• Q: Your work interprets the complexities of South African society through the lens of popular culture. I also read that...
    Q: Your work interprets the complexities of South African society through the lens of popular culture. I also read that your use of popular culture is to comment on its profound influence on personal identity and new ideologies. Can you please elaborate on this?
     
    A: What I try to do is accommodate everyone. I use images from the past and then put them in a way that both old and new generations can relate to. Today popular culture runs the media and it is easy to use it as a way of communicating to the masses about social ills. Growing up in the township, we were lucky to be introduced to new channels on television and today a lot of people can relate to the world through popular culture, the internet and social media.
     
    Q:  Your work probes the relationship between mass media and township life, particularly how this relation impacts societal norms in township localities. Can you please elaborate on this?
     
    A: Lately the mass media has been impacting everyone, because it has made the world so small - people believe that they can relate to international celebrities. Even if you consider the music and lifestyles of people in the township, popular culture is the norm. 
     
  • Q:   Other influences on your work are subcultures, one particularly being hip-hop.  Why are subcultures of particular interest to your artistic practice?
     
    A: Growing up, when we were introduced to hip-hop, we thought that we were all rappers. So hip-hop was a genre I could relate to personally. I even used to have a hip hop group, but like graffiti, it was just something we did as kids. That is why there is a lot of graffiti in my work. My background in graphic design also has a significant influence on my work. 
     
    Q: Some of your work includes painted portraits of leading Black icons in art, poetry, music, and politics (such as Angela Davis, Max Roach, Sade Adu, Salome Bey). What do these figures represent for you?
     
    A: These figures represent Black struggle. Growing up and reading about them has had an impact on my life, because they played a significant role in the art and music industries and they influenced my involvement in the art industry. I would like to say that I don’t have a plan to make my work political, it just happens. I would say that it is subconscious. 

     

    Q: Some of your work references the erosion of African culture and traditions by Western trends and increasing globalisation and modernity. Keeping in mind the cultural hegemony of the West, do you think that there can be a co-existence between African and Western values?
     
    A: I think there is already a co-existence. I believe that Africa and the West are the same to an extent. There are also many African countries that look to the West in terms of rebuilding their societies along democratic beliefs. 

     

     Q: Would you say that your work fits into the art movements of Pop Art or Abstract Expressionism or an entirely different art movement emerging within the context of African art? 
     
    A: I think my art is a mixture of Pop Art and Abstract Expression which is a movement in itself emerging within the context of African art. The graffiti is not very realistic because I try to mimic the graffiti on street walls which often overlap, in a process called graffiti tagging. 
  • You use graffiti significantly in your works. I have two questions in relation to this. Q: How important is contemporary...
    You use graffiti significantly in your works. I have two questions in relation to this.
     

    •  Q: How important is contemporary street art, such as graffiti, as a form of artistic expression for marginalised communities?

     
    A: Graffiti has always been perceived as this rebellious movement but if you look around, graffiti has become popular. When graffiti emerged, it was to send messages to the elite, and to send messages about the struggle. I use graffiti to send subconscious and subliminal messages in my art. It is a reminder to the audience to look, that the work is not just abstract.
     
    • Q:  Why do you think that graffiti is increasingly being used in response to urbanisation and urban culture on the African continent? 
     
    A: I guess now people are gaining access to the materials of graffiti, such as spray cans, so they can now send their messages more easily about urban culture and city values because cities are degenerating and people want their cities back.