FAKA Portrait, 2019

Aperture is pleased to release this limited-edition photograph by the artist Jamal Nxedlana on the occasion of the "Orlando" issue of Aperture Magazine, curated by Tilda Swinton.

A photographer, artist, and creative director of the South African– based platform Bubblegum Club, Jamal Nxedlana is fascinated by the intersections of fashion and street culture in Johannesburg. For his collaboration with FAKA—known as Fela Gucci and Desire Marea—he took the interdisciplinary artist duo to Times Square in Yeoville, a neighborhood in Johannesburg known to some as an “intergalactic spiritual portal.” Nxedlana styled FAKA for their urban odyssey with spectacular dresses that reference Brenda Fassie, the South African singer and queer icon. Not unlike the title character in Orlando, FAKA’s looks transcend gender, race, and class binaries using uncategorized clothing, makeup, and hairstyles. Together, they escape the confines of linearity as figures from the ongoing past, becoming somehow all genders, all ages, all times, all at once.

Nxedlana’s work has been featured in ArtNet News, Vogue Italia, Complex, and Vice, and in Aperture’s 2018 Summer Open The Way We Live Now. Bubblegum Club, under the direction of Nxedlana, has collaborated on projects with the British Council, Goethe-Institut, and Afropunk Festival, and has worked with clients such as Adidas. Nxedlana’s work is also included in Antwaun Sargent’s book, The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion (Aperture, 2019).

Pigment Print
Image Size: 16 x 25 inches
Paper Size: 24 x 26 inches
Edition of 15
Signed and numbered by the artist

Jamal Nxedlana (b. 1985, Durban, South Africa) is a visual artist, whose work has been featured in ArtNet News, Vogue Italia, Complex, and Vice, and in Aperture’s 2018 Summer Open The Way We Live Now. Bubblegum Club, under the direction of Nxedlana, has collaborated on projects with the British Council, Goethe-Institut, and Afropunk Festival, and has worked with clients such as Adidas. Nxedlana also will be included in Antwaun Sargent’s book The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion (Aperture, 2019). Jamal currently lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.