Body Mandala

Body Mandala

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This work was for a long time friend whom I experienced many happy moments with.

Our relationship has been kept strong through the years by the fact that we both like dancing and doing sports and be positive and active in life.

That’s the reason behind the choice of making a Mandala for him.

Mandalas are energetic centres, little universes and symbolic hubs of energy.

This is one of the first artworks that are going to populate his house and I thought giving him a positive whole circle of good energy was a good way to start his life in his new place.

Also our connection is based on our time spent by moving our bodies around in different situations so I felt that making a mandala with body parts was on point.

So thanks Gabriele Gaffuri for the support and the commissioned work.

MAMA

During italian summer Andrea Saderis, from Espresso Italia bar of Pinerolo, and I collaborated to a music performance of my South African friends Josh Roxton and Gershan Lombard aka Khoisanboy_man.

They were touring around Europe as a pilot project for MAMA Tour. MAMA is Modern African Music Awareness project that aims to create awareness on young african musicians and to break the stereotype of african music as just traditional music.

Andrea has been incredibly supportive and his work for the music industry and the young independent musicians from all over the world is amazing.

Then he commissioned me two artworks.

I use the nudity of my body as a natural instrument, engaging with the spaces through different positions that will evoke meanings in your mind.

"Unashamed" mixed media on canvas, Torre Pellice, 2018.

Rising and falling, mixed media on canvas, Torre Pellice, 2018.

AfrodITA Jewellery

AfrodITA Jewellery is a range of jewellery inspired by women naked bodies.

I was concentrating on these drawings of bodies made with very simple and bold lines. Exploring this style I noticed that the bodies would become a little less obvious and they would gain a sense of pride and ambiguity.

I was showing my room to my friend Josh Roxton who happens to be an amazing musician but also a very good jeweller. He sees the drawings, turns around and tells me we need to make a new jewellery brand. I was seeing just my drawings and I was looking for an inspiration to transform them into something and he just saw the product right trough.

Since then there has been loads of trial and fail and still now the exploration of materials and techniques is still on going.

I find interesting the outcome of this little objects. I use my body a lot for my art and for other people's art through nude modelling and Im very honest and proud of my body so for me to wear it on a necklace piece hasn't been such a big deal. Then I realised how actually controversial this pieces are. Some women would wear them in absolute tranquillity and others are scared or ashamed to wear a naked woman body because they feel afraid of what other people would think. Our naked bodies, female and male, images are too often commercialised, sexualised, used to gain attention on a certain something to sell. They are basically pulled away from their nature and used to dictate a way to look or to be.
I use nudity in my art to re-appropriate myself of the power of my natural body. Nakedness without the shame attached to it but taken for its natural existence. Or actually seeing sex also as natural and not this weird taboo we going back to in our society.

I found also an interesting process that happened since I started this jewellery production.
Since the beginning of 2018 when I started to work on AfrodITA I noticed more and more women projects growing, more attention on femininity (as care, vulnerability, earth power) from guys who challenge themselves in growing this part of themselves, more documentaries about caring loving and sharing.

Enjoy and thank you for your attention and support!

Many thanks to:

Josh Roxton, Eugene Van Der Merwe for the design work, Chloe Swingewood Roxton for computer work, Zayne Bartley for love and collaboration, girlfriends that are the witches in my heart that keep me going strong, all the people and friends that support my art. 

You are my blessing, I am yours.

Story: Sunday, going to church.

I wake up. I can feel that the mission I was suppose to complete it is not going to happen.
Also the guy, the one that I am suppose to meet to see a gardening project in Khayelitsha, sends me a voice message and invites me to bring beers. From the voice I assume he is still partying from the night before.
Not really...I do not feel like missioning by myself to Khayelitsha to meet a drunk guy. Not happening!
I message P: no answer.
I message D: no answer.
I message J: I am at Fat Cat Restaurant.
I message M: no answer.
I think ok, if J does not want to come here at my house then I can skate to Woodstock to Fat Cat and maybe score a movie on the couch later.
First: fix the longboard. Get the tool knife and untie the bolts that are keeping the tracks from moving sideways. Ok, now, I also wanna ride it to feel if it works better and that's one more reason to go out to meet J.
I put shorts on, hat, sun glasses, leather belt with phone and wallet, I go.
The neighbourhood is dead quite. The board is surfing the tar road soft as a snake.
On the bicycle lane the wind is pushing me straight. I push with my left foot down twice and I am there.

