Visual Notes

Wuthering rendition

I had the opportunity to see Wuthering Heights by the filmmaker Andrea Arnold. A radically beautiful interpretation of  the only novel Emily Brontë ever published.  In spite of the raw intensity of the novel and film, it was the cinematography of Arnold’s rendition which celebrated landscapes, turn of the seasons and rough batches of mother nature’s charm in each scene.

I have a weakness for great cinematography since their work is another way of telling a story by painting the canvas the director hands to them.  In the case of Wuthering Heights, I take my imaginary hat off for Robbie Ryan, he managed to make emotions synonymous with seasons, days, moments, weather types without losing the audience’s attention. I found a quote by Robbie Ryan which gives a little peak into his vision.

“We knew that if we could film over the turn of the seasons, it’d reap dividends. It started off bright green and by the end of the shoot, it was rusty brown.”- Robbie Ryan

By Amal , Posted in Visual Notes , Comments (0)

24/7 Urbanites, photography & the city

My friend Mahelia de Randamie reminded me of the power of sharing the process behind projects and experiences. I spend most of my time in my head. The other productive hours I work efficiently ;) .

Last month, I ‘curated’ a small exhibition on mobile phone photography and the City titled “24/7 Urbanites”. A dialogue between the city and everyone’s favorite mobile eyes. The city as the vibrant place which feeds artists across disciplines and times. While the phone has become a visual memory collector of our experiences, findings and eye for the mundane details.

Quite an experiment when the budgets are smaller than your pinky and ambitions larger than Notorious B.I.G. For the past few years I’ve been fascinated by the immense outpour of snapshots, moments and memories which were captured by complete strangers and friends, professionals and amateurs. And with the arrival of tools and digital accessories to alter reality, photography is becoming slowly the easiest accessible art form. Yet, debating photography and art is something art historians and scholars have done for decades. Perhaps, you can imagine what the discourse would be in regards to ‘Mobile Phone Photography’.

I rather not burn my fingers, so the exhibition dealt with questions such as ‘What happens when you bring the trained eyes of four photographers from different cities  to the world of Mobile Photography?’, ‘What do they envision?’ or ‘How would they document their city with the limitation of a mobile phone?’. Questions which lead to a beautiful array of images by photographers Winta Yohannes (Paris/Berlin), Robert Wunsch (Berlin), Shane Vincent (London) and Sarah de Burgh (New York, Paris). Each city’s bombastic or mundane details were molded by the eyes of the photographers.

I want to thank all the photographers for their participation and willingness to use their city as a visual canvas for this experiment.

Perhaps, it would be good to summarize with a Mark Twain quote: “You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus”. Since, this experiment required the photographers to re-imagine or re-discover their respective cities.

Shane Vincent

Winta Yohannes

 Sarah de Burgh

Robert Wunsch

By Amal , Posted in Global Visual Culture , Tagged , , , , , , Comments (0)

‘Ali’ (a Turkish delight)

Fashion is sometimes like a bird flying on the wings of current affairs, economy and culture clashes. Other times, it’s ruthlessly disguising the ugliness beneath the garments made of silk and dreams. Fashion and I, we meet on the road of vanity, when the eyes dissect beauty one can not afford :) .

Beauty and Fashion are inseparable twins. Beauty might be in the subjective eye of the beholder. Yet, in my book, context and fashion are best friends forever. After all, what’s a piece of clothing without a story?

In the story behind Reality Studio’s Autumn/Winter collection worlds collide, East meets West in Kreuzberg. A gentrified neighborhood which resembles Brooklyn’s energy and is also home to the largest Turkish migrant community outside of Turkey.

Reality Studio chose touchy themes such as ‘guest workers’, equality, integration, borders in context of Germany and its perception of the ‘other’. Themes which captivate news headlines and people across Europe. A momentum, in which power is shifting across the globe and the internet is redefining identity every day.

Political twist or not. The collection is quite endearing, since the pieces bring Turkish inspired patterns and power lady styles to the forefront of fashion.

For more Turkish delight see Reality Studio.

