“…The struggle of black people inevitably appear in an intensely cultural form because the social formation in which their distinct political traditions are now manifest has constructed the arena of politics on ground overshadowed by centuries of metropolitan capitalist development, thereby denying them recognition as legitimate politics. Blacks conduct a class struggle in and through race. The BC of race and class cannot be empirically separated, the class character of black struggles is not a result of the fact that blacks are predominantly proletarian, thought this is true…”- (Frank Talk Staff Writers in ‘Azania Salutes Tosh’ – circa 1981)
front cover:
Tosh by Steve Gordon
back cover:
Kippie by Basil Breakey
Simnikiwe Buhlungu
Simnikiwe Buhlungu is an artist from Johannesburg engaged in a research-based practice that involves film, sound, installations, and text. In brief, her works seem to ask important and long-overdue questions about the nature of knowledge production and dissemination, as well as the contexts and circumstances that surround these epistemological phenomena.
A way in which Buhlungu re-interprets the assimilation of knowledge is by exploring language and the relationships between messages – whether conveyed visually, linguistically, or sonically. She is more interested in posing questions than providing answers, which catalyses social discourse and participatory, co-curative knowledge-making.
Buhlungu has previously taken part in group shows at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2022); Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2021); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2020, 2021); Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2019); and the Bergen Assembly (2019). Her debut solo exhibition, dissonated underings [hic!], after-happenings and khuayarings (sithi “ahhhh!”), took place at the Kunsthalle Bern (2022).
