RICHISBLACK&viceversa/RIBVV
provides a nostalgic mood in rich colour, solid backgrounds with tiny
detailed photographic motifs. which as a collective of prints might remind one of
the Bandana template/designs at a distance, because of their energetic and abstract nature,With pop cultural influence Thandazani
Nofingxana transforms personal experience along with those of others on the
subject of Insecurities and feelings into textile his print designs or at least as the starting point.
RIBVV is
an exploration of personal experience with regards to my dark skin, for quite
some time I have been insecure about my dark complexion, obviously being
pressured by societal perception on what beauty is and perfection is, which is usually not in the favor of the darker tones(we can have a history lesson on this one) . Pretty understandable neh? cool,see we live in a world where 'white' is glorified more than anything else in the world especially in the South Africa,well i am a South African i'll speak for South Africans,yeah sho.
shit wait, have you noticed how being black(no not just race but complection) is a thing now? No like seriously,people are actually starting to fuck with themselves now and that's awesome,look at how trendy having dreadlocks is at the moment.I just really hope it stays like this for the longest time hey,we need this kind of self discovery because this is us,sithi aba! people are starting to tell black stories,people are starting to embrace their cultures and everything they stand for,by people i mean people my age.
Anyway feel like i was caught in cultural dynamics here, one thing is appreciated over other and 2 years later its vice versa.Have you looked how for the longest of time being light skinned has been the ish and now how all of a sudden black is beautiful typa vibes(which has always been the case by the way). Its all a cultural thing but tough luck for the light skinned guy and the very dark skinned fellow,they will always be caught up in the conversation. Which i feel like shouldn't even exist because we are all Human,for now never mind the fact that we are all black/African.
So what I’m trying to say is my insecurity with my dark skin has been created by the community that I grew up in, there was a time (still happening) I would be confused with a Nigerian/Ghanaian and obviously there would jokes around that I’d be called iKwerekwere(which is perfectly fine,because me i i'm not xenophobic or anything) but the connotations that surround that are not of progress,we are in a world where you're forced to hate yourself because of preconceived ideas of what you are suppose to look like and if you don't look like that that you're an outlier,we might just call you names as well.
What I’m trying to say is, I kind of felt othered by my own people growing up simply because I have a darker complexion,mind you i'm not talking about white people here telling me i'm black,its the black community!!.Even though these were just jokes(i mean at 10 years you pretty much take things lightly) when people calling you these kind of names,even though it does some damage to your well being without you even realising that,next thing your are bleaching yourself and mind you by 20 you most probably see nothing wrong with wearing a lot of make to make you lighter because its been built in you since you were 10 years,that black is ugly.
An example this other girl told me her biggest insecurity are her butt and breast,mind you she has the finest butt every girl right now could ask for but she told me she feels like people do not necessarily they just like her butt and that's it and the fact that she's 'yellow bone'. She also had an an interesting point on how people would tell her she's pretty and sometimes overhear someone saying if maybe if she wasn't light skinned she would have been ugly. See? whats happening? people constantly trying to make you what they perceive as beauty and as she was talking i totally related to each and every thing she was saying and i was like connecting dots and made so much sense why she's insecure. Because,one day your are appreciated and the following day they don't like the same thing they told you yesterday you are fleeking about. Confusing.
shit wait, have you noticed how being black(no not just race but complection) is a thing now? No like seriously,people are actually starting to fuck with themselves now and that's awesome,look at how trendy having dreadlocks is at the moment.I just really hope it stays like this for the longest time hey,we need this kind of self discovery because this is us,sithi aba! people are starting to tell black stories,people are starting to embrace their cultures and everything they stand for,by people i mean people my age.
Anyway feel like i was caught in cultural dynamics here, one thing is appreciated over other and 2 years later its vice versa.Have you looked how for the longest of time being light skinned has been the ish and now how all of a sudden black is beautiful typa vibes(which has always been the case by the way). Its all a cultural thing but tough luck for the light skinned guy and the very dark skinned fellow,they will always be caught up in the conversation. Which i feel like shouldn't even exist because we are all Human,for now never mind the fact that we are all black/African.
So what I’m trying to say is my insecurity with my dark skin has been created by the community that I grew up in, there was a time (still happening) I would be confused with a Nigerian/Ghanaian and obviously there would jokes around that I’d be called iKwerekwere(which is perfectly fine,because me i i'm not xenophobic or anything) but the connotations that surround that are not of progress,we are in a world where you're forced to hate yourself because of preconceived ideas of what you are suppose to look like and if you don't look like that that you're an outlier,we might just call you names as well.
What I’m trying to say is, I kind of felt othered by my own people growing up simply because I have a darker complexion,mind you i'm not talking about white people here telling me i'm black,its the black community!!.Even though these were just jokes(i mean at 10 years you pretty much take things lightly) when people calling you these kind of names,even though it does some damage to your well being without you even realising that,next thing your are bleaching yourself and mind you by 20 you most probably see nothing wrong with wearing a lot of make to make you lighter because its been built in you since you were 10 years,that black is ugly.
An example this other girl told me her biggest insecurity are her butt and breast,mind you she has the finest butt every girl right now could ask for but she told me she feels like people do not necessarily they just like her butt and that's it and the fact that she's 'yellow bone'. She also had an an interesting point on how people would tell her she's pretty and sometimes overhear someone saying if maybe if she wasn't light skinned she would have been ugly. See? whats happening? people constantly trying to make you what they perceive as beauty and as she was talking i totally related to each and every thing she was saying and i was like connecting dots and made so much sense why she's insecure. Because,one day your are appreciated and the following day they don't like the same thing they told you yesterday you are fleeking about. Confusing.
Understanding
that not everyone is facing the same type of insecurities i was facing, I went around my
residence and also on social media and randomly asked people about their
insecurities, but I had to be open to them and tell them about mine first so
they could ease up a little bit and open up,insecurities are not easy things one would discuss with a stranger even though some people didn't mind telling me. People sent me photos,some i took with my digital camera and the process was interesting because i started to know people even much better,i'm still in touch with people that i met during the process,some of them being people around my res that i never talked to so it was quite a very edgy way of starting a friendship with those types,but everything went well and yeah.
All the tittles of these prints are in IsiXhosa which is my home language, chose to write in IsiXhosa because when said in IsiXhosa they contain a bit of a truthful wittiness into them regarding a particular insecurity, which is one the aspects I found interesting people being able to laugh at their own insecurity no matter how uncomfortable it is and I just generally love isiXhosa as a language. there's just a lot to decypher in a lot of simple phrases in IsiXhosa which is pretty dope.
The idea behind these textile prints design was to take these body parts people felt insecure about and create something beautiful of of them,when looking at a distance they would appear as flowers and when looking closely one will eventually see that they aren't flowers,its the very same reaction when your are insecure about something people who aren't close enough to you might probably not know about it but the ones that are/close to you know about insecurity.
Prints Are available for viewing on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/crucialcartel/
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| Ay ngomabele ngumqamelo |
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| Amagwinya |
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| Ay zozandla zinyawo |
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| bra tiger |
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| umnyamana |
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| mpumlwana |
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| amagwinya 2 |
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| Lunch Bar |
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| Unohili |
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| umkhaba |
SHOWCASING AT COLOURS OF YOU SOUTH AFRICA EXHIBITION
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Stick To
Yours Chap
