Curated micro-festival Littlegig is taking its creative ethos to a remote Lamu archipelago off Kenya’s East African coast.

Founded in 2013 by Georgia Black, the festival has taken place in both Cape Town’s Franschhoek and Kenya, taking artistry to intimate and remote settings where guests can fully immerse themselves in the carefully curated experience.

Sixty lucky guests will experience the convergence of some of Africa’s best creative talents such as literature and activism persona Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), visual activist and celebrated photographer Zanele Muholi (South Africa), and star filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu (Kenya). Music headliner is Grammy-nominated Valerie June (USA), hailed by the New York Times as one of America’s “most intriguing, fully formed new talents.” 

“Our mission is for Littlegig Lamu to create a diverse temporary community on this tiny East African archipelago,” says festival founder Georgia Black. “We want to amplify the global influence of Africa’s creative economy. And we want to experience the ancient and bohemian setting that is Lamu, with people who share our absolute wonder that such a place exists in our lifetime.”

Spanning over three days, the programme offers talks, art installations, live music and film screenings set up across a variety of exciting locations such as heritage forts, beaches, gardens and villas. 

The three-day event itinerary is as follows:

DAY 1:

MANGROVE SWIM CLUB (DAILY): Swimming in the mangroves at morning high tide, trailed by a beautifully restored taxi boat is one of Lamu life’s greatest privileges.

SHELA ART BY FOOT: A programme of performances, talks, shows and installations at some of Shela’s famed villas and spaces. Opening address by headliner Tsitsi Dangarembga. Art talk by headliner Zanele Muholi. African music video talk by Blinky Bill.

ALL HAIL PEPONI: Lunch at the legendary Peponi Hotel, whose menu, masterminded by Chef Ray Cournede is one of the best in East Africa.

MANDA VOYAGE & FLOATING BAR UNPLUGGED Dhow Sunset sail with musicians and Chef’s Table Beach BBQ. An Unplugged show at the Floating Bar with a performance by music headliner Valerie June. 

DAY 2:

OLD TOWN ANCIENT WISDOM: A walking route through Lamu Old Town with good coffee and a performance by Njoki Karu. A visit to one of Lamu Old Town’s most beautiful villas Kinooni House, with a talk and presentation by legendary Dutch trend forecaster Li Edelkoort who will be launching her book ‘Proud South’ to Africa at the event. Introduction by Brian Afande of Nairobi XR (extended reality) agency BlackRhino whose mission is to design, democratize and deploy XR technologies in Africa.

PALM GARDEN THEATRE & FILM FESTIVAL: A 30-minute solo theatre comedy by actor, writer and director Mugambi Nthiga. Followed by a celebration of important moments in East African cinema told by some of its makers, including headliner Wanuri Kahiu and producer Lucinda Engelhardt. 

DAY 3:

FARAWAY KIZINGO: 20-minutes by speedboat is the other-worldly, beautifully detailed 

Kizingo Eco Lodge. Performances and jam sessions by Valerie June, Fadhilee and friends, and heavenly swimming.

BANANA HOUSE BANQUET: Swahili feast at Banana House, Lamu’s lush and low-key hotel hangout for artists and seekers. With music performance by Lisa Oduor-Noah. 

MARARAHA DUNE PARTY: Closing party, open to the public, at a music venue in the dunes, Mararaha Village. Including the launch of Blinky Bill’s new album, which he will perform live, and a DJ set by Nairobi’s DJ IV. 

There will only be 60 guests, who have either been invited to buy tickets or have successfully applied. Applications can be made here. 

Cost includes the full programme, with food, drinks and boat transport where applicable. Cost excludes flights and accommodation. 

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In a boost to Constitution Hill’s status as a showcase of South African positivity and creativity, a new music recording studio, Flame Studios, has officially opened its doors on the site.

Constitution Hill is home to South Africa’s Constitutional Court, as well as the Flame of Democracy, which burns permanently on the site to remind all its visitors of the democratic ideals of our society. And now, it’s also the home of the Creative Uprising – a movement that will see the heritage site become a symbol of talent development through various venues and programmes.

The latest element in this nascent creative mix is the space pictured on these pages: Constitution Hill’s new recording studio, Flame Studios. Here, music meets South African design, architecture and art in an inspiring showcase of local excellence.

