The Other Story with Juice, Klervie Mouho, Thabiso Phepeng, Patrick Planter “I imposed myself upon the world which was always rejecting me, challenging their attitude against the color of my skin, which they held up to my face as an exhibit of the stain against my person; I qualified the challenge with the submission that the quality of service I was performing for the State cannot continue to be ignored, that it more than adequately compensated for the ‘vices in my blood’... I argued the case that my worth cries out for recognition, even in place of acceptance, as it was said that Othello was respected and recognized but not accepted into Venetian society ... I wanted to run because there was no such thing as normal existence for the children of Ham.” – Bloke Modisane, Blame Me on History (1963) The exhibition The Other Story is inspired by the book Blame Me on History, written by a South African writer and intellectual, Bloke Modisane – it was banned in apartheid South Africa. The book captures the crux of the exhibition which explores the tangled narratives of the “Other”. Modisane’s voice remains relevant, as are his assumptions about the cleavages of race in today’s world. Modisane found his own oppression under apartheid mirrored in Othello who was characterized by Shakespeare as a Moor, a term used to describe people with dark skin color living in Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries. Shakespeare’s Othello is a tragedy that highlight the idea of “Otherness” and vulnerabilities of difference and how difference is constructed. There is an old African proverb about the importance of telling one’s story, “Until the story of the hunt is told by the lion the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” The exhibition is an attempt to let the artists tell their stories. Espousing pan–african perspective ‘The Other Story’ brings together four artists of African ancestry from Africa and its Afro–Diaspora – Klervie Huomo, Patrick Planter, Juice and Thabiso Phepeng. They are telling their stories and influences without being hindered that the art they produce does not look “African.” Africaness contains multitudes and need not be the defining characteristic of their art. They are just artists who do their work and see how cross–cultural aesthetic and cultural hybridity in their art practice relate to the history of art – and the broad range of influences that they draw from challenge traditional notions of Blackness and transnational histories. They all live and produce their work in Switzerland. Growing up globally engaged their work spans painting, sculpture, photography, performance and reflects on the vibrancy of Black vernacular cultures like film, music and literature. The group show put emphasis on stories told and untold as well as silences that make less visible narratives visible for viewers. It shines a light on lesser known stories of what it means to be “in–between”, and to be of multiple places at the same time. The work they produce captures their past and lived experiences by exploring place and belonging. The Other Story is organized around open dialogues and poetic connections that allow the artists to both control the content and processes of their artistic practices. Juice’s fecund creativity crosses boundaries – it occupies space between painting, sculpture, spoken word, music and performance nodding towards counter–cultural attitude. Juice is of Swiss–Togolese descent and his work deals with the contemporary representation of Black masculinity and the stereotypes created by media images relating to Black profiling. His sculptures symphonizes materials like wood, paint and text to explore a specific idea or concept. His faceless figures are characterized by a chaotic and gritty aesthetic and typography of distressed fonts rendered in ‘a loose free–hand’. Text a recurring motif in his ouvre delving into themes of urban street scenes that explore the encounter between a heady mix of “low–brow/hi–brow” literature of “ghetto expressionism.” His new body of work is entitled “Blaxploitation”,a name associated with 70’s grindhouse and hip movie genre. Of the text that adorn his work , he says, “I have always had affinity for Word...words present a way of making sense of what we see and hear. They fill in the gaps that escape our senses revealing fragmentary memories of my youth.” Patrick Planter’s photographs captures the kaleidoscope of the Jamaican society. His use of black and white photos strips away color affording the viewer to focus on the essence without distractions. Planter’ monochromatic images put emphasis on contrast and atmosphere. His keen eye and timing allow him to seize moments that convey compelling stories in their most powerful form. Through his documentary and portraiture photography he portrays individuals from different walks of life spanning farmers, fishermen, crumbling colonial architecture and the everyday life – providing a unique comprehensive visual narrative. His new body of work “Shade Series” is post­­­­–photography of digital image manipulation and technologies – with serene luminous/luminescence of yellows, blues, reds and greens. It is a laborious process of mistakes, discovery, recontextualization and refiguring of the photos. Planter’s prefers to work in black and white in order to focus on the interplay of light, shadow and texture. He captures the image in a prism that “investigates the significance of shade as a visual and metaphorical representation of what is unseen and yet present.” His camera reveals legacies that at times defy categorization and spatial boundaries, Starting with key moments that marked her childhood, Klervie Mouho is Zurich based Franco–Ivorian artist. Her father was a military figure during the civil turbulence in Ivory Coast. She and her siblings spent part of their childhood being spirited in and out of the country to France by their mother to escape the political upheavals that was tearing Ivory Coast apart. This had a profound impact on her practice as her work zooms onto these constantly shifting environments – that reflect on time, memory and overlaps between subject and object. Her subject matter borrows from her own family history and is the exploration of the personal and and Self. Klervie Mouho weaves strands of her trajectories together while paying tribute to the people that mattered most in her life, her extended family – whilst exploring notions of home and belonging. She grew up listening to family stories and her work takes its inspiration from photographs of her family album which she portrays on her work and the political instability she witnessed growing up which shaped her personal narrative. Her work which comprises oil stick on paper depicts faceless figures which she renders with “flatness” to create an illusion of space is “filled with emotions and vibrant colors.” Exploring the complexities involved in the passing down of memories; her practice recognizes the trauma of her country and the strength of its people. Thabiso Phepeng′s work pays homage to traditional motifs, whilst maintaining a strong and harmonious connections of contemporary contexts and diverse art histories. He assimilated his traditional art influence in a symbiosis of the historic and contemporaneity which gives his work complexity and depth. Being from South Africa, Phepeng′s non­­­­­­–figurative art blends Sotho and Ndebele geometric lines in an interplay between indigenous sensibilities that he sometimes subverts and the western influences which he samples. The mix of influences has refined a style reflected in his work through an intense focus on process as opposed to working towards a pre–planned result. Employing his signature meticulous line using Molotow Markers and vivid color palette, he merges the lines compositionally and metaphorically into one. The paintings have a sense of spontaneity and reflect the speed at which Phepeng works. He says about his choice of not using paint brushes. “I choose to work with Molotow Markers for pace and flow that they give for fast painting. Text: Andile Magengelele