Sunday 24 March 2013

A Sunday Smile

I remember how much I used to hate the mere thought of 'Sunday' when I was in primary & secondary school - they came with restrictions and curfews, and there was always the sense of impending doom that I may have forgotten to do a vital piece of homework for the next day. Nowadays, although my days aren't much simpler, I've started to treat my Sundays as a day to relax / catch up on things that may have passed me by during the week. Today, I decided to take some time out to read Kaleidoscope's Summer 2012 'Africa' Issue. It's taken me far too long, and as soon as I started to flick through, I realised why I had gone to the effort of ordering a back copy all the way from Kaleidoscope's offices in Milan.





All images courtesy of RD-OK & Alessio Ascari for the Kaleidoscope "A is for Africa" issue

"In a time when the once-dominant western model is collapsing, the impressive growth of Africa’s economies looks likely to continue and its cultural offer is growing more and more vibrant, exposing the international audience to an incredible offering of art, music, architecture, film, design and fashion."

The issue is, of course, all about Africa and its new 'rising' tag which I feel is still pretty contentious, but exciting to look at all the same. The essays are written by influential artists living on the continent and the diaspora abroad, which made all of the points raised brutally honest. No over-exaggeration, or glossing over the rough bits, which I've noticed can happen when the issue of 'Africa' as a continent is written about. I've definitely been inspired to check out more of Santu Mofokeng's South African photo essays and Ghanaian filmmaker Frances Bodomo's work. I'm a sucker for beautifully printed magazines, and this one doesn't disappoint.

Alongside my bagel and latte, this was the perfect companion to my quiet Sunday. I've also spent the majority of the day playing Laura Welsh's 'Unravel' on loop. Produced by Dev Hynes (who really does seem to be everywhere right now) of Blood Orange/Lightspeed Champion/Test Icicles fame, this really is a great collaboration.


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