The vibrant and authentic South African aesthetic was designed and implemented by Tracy Lynch, creative director of the Nando’s design programme, and is a cool mix of original elements and pieces created by some of the country’s leading established and emerging designers. “Constitution Hill was a space that detained South African struggle heroes – but things have changed, and this project profoundly reflects the principle of change,” Tracy says. “My intention was to create a dynamic space that shares pieces by local designers. The collaborative approach means that South African design literally becomes part of the furniture. A celebration of remarkable contemporary design, the space embodies our belief in investing in the people of South Africa and showcasing their creativity to the world.”

Among the first artists to record at Flame Studios was MXO, who created his debut EP there in front of a media audience in late 2020. This followed his participation in the Nando’s Music Exchange in London last year, after he had impressed curators on Nando’s in-restaurant station, Heatwave Radio, during a countrywide talent search.

Lance McCormack, music manager at Flame Studios, says that the aim of the venture is to amplify the voices of South Africa’s next generation of musicians, artists and storytellers. “We hope that Flame Studios will encourage more visitors to this inspiring precinct, and mark a new era of atmosphere at Constitution Hill,” he adds.

In short, Flame Studios is a confidently executed step towards building a talent hub at one the country’s premier heritage sites that not only honours our past, but also fuels our future – an ideal that’s brilliantly reflected in this creative space

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Creative agency Snask has transformed an old caravan into a colourful music studio for Turning Tables, a non-profit organisation that builds creative spaces to encourage marginalised youth to express themselves through music and film.

Inspired by his time spent teaching refugee children in New York how to DJ, Danish DJ Martin Jakobsen founded Turning Tables in the hopes of creating a community of creative kids, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. From there, Anna Schori and Mark Ephraim joined the team, and they took the initiative across the globe.

Most recently, they spent a few years rebuilding a container into a music studio, but then found themselves in some unanticipated trouble when the container proved to be far too heavy and expensive to move around. They found that they wouldn’t be able to do the tour they had planned. Cue Sweden-based Snask’s rescuing rebuild.

With the help of Stellan Von Reybekiel, the Snask team tore out the inside of an old caravan, removing the mouldy bits to replace the wooden structure and fit an entirely new floor. Bland beige interiors were brought to playful life with pink faux-fur-clad walls, while the bright and bold paint job on the outside does exactly what it intended, turning heads and tables.

Love this epic rebuild? When Snask came to speak at Design Indaba in 2016, we chose a selection of some of favourite Snask projects, seen here. You can view more of Snask’s work at snask.com.

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William Kentridge has opened his largest-ever exhibition on African soil in 10 years, with two simultaneous shows in Cape Town.

Why Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawings to Work at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa surveys more than four decades of William Kentridge’s artistic production in drawing, stop-frame animation, video, prints, sculpture, tapestry and large-scale installation. At the same time, Why Should I Hesitate: Sculpture at the Norval Foundation Art Museum is an exhibition of previous three-dimensional works as well as new pieces created especially for the show. Ahead of the much-anticipated exhibition, VISI got the inside scoop from the Johannesburg artist.

Fill, Ring and &, 2019, bronze. Image courtesy of William Kentridge Studio.

“Why Should I Hesitate” is the prefix to both exhibitions. Tell us about this title.

It’s a conundrum. Why should I hesitate about giving it this title? And what are the reasons I should hesitate? I suppose it’s the fact that the title is a riddle without an answer that makes it interesting to me.

The line comes from a character in The Head & the Load, a theatrical production about Africa in the First World War that we made, who says, “Why should I hesitate? Why should I hesitate to go off to the war?”

A photo of dancer Dada Masilo in front of a Chinese map for Notes Towards a Model Opera, 2014 – 2015. Image courtesy of William Kentridge Studio.

For Why Should I Hesitate: Sculpture, what made you bring together this collection of pieces that were either previously used as props, or are images from your animations coming to life in 3D form?

This is the first exhibition I’ve done that focuses on sculptural and 3D work. There are a lot of kinetic sculptures that either move of their own volition or are ready to be moved by human operators. The sculptures range from ones you could hold like a paperweight to those expanded in scale so they take up good space in the huge areas at Norval Foundation.

There are other sculptures that exist only in your brain, in the form of stereoscopic light drawings, made with a torch in three-dimensional space but recorded as two flat images that you look at together in a stereoscope. They combine in your brain to give the illusion you’re seeing a three-dimensional solid object, like a sculpture made out of neon tubing.

