into adulthood and in this country, which is itself en route.” (Bosman, N, 2009) She mixes the spaces of both public arenas to intimate settings by displaying anything from a private element of a bedroom to the public domain of the street. As Alice falls down the rabbit hole and finds a world of strange things, Veleko has found her very own Alice in Wonderland in and around every angle and bend of South Africa.
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After accepting the Standard bank award Veleko said, “This award means that someone in my own country has noticed and acknowledged my ideas that I would like to convey to the world about Africa and Africans. Therefore I am looking forward to collaborating with many Africans to tell our side of the story. I know that Wim Botha, Kathryn Smith and William Kentridge have won it in the past so it shows me that I am on the right path.” (Info Provided: Anon, 2009)

Her work can be compared to other artists such as Wim Botha and Pieter Hugo because both artists have focused on certain groups of South African Culture. Wim Botha has concentrated on the Afrikaans culture 'Commune: Onomatopoeia' where he uses his sculptures of furniture and the symbol of hyena to portray the culture. Whereas Pieter Hugo has captured the community of Messina in his work Messina /Musina, which documents the different people of this place. Veleko work is different to these artists and can be seen as something innovative and different. She has focused on a group of people that has not been captured before and is why they chose to honour with the Standard bank Young Artist award.

Veleko utilising fashion, graffiti and portraits in wonderland to describe an dynamic new youth culture. She is able to encapsulate this culture and demonstrate her role not just as a photographer but as a part of the collection. By using herself she is able to demonstrate issues of race, beauty and prejudice. She reveals how people can judge and place others into various categories all based on their outer exterior. She has used the story of Alice in Wonderland to create her own realm where she can escape to. Even though this world is a form of fantasy a place that Veleko has created the elements of reality such as the South African Apartheid past lurks in the very distance.



Bibliography

Information Provided:
Anon, 2009, ’Wonderland’ Standard bank young artist for visual art 2008: Nontsikelelo Veleko

Online Resources:
1. Anon , Nontsikelelo Veleko, Available Online: http://www.afronova.com/Nontsikelelo-Lolo-Veleko.html, last viewed: 12 July 2009

2. Anon, 2009, Standard Bank Young artist for Visual arts 2008, Available Online: http://www.standardbankgallery.co.za/youngartist/featured.asp Last cited: 26 July 2009

3. Bester, R, 2007, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Available Online: http://artsouthafrica.com/?article=379, last viewed 12 July 2009


4. Bosman, Natalie, 2009, South African ‘Wonderland’, Available Online: http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=98392,1,22, last viewed 26 July 2009

5. Chemhere, M, Nontsikelelo’s Fashion Photography, Available Online: http://zimbabwe.africancolours.net/content/10088, Last Viewed: 12 July 2009

6. Gxolo, N, 2008, Wonderland scrutinises street culcha, Available Online: http://cue.ru.ac.za/visual-arts/2008/wonderland-scrutinises-street-culcha.html, Last viewed 12 July 2009

7. Keylock, M, 2009, Wonderland, Available Online: http://www.theguide.co.za/arts_detail.php?artsid=4039, last viewed: 12 July 2009

8. Murinik, T, 2007, Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko, Available Online: http://www.artthrob.co.za/07feb/artbio.html, last viewed: 12 July 2009

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