I go inside the restaurant, I look around, J is not there.
He must have gone home. His and M's house is uphill and now is very windy.
I turn around, I will just go back home, I decide.
I look right, the wind has picked up, it was nice coming down but now going back is scary.
I will walk for a bit and think about an alternative plan to get home.
I twist my head left, there is an old lady, coming towards me.
There is no one else on the road except the doorman of the restaurant.
I see her, she is calling me: " Lady, lady, sorry I need to go to Salt River?!"
" Are you walking alone?" I ask.
"Yes, I came down with the taxi in Woodstock but my church is in Salt River!".
I think I am not going to leave this woman walking alone, in Salt River, by herself on a Sunday afternoon.
" Salt River is down the road, let's walk together, I am going in the same direction!".
Here I am walking to the Salt River Train station with this lady, talking on the phone with her daughter.
I think.. I will go my way at some point. but then I couldn't imagine to leave that old grandma on the street by herself.
We stop before the station. Here is the church (actually the building looks like a mall but there is music and chanting coming from upstairs).
She tries to call her daughter again but she hasn't got any airtime.
I never have airtime. This morning... I do. It's actually the first thing I bought. I call the daughter, tell her the mother is safe at church.
1 or 2 hours later, she called me back on the phone to say Thank you on more time. She sent me an sms too.
I needed company and she was the perfect and magic encounter for a Sunday.

                         We are stronger then what we think

My story : "The weirdest night"

The movie, Trainspotting 2, brings back memories. The soundtrack keeps me excited and concentrated. I smoked already few joints and I'm at the 3rd beer.
I'm there with Nathan. He is not a close friend but I feel relaxed about having some new friendship time. 
The movie it's done and he leaves his motorbike on the side of the road, we go drink another beer at Bombay, I propose. Having random but intense conversations about work, time, life. He looks chilled but in my mind I kinda feel he is a bit of a weird ou.
He says he lives around the corner from there and we can go to his place to smoke again.
I find myself in the taxi going to.... fucking Camps Bay (Around the corner he said!!!").
Now I'm on the other side of the city, from where I live, drunk and stoned. Wtf Val, I think!
I still feel quite safe, but also with not really other choice then accepting his invite of sleeping there.
Now here we are in bed, I'm ready to sleep, I close my eyes. 
N: "Can I hug you?"
V:" Ok but we are not going to have sex, I'm not here for that!"
He starts touching, rubbing his sweaty hands on me. He let a sentence go after a while "yeah maybe I want to fuck". Straight after that he is so sorry and the touching slows down.
I am sleeping, I try al least, I can feel him next to me, he is going nuts. Moving, breathing, touching again.
I felt like I couldn't move, breath, talk. He is next to me and the whole night feels to me that he can't keep up with himself, with the urge of jumping on me.
Finally morning comes. The wind has been blowing hard and bad the whole night.
My phone is off, my alarm is not going to ring. His one is on and it finally rings at around 7.
It's morning, I go pee, I have been holding the whole night. I am awake, he is being awake, he calls the taxi, I am out.
The taxi driver is cool and makes me feel comfortable.
Just a great coffee and a cheesecake at my favourite bar in town. Checked the book store I wanted to see in a long time, bought a book. Hairdresser mission and walk home. The day is saved and home is a good place to be now.

I wrote this piece just after it all happened. As I got home I told my housemates but I felt that the episode was still too much inside my mind so I wrote it down.
I thought for long time that it was nothing. I thought it was me. I shouldn't have said yes to his proposal of going home. I should have gone home. I should have though about it, men wants to bring you to bed, it's always the case. I trusted him because he is a good friend of many good friends of mine. I though it's fine, he didn't really rape me. I should have done this and that.

Then the realisation:

I told some girl friends about the episode. One of them said something similar happened to her some time ago. Same pattern, the person is sleeping and the men starts to touch around.
I say the name, she says the name...boom...it's the same person. The same guy did the same thing to her. She thought the same as me...he is a friend of a lot of our friends so, it's not ok but what can we do. We write him a sms saying we don't want to hear anything from him but we know what he is doing.
Then time passes by and more and more girls told me the same story. More girls have been taken by surprise while they are sleeping and he comes and touches and tries in the most sneakiest way to have sex with them, while they are drunk and maybe not in their houses.
It was not just me, it was not by mistake, it was not because of alcohol or drugs, this person has definitely a problem.
Still I waited until today.
Yesterday when I saw all women sharing the msg 'me, too' on fb I though I wasn't doing enough. It is our responsibility to share our stories in order for them not to happen again.
We are stronger then what we think.

To Nathan:

You cannot think that's ok, you need to make a plan to change your behaviour.
You need to make the effort of understanding that your way of approaching girls and make them have sex with you is creepy and it is not ok. There is no excuse about being drunk and what not.

To his friends:

How is it possible you never saw? How is it possible you never noticed he has a weird behaviour with the opposite sex. Well if you never saw or realised now its the moment. Stay close to your friend and help him understand and grow out of this.

Amazing Modelling Times



pics: Jakub Fulda Fulin                 (https://www.facebook.com/fulinjakubphotography)
fashion stylist: Zaimba & Baldena (https://www.facebook.com/byaheda)

Pinty and Val utopian theatre is a project meant to show a couple in its beauty and contradictions.

Being a couple is a beautiful experience but also a difficult path that two people decide to take.
There are, as we all know, happy moments and difficult ones where we are challenged to understand the other person feelings and fears hoping that she/he can understand ours.
How many times we though about how the future could be together?
How many times we were right and other times stuff took an unexpected turn?

More pictures at http://bony-ska.blogspot.it/