Bicycle Wheel, 2017, steel, timber, brass, aluminium bicycle parts and other found objects. Image credit: Thys Dullart.

Will we see a lot of Soho Eckstein, the fictitious character who appears in a lot of your older work, as you show some of your historical pieces?

We’re showing all the Soho Eckstein films in the projection booths on the ground floor of the Zeitz MOCAA. The first one was made in 1989, and while the exhibition is on I will be working on completing the 11th in the series.

It looks at the Johannesburg Art Gallery as one locus of the film. Another area is the Zama Zamas, or artisanal miners, who are such a central part of the Johannesburg world and South African economic world – a world in which the informal sector has to subsidise the formal sector. I suspect it’s a premonition of what will be happening not just in South Africa but also in many other places, where the centralised, globalised economy looks after fewer people, and a greater percentage of people in the world have to work at the edges of the formal economy.

Music has been an integral part of your work. What can we expect in the new show?

There’s an electronic drum kit that plays itself, a choir inside sewing machines, and soundtracks to many different films.

But, particularly at Zeitz, in the grand atrium, there’s a new piece: four large megaphones with speakers inside. I’ve invited five South African musicians and composers to write and make music to be played through these megaphones. They range from piano, to vocal, to electric violin. The composers are Philip Miller, Waldo Alexander, Neo Muyanga, Kyle Shephard and Nhlanhla Mahlangu.

A couple of times a day the different pieces will be played, trying to find a breath in that very large space.

A drawing for The Head & the Load, a production that explored the role of African porters who served in – and in many cases died for – British, French and German forces during World War I. Image courtesy of William Kentridge Studio.

Why Should I Hesitate runs until March 2020.

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The 2019 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art has been awarded to Gabrielle Goliath, a South African artist who uses music and art to create social commentary on gender and sexual-based violence.

Born in Kimberly, Gabrielle moved to Johannesburg at age 11. A personal incident involving domestic violence became the catalyst for her commemorative style and social and political comments seen in her work.

“Art is important in that it gives us the means when language fails us, when conventional therapy fails us… Art gives us the means to work through these things in ways that allow for a different kind of encounter,” Gabrielle explains.

Her latest work to be exhibited around South Africa in 2019 navigates “the possibilities and ethical demands of performing and making ‘shareable’ traumatic recall of rape survivors in South Africa.”

This commissioned work will continue to explore Gabrielle’s research into music’s capacity to evoke memory and feeling.

For more information, visit goodman-gallery.com.

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Shop for vinyl record players and retro-inspired Bluetooth speakers to join the new-age old-school music revolution.

Record sales are booming. And while streaming may be convenient, some sounds are just meant to be heard on vinyl. On the other hand, with Spotify, Google Play Music and iTunes so readily available, having the best speakers is also important.

Here are 10 options to choose from.

1. Newport Bluetooth Speaker in Sonic Blue R2 799, Superbalist

2. Thorens TD-209 Turntable R18 690, Homemation

3. Pro-ject Debut Carbon Turntable R9 990, Takealot

4. Stanmore Bluetooth R4 799, Superbalist

5. Denon DJ VL12 Prime Turntable R13 790, Viva Afrika

6. Amazon Deco Bluetooth Speaker R650, Takealot

7. Thorens TD-206 Turntable R18 690, Homemation

8. Volkano Fabric Series Bluetooth Speaker R275, Takealot

9. Reloop RP-7000 MK2 Professional DJ Turntable R9 500, Tradelius

10. Harmony Bluetooth Speaker II R1 679, Superbalist

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Take your pick from this selection of 10 of the most stylish headphones available in SA. Full disclaimer: These headphones were picked purely based on their aesthetic attributes and have not been tested for quality of sound.

1. Urbanears Platoon Advance Bluetooth Headphones R899, Superbalist.com

2. Plantronics Backbeat Sense Wireless Bluetooth Headphones R3 883, Dion Wired

3. Beats Studio 3 Wireless Headphones R5 699, iStore

4. Skull Candy Grind W-Tap Tech Headphones R500, Incredible Connection

5. Polaroid Foldable Stereo Headphones With Inline Microphone R799, takealot.com

6. Volkano Phoenix Bluetooth Headphones R349.90, Sportsmans Warehouse

7. Tune Out Headphones R299.99, Typo

8. Skullcandy Uproar Wireless Headphones R899, Sportsmans Warehouse

9. B&O Beoplay H7 Headphones R6 499, Dion Wired

10. Marshall MID BT Headphones R2 499, Digicape

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The highly creative Littlegig festival is a mash-up of gourmet food and drink and a top-notch line-up of music, art, fashion, design and performances by some of the best in the industry.

