Pleasure.
For this ZINE edition CKR invites artists Boemo Diale and Nokukhanya Charity Vilakazi to think through their aesthetic vocabularies around the preoccupation of pleasure. Known for her playful pictorial idioms of the female body, Diale understands "moments of pleasure in our everyday lives but also in the hidden realms of the worlds we can create for ourselves." Meanwhile, Vilakazi, whose idiosyncratic paintings centre femme lives inspired by African mythology and the matriarchal gaze, insists that pleasure is: "in the eyes of the beholder. It’s perception: I see, I feel, I hear, I smell and I taste. It's romanticising for the individual, seeking for what seeks you."
With that, CKR brings you the fifth installment of our ZINE on Pleasure!
We are interested in probing questions about pleasure in relation to contemporary concepts of sexuality and Black women through an intersectional feminist lens.
How can we come up with Africa-centred concepts of pleasure that go beyond the historical hyper sexualisation of Black women?
How do Black women tap into moments of pleasure and practice self-care beyond the capitalist consumerist world order?
How do we de-centre white heteronormative frameworks on pleasure?
Pleasure is considered a universal and an inherent part of the human experience — a heterogeneous variety beyond a mere sensorial fleeting emotion or event. Throughout history, pleasure has been conceptualised as complex with interrelated experiential relations with other emotions and memories. But, even though human beings are drawn to pleasure, pleasure-seeking is often relegated as an indulgence. This is especially in its intersections with the world's political histories where some bodies and people were – and often still are – considered not worthy of pleasure.