ATHI SAYS:
I was born in a piss-city called East London,South Africa...no one knew how to deal with an obese black goth in the 90's. forced horse-back riding/shooting/cadet drills/rugby and all that mess...never picked a gun up again after hearing Tricky for the first time[1997]. Went to art school,found home and a voice.Made nice stuff there...made some friends for the first time,they couldn't ease my hate for that dorpie 'tho. Left for Johannesburg college,became a club kid,fashion stylist,artists assistant,conceptual designer,socio Realist,a band.
On his early work:
‘Above all I believe that the work developed out a need to illustrate arguments about the body in the context of the post-industrial (even post-urban). By utilising the medium of fashion I wanted to explore disembodiment with regards to the result of one not being aware of how things are made… in the form of craft work as it is process-based - this requires discipline - and the body plays a big part in realising this discipline… A form of disembodiment befalls one’s senses when they don’t pay attention to the process of things, how things are done. One eats sushi without the full grasp of the process (of preparing it), people rob people without knowledge of how things are acquired… I feel that making, and being conscious of making is a discipline.’
On the topics of costume and performance:
‘One has to be a mirage to tackle history and put it in another context to get to the point… The costume plays that role in performance.’
On the issue of contemporary ‘hyper-masculinity’:
‘The trick I play with the “act” is to cast attention to the idea of hyper-masculinity… The blue boy is an icon of the Rococo movement as it is layered with the irreverence, a frivolity that characterizes the aesthetics of hip-hop and the spirit of the Rococo movement. I “pimped it out” by performing the act, forcing the two together. The use of the phallus is in direct reference to the groping of the balls, the auto-exotic visions of the black phallus etc. The Lamborghini Gallardo is featured in Akon’s “Smack That” promo video. The lyrics play into the whole “body architecture” (concept) and the ownership of another individual as a “ride”’.
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