By Amal , Posted in Global Visual Culture , Tagged , , , , Comments (0)

An Ode to African Boss Ladies

I wrote this piece to celebrate African Boss Ladies in the music game for Africanhiphop.com. See for the original post here

Even though we celebrate women everyday and firmly believe that African women run most of the African economies (lets feed the world more stereotypes), I would like to use my first blog post since a decade to praise some grand African female artists. We’ve already promised you that we’ll play more femme fatale hip hop during our next Africanhiphop.com radio show, but perhaps today is a perfect excuse to kick off with some great music by African women.

YouTube Preview Image

Nneka – “The Uncomfortable Truth”(Nigeria)

Nneka, the musician, vocalist and Naija’s consciousness has been around for a while, but is finally breaking through the music industry’s iron walls. Currently in Lagos to keep the spirit of Occupy Nigeria alive, a movement which fights the crippling effects of corruption on the lives of millions of Nigerians. Her new album titled “Soul is Heavy” was released in the US this week and builds on her familiar mash-up of soulful Naija music.

YouTube Preview Image

Makongo vs. DJ Malvado – “Kisselenguenha” (Angola)

The Angolan Petty is one of the leading ladies of Kuduro and one of the main vocalists of the first Buraka Som Sistema E.P. ‘From Buraka to the World’. Unfortunately, I do not comprehend Portugese nor do I know why Petty left Buraka Som Sistema but Petty’s confident flow on “Yah” was and still is quite mesmerizing. With her current crew Makongo, she released in 2009 a video to the warrior-hype song “Kisselenguenha”. You might have to break a move to this club banger.

YouTube Preview Image

Godessa – “Mindz Ablaze” (South Africa)

One of my all time favorite hip hop trio is Godessa. Three South African mcs who brought us boom bap hip hop with a twist. The beat, rhymes and vibe on the hip hop classic “Mind Ablaze” beam like sunlight. For those of you who wonder what happened to Godessa, check this recap with Burni Aman, J4 and moi on the Africanhiphop.com radio show.

YouTube Preview Image

Dama Do Bling – “Moza Girl” (Mozambique)

Mozambique has a lively music scene. However, that’s a theme for another special. Lets rather focus on the Moza hip hop star who should be on your radar; miss Dama Do Bling. Since her successful second album “Chamadas Para A Bling”, her name has been spreading across the continent like a wildfire. She has the potential to reach a large crowd. Now, let’s hope that Diplo discovers her soon and brings hipster fame to the Moza music scene.

YouTube Preview Image

Keko – “How We Do It” (Uganda)

The side effects of being East African is that one always promotes their own artists. I’ll skip the horn for now, but since Uganda is on the lips of every cute digital activist, I’ll bring to you Keko with her Ugandan anthem “How We Do It”. Perhaps her accent might confuse the average hip hop fan, but I can guarantee you that they go hard on this song in the clubs of Kampala.

By Amal , Posted in Digital Maverick , Comments (0)

Bamako x Fashion

Very playful lookbook by the Italian brand Coast Weber Ahaus. The inspiration seems to be the vital and energetic Bamako (Mali) in the sixties and seventies which was beautifully captured by the iconic photographers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keita. 

By Amal , Posted in Africa+Media= priceless , Tagged , , , , Comments (0)

Sassy Wright

YouTube Preview Image

Each new year we kick off with beautiful resolutions and amazing ideas. I’ll spare you the jokes and cynicism. Since, it’s almost the end of January and this year I’m on that Beyonce smile.

Matter fact, I kicked off my day with a doses of Betty Wright, which almost felt like the sun was shining in Amsterdam. Betty Wright is a special lady. A grand vocalist, who’s twice my age, but could still wine faster to the ground than the average twenty-something girl. I always felt like Betty Wright was the ultimate artist and entrepreneur. Ahead of her time, since she remains one of the few black female musicians to have a gold record on her own vanity label. Aside of that, she’s definitely made of sassiness and wit and as much as I appreciate the new wave of electronic soul, third hand soul (post vintage) and lo-fi soul. I must underline that my legs move faster when the artist knows how to take music to new heights and Betty Wright flipped her own hit ‘Clean Up Woman’ and had me dancing at 9 in the morning.

