SUGARCANE

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #paulndema | Jane the Baptist #uganda • Working in Oil, Paul Ndema uses humour and irony to explore Christianity and the hypocrisy of its followers. The artist also emphasises the relationship between Ugandan law enforcers, in particular the Police, and the civilians holding protests on the streets.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #sotheathang | Devata #cambodia • The artist references classical statues of various deities, noting the way in which the relatively simple figures stand tall and affirmed in their inner strength and sense of peace. The angels of Devata command attention through simple beauty and inner grace.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #michaelsoi | Police Swoop #kenya • Informed by a strong tradition of cartoonists who works have satirised Kenyan society since independence, Michael Soi's concern is with clarity of form and legibility of message; in the process he has created his own universal pictorial language

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #olyakroytor | Situation No. 15 #russia • Kroytor breaks from traditional painting techniques, incorporating geometric abstraction, collage and comics, as well as three-dimensional objects, counter-reliefs that read almost hieroglyphically.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #palapothupitiye | An Atlas #srilanka • "In colonization, our traditional art was deemed by the conquerors as 'primitive' and 'savage' and they sought to 'civilise' us in European traditions of art," says Pala. "The feudalistic social concepts of labour developed from this attitude and it demeaned our 'original' art as 'skill of hand' and 'sub-standard'."

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #geraldmachona | Uri Astronaut #southafrica • Through his innovative use of decommissioned currency as a key material, Machona examines the impact and significance of historical migration on the African continent, linking the events of the past with contemporary issues of diasporic migration, xenophobic intolerance and violence in South Africa.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #shaoyinongmuchen | Assembly Hall #china • Large scale color photographs have attracted critical attention not only for their ability to evoke and examine the tension between the political past and the political present, but also for the subtle beauty of their images.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #danielboyd | Untitled #australia • Drawing upon media, including family photographs, archival documentation, scientific studies and touristic memorabilia, the paintings of the Aboriginal artist illuminate through a fragmented and dynamic composition of personal history and narrative.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #tarzanandarab | Autumn Clouds #palestine • Titles of all the posters in the duo's collection refer to Israeli military operations launched against Gaza. The posters promote "imaginary films" that were produced by an imaginary film company named "Gazawood", a pun on "Hollywood".

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #isaackariuki | Skype Fashion Week #kenya • The artist's interests lie in art made by people of color, for people of colour, but also on the nuances of masculinity and hyper-masculinity. Kariuki is the founder of Diaspora Drama, a zine dedicated to the children of immigrants who don't quite fit into the mold that Western society carves for them.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #tvsanthosh | Tracing an Ancient Error #india • T.V. Santhosh recreates the effect of a colour photographic negative by painting in lurid neon hues. The artist creates the sense of an impending doom by reinventing imagery from recent news events.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #valentinaliernur | aaah....ah... #argentina • Made from samples of denim originally constructed for jeans and shirts, the title stems from an 80's commercial in which a sexual dream is acted, by tightly fitting a pair of jeans onto the body. The ambiguous gesture of pleasure and pain is scratched, ripped, cut and bleached onto the surface of the works.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #valentinalieurnur | aaah....ah... #argentina • Made from samples of denim originally destined for jeans and shirts, the title stems from an 80's commercial in which a sexual dream is acted, by tightly fitting a pair of jeans onto the body. The ambiguous gesture of pleasure and pain is scratched, ripped, cut and bleached onto the surface of the works.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #bassamalshaker | Milk Maid #iraq • 'Anything that is forbidden is desired'. In Baghdad,the artist used to paint in the middle of the night to avoid the streams of sirens, horns and explosions. His paintings are coloured by a lifetime of war, oppression and sanctions yet also evoke images of the everyday, absorbed in memory.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #marioarroyave | Timeline - Waterpolo #colombia • Making use of repetition as a symbol for time, an observation exercise highlights specific movements through a selection of screenshots and images during an extended period of time, to present an alternative visual reality to the audience.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #hanyrashed | Untitled #egypt • 'I like open heads and dangling guts. That gore isn’t exactly commonplace in Egyptian art or Arabic art in general, which is often still treated as a luxury or a symbol of status. Sometimes people find it hard.' The Egyptian artist's latest exhibition 'Bulldozer', emphasises the power of a destructive force or mindset. Yet, the outcome isn’t always negative; sometimes it generates fire, or a missile, but at other times it results in the re-growth of nature.

[sugarcaneart-blog]

• #mimijung | Blue to Orange #southkorea • Creating sculptural, design based yet equally tactile works the Korean artist explores the balance between introversion and extroversion. The tension between the desire to be alone within our mental universe and the need to participate with our surroundings.