At a time when our cherished Mandela’s health is of concern, these words ring dear to heart and are just bring out the true spirit and passion that remind us of his love and sacrifice.

This animation created for ONE.org and the #agit8 projection on the South Bank ahead of G8, animated and directed by Dina Makanji of Sweet Crude in London. The piece was projected onto the tower of the TATE Modern for live performances.

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

― Nelson Mandela, 1964

Credits: 

Client: ONE
Production: FOUND
Project Director: Ben Collier Marsh
Directed: Dina Makanji
Animated: Dina Makanji

Actor: Chiwetel Egiofor

I have always looked at these images by Ruud Van Empel with a bit of confusion and fascination. I mean, are these paintings? photographs? paintings and photographs? It’s interesting to go back and forth! What they are though, are digital collages made up of many images in Empel’s archives. What I particularly like about the series is how the children’s dark skin contrasts so beautifully with the nature around them. The kids are so at home and comfortable in the wild. Peaceful does it!

Ruud van Empel creates striking large-format photomontages – collages of hundreds of photographs, combined to form one photorealistic image. The process takes many weeks and originates with a single idea. Van Empel first takes photographs of models and various settings, then merges them with images from a large database of pictures he has compiled over time, gradually developing a single image. The resulting picture is extremely high resolution, allowing him to obtain large-format prints of extraordinary quality and detail.

Another review of this work: Dutch artist Ruud van Empel talks about his art, including how to portray black children

Gerald Machona: People from Other Places - 2013 | HD projection | 15 minutes

The Beautyful Ones, title of a group show that took its roots in the 1968 newly post colonial novel The Beautiful Ones are not yet born written by Ghanean Ayi Kwei Armah, curated by South African Storm Janse van Rensburg and introduced at the gallery Nolan Judin in Berlin until July 6th. Artists part of the show are; Dineo Seshee Bopape, Kudzanai Chiurai, Georgina Gratrix, Andrew Gilbert, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Gerald Machona, Gerhard Marx, Meleko Mokgosi, Athi-Patra Ruga, all  working in relation with / coming from Southern Africa.

“The man watches the bus go all the way up the road and then turn and disappear around the town boundary curve. Behind it, the green paint was brightened with an inscription carefully lettered to form an oval shape: The Beautiful Ones are not yet born. In the center of the oval was a single flower, solitary, unexplainable and very beautiful.”

Ayi Kwei Armah, 1968

The various works part of the show including among others installations, photography, painting and film, are formed in an international context with a point of view on various subjects such as histories and the self, in which the artist doesn’t forgets the social and political situation of his homeland. The practice of the majority of the artists part of  The Beautyful Ones, acquaints antimony and tensions that are directly involved in the title.

The exhibition is not necessarily visually representative of Armah’s book, neither does the visitor needs knowledge about the content of his book to understand or access it. The Beautyful Ones is rather challenging the discussion going on about the concept of “Africanness” and presenting a view of African Identities that aren’t cramped and limited. The Beautyful Ones, offers an open-ended understanding as much is possible by borrowing Armah’s poetic title; the utopia of a younger generation for new realities. The Beautiful Ones is also longing for beauty, concept that inherently includes exclusion.

Dineo Seshee Bopape: Sketch of Landscape Painting           Kiluanji Kia Henda: Balance Chairs – 2013

Kudzanai Chiurai: State of the Nation – 2011 | Bronze

Gerhard Marx: Scion (Mother & Child) – 2013 | Bronze

Dineo Seshee Bopape: Sketch of Landscape Painting – 2013 | Mixed Media

 Andrew Gilbert: Exhibit 22a Ulundi Ethnographic Museum: The Death of Major General Andrew Gilbert, December 11, 1899, Battle of Magersfontein, South Africa -  2013 | Mixed materials

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NOLAN JUDIN

Potsdamer Strasse 83, 10785 Berlin

Opening hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11am -6 pm and by appointment

A Stray Bear Production in association with Jellyfish Pictures.
From the imagination of Factory Fifteen

Directed by Kibwe Tavares

Written by Jack Thorne
Produced by Ivana MacKinnon

Starring
Daniel Kaluuya
Malachi Kirby
and Louis Mahoney

Town VFX: Factory Fifteen
Fish VFX: Jellyfish Pictures

Executive Producers – Katherine Butler, Ollie Madden, Chris Collins, Phil Dobree, Eva Yates
Co-Producer Fiz Oliver
Line Producer – Sarah Jane Wheale
Editor – Adam Biskupski
Cinematographer – Chloe Thomson
Production Designer: Paul Nicholls and Jonathan Gales
Fish Concept Art – Warren Holder
Composer – Mark Sayfritz
Sound Design – Jens Petersen
Sound Recordist – Will Whale
Costume Designer– Celia Lusted
Casting Directors – Saheen Baig & Aisha Walters

His work is interrogative and intriguing, prospective, yet a tad vintage and draws inspiration from Diop’s international uplifting, as well as his african visual heritage
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“Through my photography I seek to document my own personal experience, to capture scenes and events as I see them and share with others the beauty and diversity of the experiences I have seen.”

John Hinde was a photographer that, even after his death, is well known for his postcards. He travelled the world and took beautiful shots of the lives of ordinary people, using the new technology (in those days) of color photography.

Here, John Hinde takes priceless snapshots of creative artisans in Nigeria. I absolutely love the way he shows these Nigerians hard at work developing their crafts, be it mat weaving, pottery, hair styling, leather works, or sculpture. I personnally love these images and can easily imagine these postcard sized photos in print on my walls.

An impression of a traditional healer also known as “Inyanga” in the Zulu language. Portrayed here sporting an elaborate hat made out of a morph of bone, other kinds of organic matter and bits of technological devices. These serve as representations of the strange and interesting relationship between African traditions and contemporary life in South Africa.

Legio Maria (Latin for ‘Legion of Mary’), is a series of photographs by Andre Epstein. This set of photographs portrays the followers of a Legio Maria church located in Kibera slum, Nairobi.

The Legio Maria church represents the continuation of a Luo community response to Christianity seen in its colonial form, and the control exercised by European missionaries on Christian communities in western Kenya. Legio Maria is a new religious movement and African independent church. The doctrine follows the central message of Christianity, and specifically in the central role of Mary as ‘queen’, ‘mother’ and the ‘mediatrix’. However, beliefs concerning the interaction between the world of the spirits and that of living human beings differs slightly from mainstream Catholic beliefs.

It was founded in the 196os by Simeo Ondeto (died 1992), a catechist (religious teacher), and Gaundencia Aoko. Both claimed to have undergone prophetic experiences that invested them with divine authority and directed them to reject traditional magic and divine healers. Excommunicated for this, Ondeto and Aoko formed a new all-African church that offered free healing by prayer and the exorcism of evil spirits. With the departure of Aoko the movement has declined in strength. However, it remains the largest African church to have emerged from a Roman Catholic background.

At the Legio Maria church in Kibera, Nairobi. Copyright 2012 © Andre Epstein
This notebook is full of revelations from God. he believeS they are in ancient greek, aramaic, and hebrew. one day, he told me, he will learn these languages so he can decipher the many notebooks he has filled with this writing. -Andre

Epstein is also involved in Binamu Wawili (Swahili for ‘Two Cousins’) which is a collaborative effort between himself and Alexander Nicholson. Follow them on Facebook.