By Amal , Posted in Visual Notes , Tagged , , , Comments (0)

Monday Blues:

(by Geoff J.Kim)

Googling, oogling and jumping from one photographer to article to blog is a major love of mine. A coach might classify it as ‘time wasting’, but part of my job in the real life is to explore, investigate and absorb (new) things. Sure, you can call me mademoiselle Sponge :) .

Gathering requires storing, which is why I’m semi-addicted to Pinterest, an online pinboard that helps me organize my chaos.

A few other gems on the digital planet:

> Kesselskramer redefines Yoga from a political stand (literally & figuratively).
> Starving artists becomes a bearded Baker, it’s truly the era of craftsmanship.
> Beauty by the Brazilian mixed-media illustrator Camila do Rosario

More to come as the week enfolds.

By Amal , Posted in Digital Maverick , Tagged , , , , Comments (0)

Last minute refugees

The Netherlands is currently abducted by a disgusting debate on the future of a teenager. Not a normal teenager, but an Angolan teenager who’s classified by law as an adult. In any other situation, life, or with any other ‘approved’ by the West passport, he would have celebrated his entrance to adulthood with his friends in his favorite pub in ‘backwards and serene’. Unfortunately he’s trapped in the body of an illegal Angolan who’s caught in the web of laws, lawyers, good causes, politicians and media. Apparently a decade in the Netherlands, assimilating to degree of inheriting a soft G (characteristic of Limburgers) and adopting the society as his own doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of Dutch politics. Or let me rephrase, it’s invisible to the programme of the Christian politicians and government. Yet, the question remains. Why is this teenager taken to the unfortunate ordeal of a decade in the Netherlands only to be sent back to a place unknown to him?

It’s disgusting, disappointing and depressing to realize that the media madness is merely about +/- 75 cases. Forget the families who are held in horrible prisons to be kicked out of the country, dismiss the children born in this country who are deported right now. In the past 10 years this country has joined Denmark in an anti-human-rights campaign, which has seen cases of people being deported to burning hells like Somalia or Iraq.

I tried to ignore the Dutch society’s fear for ‘asylum seekers’, foreigners, accidental or economical refugees and multiculturalism, because ‘fear makes the wolf bigger than he is’ and ignorance, which reigns supreme in this society- only cripples us. Yet, the harsh reality is if I wouldn’t have come in the era of ‘tolerant’ Holland. I would have been Mauro or another 7-year old waiting to be kicked out of the country into the lap of Al Shabaab :) . The harsh reality is not the only reason why I am compassionate towards his cause, I’m also angry about the inhumane politics which has been merely about re-election than the individual case of a teenager who needs to be embraced by society whom he embraced a decade ago.

C’est tout for now.

By Amal , Posted in Nomad critiques: , Comments (0)

The Curious Fate of Humankind

I’m a sucker for beautiful titles. Especially, titles which celebrate curiosity, an underrated journey which takes us beings on adventures to new and different things. Which is why the beautiful animation by Laura Sicouri caught my eye.

enjoy.

By Amal , Posted in Journey, Traveling & Cities , Comments (0)

The laws of gravity can be figured out much more easily with intuition than anything else. It’s a way of having experience without having to struggle through it.

 

months
and minutes
pass by
on bikes, trains
on foot
i wait
until a grey blanket provokes the silence surrounding my presence
I cant control myself. I walk through busy streets forming circles of desires around shoes I can’t afford.

Each year, I promise myself that I’ll write that excellent novel or jawbreaking speech, just to find myself in september half broken after another exhausting summer. The truth is, I love creating, but I heart writing. Writing and I have been highschool sweathearts that divorced in the second year of university. Only to long for each others presence and sinister laughter. Each time, I read another writer’s admirable comments on how talent is the engine for succes, I wonder if I’m either allergic to engines or my vegetarianism doesn’t generate enough fuel to feed me and success.

By Amal , Posted in Nomad critiques: , Comments (0)