NOT / Dear Ribane / JHB

While in Johannesburg for our NOT X CS exhibition at the MOAD. We took one Jenny's new custom made performance outfits and decided to photograph it on Manthe Ribane and her clan of siblings. We shot the images at place close to Manthe's hear called the Sparrow Village Orphanage in Roodepoort just outside the city. Manthe has been working to create awareness for this incredible NGO known for its dome shaped structures. 

CT 2015

NOT X CS: INTRODUCING FLOYD MANOTANA

Over the past couple of weeks leading up to the NOT X CS exhibition in New York cities Wallplay gallery Another Africa have been posting a story a week on the collaborators involved in the project. This week they have introduced well known Sowetan street wear design Floyd Manotana AKA Floyd Avenue, I have documented him many times before this as he is one of the founding members of The Smarteez collective. 

Below is exert from the Another Africa article: 

'  Behind the veneer of fashion, well the business of it, we sometimes see the creative impetus. After all in a world saturated by clothes, what makes a designer pick up their sketch book?

For many a creator, an anthropological introspection is part of their habit and routine, though they’d hardly refer to is as such. They are likely to describe it as observing or seeing; it could be a small gesture, or a certain attitude they’ll say. However big or small, these details that often go unnoticed, are the very things that become the inspiration to create. And so fashioning fashion sometimes becomes a catalyst for the making of a new rhythm and self-imagining. ' See more on Floyd at http://www.anotherafrica.net/design/fashion/floyd-avenue

CT 2014

NOT X CS: INTRODUCING VERNAC

Over the next month leading up to the NOTXCS collaboration exhibition at the Wallplay in New York City, Another Africa will be releasing a series of interviews with the different collaborators we worked with in South Africa on our project. 

The second collaboration is with Vernac bags who are designed by Dennis Chuene in Durbanville near Cape Town. 

Here is an exert from Anotherafrica.net who are media partner with the NOTXCHRISSAUNDERS exhibition:

'Coming of age is filled with periods of awkwardness, of playing with boundaries and self-expression.  Those attempts to discover how to align our clothes with our personalities, ideas and such.

I recall in high school a friend strutting about in slender very pointy black patent brogues. Those coveted Fluevogs were the precursor to the days when it was trendy to wear Dr. Martens. She happily stood out, whilst others snickered calling them elf shoes, and other choice unnameable descriptors. But Denise simply laughed and kept wearing her “soles for unique souls”.

Many a fashion designer finds inspiration in the Denise’s of this world, and the same can be said of Dennis Chuene. In his case the kids that helped form his early appreciation of fashion, were the eccentric musicians of his teens. Whilst musicians today still seem to have significant sway in South Africa, the designer finds his inspiration in the humble plastic traveling bag.'

To read more head to: http://www.anotherafrica.net/design/fashion/in-conversation-with-dennis-chuene-a-cape-town-based-fashion-designer 

CT 2014 #NOTXCS 

NOTXCS : Another Africa

 Image by Justin McGee

The first press release on Another Africa is out. Missla Libsekal breaks down our process into a well written insightful series of dialogue in the form of a interview. 

All of this is aiming towards the release of our exhibition in NYC next month at WallPlay.

‘NOT x Chris Saunders’ an experimental fashion and photography collaboration from New York to South Africa made possible by the Internet.

Armed with a bit of bandwidth and a few good keywords plugged into google’s image search, documentation of far flung happenings are only as far your finger tips. Add social media to the mix and you can track down near to anyone with an online presence. This hyper-connectivity is changing the prospects for creative collaboration.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.anotherafrica.net/design/fashion/in-conversation-with-jenny-lai-chris-saunders-on-digitally-enabled-cross-cultural-creative-collaborations

CT 2014