Breaking down the borders between
fashion and art, performance and reality, South African artist Athi Patra Ruga
is the coolest homegrown to make waves across the pond. In his own words, his
work ‘subverts the body in relation to structure, ideology and politics’,
making it an eccentric and eclectic nod to the motherland. Bursting at the
seams with ‘carnal sensuality’ and a borderline sadistic undertone of dark humor,
the phoneme’s videos, performances photos and costume art impose on it’s
audience a magical world ‘where cultural identity is no longer determined
by geographical origins, ancestry or biological disposition, but is
increasingly becoming a hybrid construct. A Utopian counter-proposal to the sad
dogma of the division between mind and body, sensuality and intelligence, pop
culture, craft and fine art, his works expresses the eroticism of knowledge and
reconciles the dream with experience.’
(In relation to the earlier Infecting The City post)
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