cyprianrockwell
Nontsikelelo Veleko
Nontsikelelo Veleko
Vuyelwa, Bree Street, Newtown, from the series, Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (2003-2006)
Courtesy of the Artist and the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
In this series of observational and constructed portraits of other people’s tastes in dress and style, Veleko carefully rubs over the roles of beauty, fashion and space to knot together real, imagined and invented urban identities. Fashion is invoked not for the invisibility of the international labels inside, but rather as one of a number of strands that connect and weave together the transnational voices of urban identity. It is here, within the spatial contradictions of the city, that globality is overwriting modernity as the currency of contemporary identity. Veleko’s preference is for subjects whose clothing and style more often than not sets them apart for a derogatory comment rather than a chorus of praise. In building up this archive of fellow expressives, she photographs against the loneliness that comes from wanting and having styles that are off the centre of an aggregated modernity. – Rory Bester
Nontsikelelo Veleko
Nontsikelelo Veleko
Vuyelwa, Bree Street, Newtown, from the series, Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (2003-2006)
Courtesy of the Artist and the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
In this series of observational and constructed portraits of other people’s tastes in dress and style, Veleko carefully rubs over the roles of beauty, fashion and space to knot together real, imagined and invented urban identities. Fashion is invoked not for the invisibility of the international labels inside, but rather as one of a number of strands that connect and weave together the transnational voices of urban identity. It is here, within the spatial contradictions of the city, that globality is overwriting modernity as the currency of contemporary identity. Veleko’s preference is for subjects whose clothing and style more often than not sets them apart for a derogatory comment rather than a chorus of praise. In building up this archive of fellow expressives, she photographs against the loneliness that comes from wanting and having styles that are off the centre of an aggregated modernity. – Rory Bester