SLICE: Why art matters to me

by | Apr 22, 2024 | Opinion

Celebrating art can be about letting the art speak for itself, despite the artists internal doubts.

Wits Vuvuzela’s Ofentse Tladi doing what she loves most. Photo: Siyanda Mthethwa

As a writer, I consider what I do to be art, every sentence and turning over of a word a new brush stroke on the page in front of me.

In April 2013, I sat behind the my study desk and instead of scrambling through the never-ending Grade 5 maths homework, I wrote my very first story. It was not planned, the pen just kept going, writer’s block non-existent concept in my head at that point.

What stared back at me in that moment were pages and pages of what I now consider the worst thing to have ever been possibly written in human existence. A story about a girl trying to find herself amid her family’s chaos.

A story I’ve now learnt to partially like or at least, appreciate as a starting point. A story that now sits, cramped in the cupboard with many other pieces. Pieces that have probably long cried out to be heard but have been overshadowed by doubt, fear and many other endless reasons.

Doubt and fear – words that have somehow been ingrained in the minds of artists. Something is just never good enough, interesting enough, anything enough to be shared. It’s this constant battle between the artist and the art itself to be heard.

Your “April 2013” days have long passed now, and like the Grade 5 maths homework, you have to scramble through the very essence of what you do, the very essence of who you are.

To me, celebrating art is about learning to let your work speak for itself in its current state. To let readers, viewers and consumers delve deep in the imperfections of your creations and find beauty in that. It’s about building the trust you have in yourself as an artist and within the work you produce. It’s about attempting to revisit those “April 2013” days.

As a writer, when last did you sit and simply write a piece? When last have you blocked out the thousands of reasons your mind automates that make it ridiculously hard to simply just write? When last have you given your work a platform, a chance, a moment to simply just exist?

For art to be art, it must be born, with or without the doubt, the fear or the endless scrambling. It matters because it speaks. It is its own.

A Writer’s Agony – A poem

You made them,

Thought by thought,

Dream by dream,

Idea by Idea,

And, yet they still stand,

Waiting for a purpose.

You’ve drawn them from past experiences,

Sculptured them from the very people you know

And dug out of them emotions you fear to dig out of yourself.

They have become your escape,

Your new reality.

Sometimes you hate them,

Sometimes you love them

But most of all you live by them.

You write

And write

And write

Thoughts flow,

Ideas come to paper,

Your face beams

Until suddenly,

It’s all blank.

They come to you every now and then,

Nagging,

Begging,

Whispering their miserable lives on hold.

You made them,

Thought by thought,

Dream by dream,

Idea by idea

And yet through all of this

They still stand,

Waiting for a purpose.

With that being said, I want you to take a moment to breathe life into your art, to remember it has every reason to exist in this current moment.

FEATURED IMAGE: Ofentse Tladi, 2024 Wits Vuvuzela journalist. Photo: File/Leon Sadiki

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Cool Kid: Zekhu Kheswa

by | May 13, 2021 | Lifestyle

Different environments can affect how one understands and views the world. 

Zekhu Khwesa is a Bachelor of Music student at Wits University, a budding musician majoring in jazz vocals, and goes by the stage name “Lord Zekhu”. The Durban born musician said music has been a part of his liver ever since he can remember. “At the age of 11, I would practice at the staff kitchen at my school, that is when one of my teachers noticed me and gave me proper lessons,” he recalls.  

Zekhu creates alternative, Afro-Pop, Trap and RnB music. He manipulates and fuses sounds from different genres that articulate and present the audience with something unique to listen to. “Music needs to introduce different taste, this helps broaden and open the listener’s minds to new, informative and insightful things,” Kheswa said.  

The photograph that inspired Zekhu to write the JungleFever collection Photo: Sedibana Mpho

The love of music runs in the Kheswa family, Zekhu’s mother is an Opera singer and his uncle is a music conductor for orchestras, and lectures at UKZN. At the age of 10, Zekhu would go to UKZN to practice playing the piano. He tells Wits Vuvuzela that as a child he never realised that he was following his mother and uncle’s footsteps, but it is all making sense now.  

Zekhu released his first collection JungleFever on 3 May, 2021. The collection consists of 3 solo singles, the singer explained the work behind JungleFever was inspired by photography shot by his friend, Sedibana Mpho. “I mostly create my work from analysing and interpreting art,” he said.    

Zekhu initially pursued modelling when he first got to Braamfontein in 2014. But he said the experience came with a lot of stress and anxiety, and eventually lead to Zekhu slipping into depression, that’s when he decided to cut ties with the industry altogether. It was one of the biggest challenges Zekhu has faced, “I inspire myself by looking back at what I have done and look what I am going to do next,” he said.

Growing up in a musical family, Zekhu is inspired by greats such as Michael Jackson and Kanye West, who influenced his fashion and dance style.  “At 9 years old, I would pick outfits for my mother to wear when she would attend meetings at school,” he adds. 

Zekhu had also suffered from the impact that the covid-19 pandemic brought in people’s daily lives. He used to have paid gigs which became scarce, he said the lockdown period was tough, he saw it as an opportunity for learning and regrouping., “Time alone for an artist is the foundation of creativity,” Zekhu said.  

Zekhu is currently working on another project “Cozy Collection” which is also inspired by the photographs he has taken before. 

 

FEATURED IMAGE: Image of Zekhu Kheswa Photo: Alfonso Nqunjana

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