Artist Spotlight: Andiswa Mkosi & Ndebele Superhero
There’s much to learn from photographs, particularly candid portraits. Where Andiswa Mkosi’s series, MID GROOVE is concerned, “there is a lot that happens on and off the dance floor.” It is in theses spaces that she fixed her lens on moments in her scene to produce poignant portraits, some posed others candid, that tell the story of what takes place when South African groovers (partygoers) come together.
Andiswa Mkosi is a multi-disciplined creative artist from Cape Town. As a black queer woman from an economically disadvantaged community (a South African township), her view of the world and the spaces she occupies are notably different to the gaze of that often informs South African urban creative scenes.
Another side to portrait photography is the beauty of any given message delivered by way of visual elements. In Zana Masombuka, aka Ndebele Superhero, the Friends of King Zimela is a visual commentary on the necessity to balance between men and women. Using elements of her Ndebele culture, Zana literally creates a balance of masculine and feminine objects in her culture to produce a series of portraits, but more so than this she exemplifies the beauty that can exist in the presence of cohesion and balance between the two genders.
As a creative director, Zana Masombuka draws on her upbringing and the cultural knowledge from her years living in Siyabuswa, KwaNdebele. During her years at Stellenbosch University, Zana honed her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations to better create informed and contextualized art. As a creative director, her art is based on collaboration with artists of other disciplines in order to bring a concept to life. Through this, she’s been able to take her work from Stellenbosch, to the rest of the world.
Images by Christine Meintjes & Noncedo Charmaine