Now in its third-year running, South Africa’s first all-inclusive 24-hour festival is back. Here are the ins and outs.

DARING DESIGN + AMAZING ART

At Littlegig, styling is taken seriously. So much so that all areas of the festival are designed under the creative direction of Bielle Bellingham, who is the former editor of Elle Decoration.

Design enthusiasts can look forward to architect and artist Sean and Justine Mahoney’s 6-metre metallic inflatable artwork for the island.

Up for a siesta like no other, or just looking to unwind? Try the Deep Sleep tent, in which you will lie suspended in a “cocoon” while listening to regenerative brainwave music. Talk about relaxation! There will be an installation by Rodan Kane Hart on the basketball court, too.

FINE FOOD + DELECTABLE DRINK

Gourmands would agree that this is possibly the best part of the festival: all food and drinks are included in ticket prices, except a select few premium alcohols and certain coffee brands. In terms of food, you can expect to tuck into the likes of mouth-watering wild mushroom kebabs, lamb riblets, Vietnamese crystal rolls and butter chicken – if you’re feeling spicy! These will be available from various food stations that can be found around the festival forest. Additional foodie experiences include a paired food and wine tasting (at an additional cost of R150) by six top local female chefs and winemakers including Ash Heeger x Nadia Newton Johnson and Vanie Padayachee x Jocelyn Wilson.

BANGING BEATS

Need to let your hair down? There will be six stellar music areas, featuring a diverse line-up of musicians and DJs. From The Forest Day Stage to The Night Stage starring live bands and electronic acts, you are sure to get your hips moving.

There will be a dancefloor at The Festival Fashion Concept Store where bubbles will be flowing. At the Island, DJs will be blasting tunes from various genres including funk, Latin, soul and sounds from the continent to cater to a wide range of tastes.

International acts include Stelth Ulvang. From local shores, you can expect performances by SAMA-award winning Black Motion and Johnny Cradle. 

PLEASURABLE PERFORMANCES

Apart from the music, this year’s line-up includes comedy, dance, performance and magic. The Night Stage will be opened by Dear Ribane, a sibling trio dubbed performance art pioneers. Guy Pratt, who is a comedian from London and Pink Floyd’s bassist, will have you in stitches.

The Littlegig 24-hour festival will take place between 17 – 18 February 2018 at Wiesenhof farm in Stellenbosch. Tickets are unfortunately sold out. Visit littlegig.co.za for more info.

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Superstar singer Kelis invited director Barbara Anastacio into her collectible-filled Los Angeles home, as part of a project run in conjunction with apartamento magazine.

Describing how, for her, “more is more”, she says, “I collect stuff from everywhere and it’s been, like, over years. My house is probably more reflective of who I am than anything else.”

Missed the sneak peek into musician Florence Welch’s London abode? Watch here.

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Piano.Push.Play is a collaborative initiative whereby pianos get distributed throughout the United States for people to play and enjoy.

Each piano is customised by a specific designer or artist, with its own unique theme inspired by music.

Designers include Ivan Salcido, Katy Towell Design, Maureen Long Design, Blaine Fontana, IDL Worldwide, Charlie White, Michael Erspamer, Chris Bigalke and Julia Skerry, Melody Owen, Amy Ruppel, Lucid Graphic Design, Julianna Bright, Doug Fir, Nemo Design, Alison Pond Design, Cassandra Frances Swan, Zach Yarrington, Big Giant, Susannah Kelly and ZGF.

The team works with neighbouring piano companies, letting “loose” pianos in good condition into the “wild” for people to play. Anyone who passes one of these interactive musical instruments gets the chance to show their talent or just have fun in the experience of making music.

The street pianos give families who may not be able to afford a piano, or have the space to home one, the opportunity to make music. The pianos are later donated to schools and community centres.

For more information about the initiative, visit pianopushplay.com.

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