Queer South African Artists Telling a Story Through Color

South Africa and especially Johannesburg is known internationally for the amazing street art, style and genre-pushing artists. There is a move towards embracing color within style and daily life in the culture of Joburg’s queer scene. We at PatternNation met up with some of the city’s up-and-coming queer music and performance artists: Kieron Jina (AKA Afrohomo), Jesse Khoi (aka Khoiboi), and Thoba Ndlovu.

PatternNation is a creative platform and fashion house that celebrates color and pattern. It is ran by interracial couple Cydney Eva (Vancouver, Canada) and Costa Besta (Durban, South Africa) and is currently based in Cape Town, South Africa. We at PatternNation had the pleasure of collaborating with these dynamic and colorful artists while visiting Johannesburg in 2019. We partnered with artists and dancers Kieron Jina and Jesse Khoi to shoot in and around the amazing art installations at Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival 2019 at Constitution Hill. We styled PatternNation’s one-of-a-kind ungendered clothing into three different looks we explored, played with, and created together. The next day we met with musician Thoba Ndluvo in the trendy arts district of Maboneng to shoot them in Pattern Nation clothing in front of murals and art installations in the area. Between the two shoots we looked at how color is used in pop up installations at festivals and the more permanent public art around the city. We wanted to know more from these artists how they expressed themselves and how color shapes that expression so we asked them the questions bellow. 

How do you express yourself as an artist? 

Kieron: I work in the mediums of performance art, choreography, photography, and video art, to tell personal stories that are underpinned by activism, explore societal themes, and challenge stereotypes. 

Jesse: I’m a multidisciplinary creative working in various mediums, from visual art to performance. I view life as the ultimate masterpiece – one I’m forever working on until the final exhibit. 

Thoba: I am a soul vocalist. My Name is Thoba Ndlovu.

How do you use color within your creative expression?

Kieron: I work in a rather multi-layered way and color is an important way of how I imagine the world. My point of departure when making a new work is my immediate environment and the colors that layer it, which acts as a web to capture issues around culture, history, and identity.

Jesse: Color shares my story daily and never requires me to say a word.

Thoba: As a queer artist, the rainbow is a huge part of my culture as well as a symbol of activism that has led me to having the right to express myself freely. In that expression I pay homage to the work done by queer people before my time, through the colors of the rainbow. 

Kieron Jina

Do you have a power color and why?

Kieron: Yellow is a healing, energetic and royal color which always reminds me that radical self-care is the utmost importance.

Jesse: Red is my power color. I am all fire, all flames, all spark, all love, all passion and little bit of danger all the time. 

Thoba: I think I enjoy using multi colors as a form of reference to the pride flag.

All four of these amazing creatives are inspired by color and use it as a tool of self expression. Color tells stories, holds meaning and brings people together. They each embody the PatternNation essence of radical self expression through color and creativity. Color is a medium that so many people use to express their identity. Now more than ever people are standing up for their rights and freedoms to end inequality. 

Kieron Jina

Jesse Khoi (left) and Kieron Jina (right)

Jesse Khoi (left) and Kieron Jina (right)

Jesse Khoi (left) and Kieron Jina (right)

CREDITS
Photographers: Costa Besta (@costabesta) and Cydney Eva (@cydeva) 
Clothing: PatternNation (leggings model’s own)
Models: Kieron Jina (@afrohomo), Jesse khoi (@khoiboimagic), Thoba Ndlovu (@thobandlovumusic)