The philosophy of the interface is based on an intersection (we can also call this moment a ‘meeting’), or rather, a wide variety of intersections, which are in many cases freely chosen, and in many cases forced or predetermined by the apparatus and its system. The more advanced they are, the more they demand, and hence a paradox arises in relation to intuitive and invisible interface-es.

Emergence: Afri Viola (Video Performance) is a video that consists of 11 minutes of stop-motion animation, built and executed in Google Tilt-Brush. It is a room-scale 3D-painting virtual-reality application. This video merges the traditions and conceptual visual language of art and the innovative technology of virtual /augmented realities. In it we explore the intersection of performance art and its residues.

We feel this video work speaks to the notions of interfacing as a both being a place in which one can be both ‘here’ and ‘there’. We say this as in our replicating of stolen artefacts only visible in European museums, a hint to the fact that these animated objects aren’t really the original artefacts is made. In essence this speaks to the larger dilemma of stolen artefacts and the mineral resources of the African continent which were, and still are, pillaged and stolen in the name of ‘anthropological and cultural preservation’.  This enriches and benefit only the Western institutions (galleries, museums, and others) and affects socio-political and economical standing in the global system. The imprisonment of this bust, and many others like it, is still a contentious issue that exists currently. The West enforces its role as bastions of safekeeping over these stolen cultural objects, even though African countries seek to repatriate stolen artefacts back to their original locations within the continent, and as belonging to their cultural indigenous people. This resistance is a great failure of the West.

Where’s Andy (2019), and Ndize Ndize (2019), are a video diptych which speak to these issues and signify notions on the same basis. The performances aim to disrupt conventions of the white-cube, and play on. They work to over-turn ‘master narratives’ that are littered throughout art history, histories of the global south and broader global histories – through a literal ‘defacing’ of the white-cube. The ‘Black Body’ as a character aims to subvert what is expected of it within performance, where it is placed, and what it decides to defer from in regards to its positioning within art historical cannons.

This character strives to overturn what is expected of blackness within the framing of contemporary art. The motif of the ‘Black Body’ draws ideological segments from the aforementioned artists as it strives to centre itself within a body of work, performance or conversation on its own terms. The fact that this character is embodied by a performer in a black latex body suit – essentially rendered unidentifiable – compels the audience to view the performance as a metaphor comprised of something much larger.