Cover Image. Finalist Banner (2026) About my Entry POPTXT Re-conceptualised The POPTXT exhibition (2017) [1] fulfilled the requisite for my Masters exhibition and investigated the phenomenon of text messaging as a postmodern human sign and symbol of computer mediated communication. The research streams of socio-linguistic theory, semiotics, philosophy and the psychology of identity converged into the conceptual expression of text messaging in contemporary visual art. Inspired

Lucelle Pillay, Research Map (2025) Abstract: This study analyses ethnoracial identity formation from the perspective of the self (the artist) and the collective (artists, historians, curators, academics), applying a qualitative mixed methodology within this practice-led visual art research. The enquiry into ‘Indian’ South African identity is both complex and perplexing. A dialogical approach to both theory and art practice provides intellectual and intuitive responses abou

Cover Image. Lucelle at Reverse Futures (2026). Composite image About JCAF There are very few art events that would tempt me to venture outside on a weekend and brave July's icy winter spell. However, I couldn't resist the Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation's latest exhibition. Launched in 2020, JCAF celebrates their sixth year in the service of bringing art research and museum-quality exhibitions to the local community. This NGO is focused on conducting academic resear

Cover Image. When we Gather @ Circa (2026). (Image courtesy of Everard Read) (Graphic courtesy of Bag Factory) (Composite image: Lucelle Pillay) I recently attended the current exhibition, When we Gather at Everard Reads' Circa gallery [1] on the Keyes Art Mile. This confluence of artistic expression is on show from 4 June to 3 July 2026 and marks the 35th anniversary of Bag Factory Artists' Studios [2]. Artist and writer Winifred Mueni (2026) states, " The Bag Factory Artis

Cover Image I: The band, Plum. 2026. (left to right) Ryan Greenwood, Warren Leicher & Kevin Leicher. (Photo: Sherene Hustler Photography), (Composite graphic: Lucelle Pillay) The Original Band Cover Image I depicts the 'new' Plum, this contemporary iteration captures the seasoned band members in sleek suites and shades. They have ditched the distressed T-shirts and jeans popularised in the 90s for a nuanced sophistication of image and sound. A stark contrast of the original b

Fig 1. Lucelle Pillay, Theresa Anthoniamah Pillay. 2025. Digital Copy. (Date of photo unknown). Note: The racial descriptor 'Indian' appears in single quotations throughout this article. This reserves its use as necessary within the local socio-political framework of South Africa, yet open to dialectical deconstruction within the argument of identity. A deconstructive approach is applied to this term, but not to supplant it with a truer designation (Hall 1996:1), which may me

Figure 1. Lucelle viewing 'Insurgicias Botanicas'. 2017. Garrido-Lecca at JCAF. Photo courtesy of Lucelle Bernadette Pillay. I had the immense pleasure of attending the latest exhibition at the Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation. Fast becoming my favourite 'visual art - research' destination, JCAF has once again provided local audiences with a slice of the 'global cultural imagination'. What a treat and totally immersive experience it was! Browse their site at...

Figure 1. The Inside Out Centre for the arts. 2024. (Image courtesy of Ballen, graphic text by Lucelle Pillay) If you've ever encountered the work of the American photographer, Roger Ballen, you would wonder about what goes on inside his mind. His dark and obscure outward expressions have often been described as disturbing. Ballen appears to take a deep-dive into the dark recesses of the human psyche, then brings his findings to the surface for the viewer. It is this psycholo

Figure 1. Riason Naidoo. Photographic Hall: The Indian in Drum Magazine the 1950's. 2023 (Panoramic Photo by Lucelle Bernadette Pillay) At his request, I met the charismatic artist, Nanda Soobben at the 1860 Heritage Centre in Durban. The museum houses the archives, documentation and books that relate to South African Indian history and culture. I noticed that Nanda was a familiar and well respected mentor at the centre, as he engaged with a few tutors and students at one of

Figure 1: Kevin Leicher at the Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation. 2023 (Photo by Lucelle Bernadette Pillay) I had the pleasure of viewing the latest exhibition at the Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation recently. ‘Otherscapes’ features the work of Siemon Allen, Wim Botha, Nicholas Hlobo and Sethembile Msezane. These artists explore aspects of a failed democracy in post-apartheid South Africa. Like so many, under the burden of an ailing economy, unemployment, and r

Figure 1. Sarat Maharaj profile [s.a.] (Centre for arts and Media Karlsruhe 2023) © Sarat Maharaj The life and work of the art historian, curator and theorist, Sarat Maharaj is traced from his place of birth in Durban, Natal, to his academic career in the field of visual art in the United Kingdom and Europe. Upon graduating from the Salisbury Island’s ‘University College for Blacks of Indian Origin’ during the apartheid era, Maharaj sought academic exile (Van Robbroeck 2011:1

Figure 1. Zeitz Mocaa. Entrance. Panoramic View. Photo courtesy of Lucelle Bernadette Pillay. 2023 While on holiday in the ‘Mother City’, I couldn’t resist visiting the sculpturally dominant, Zeitz Mocaa Museum of Contemporary Fine Art. It’s brutalist silos towering majestically against Table Mountain, lures the local art fanatic or sophisticated tourist towards its columned interiors. With the promise of the cultural objects, introspective artistic visions and audio visual.

It was my absolute privilege to interview South African - born, Curator, Writer, Researcher and Philosopher, the esteemed, Professor Sarat Maharaj. As a global citizen, Professor Maharaj has received numerous accolades within the mercurial and enigmatic world of visual art critique, exhibition and discourse. If you are an art academic, curator or researcher, you will find my 50min podcast (with images) intriguing, as Professor Maharaj takes me on a journey back to 'Old Durba

Cover Image. 2021.The exterior of the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation. Image courtesy of JCAF. © Photography Graham De Lacy. Inhabiting Forest Town’s former electrical tram shed and substation that was in operation in the early to mid twentieth century, emerges the sleek Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF). Housed behind impressively scaled oxidized solid metal facades, lies a sensitively renovated redbrick service building of the old order. Echoes of the tram

Transmorphic Landscapes Tanisha Bhana is a qualified financial attorney, currently working in a private capacity in the financial services sector. On a good day you can find her with her camera in obscure places in and around Johannesburg. Intelligent, creative, methodical, highly intuitive and conceptually articulate best describe this multidisciplinary artist. I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Bhana online, in conjunction with my visual art research. We discussed aspec

Thava Pillay is an academic, lecturer, artist and a nomadic spirit. She is one of the most travelled and culturally versed intellectuals I have met. Born in Greenwood Park, Durban in the late sixties, during the apartheid era, she was one of four siblings. Her father was a teacher and her mother a housewife. As a young girl she aspired toward the arts, but was aware that her parents could not fund studies within this discipline. Previously disadvantaged communities viewed the

By Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed Holding the substantial hardbound copy of ‘Chatsworth, The Making of a South African Township’ in my hands, makes me ponder on Karl Marx’ (Samuel, H Beer,1955: ix) notion of ‘historical materialism’. The substance created from the engagement of a society with the legalities of the state. It is within this contextual framework, that this review approaches the writings of Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, as they document the social conditions of a

DIGITAL TEXT MESSAGING AS A MODE FOR NEW SOCIAL IDENTITIES AS EXPRESSED THROUGH CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ART Summary POPTXT This study investigates the phenomenon of text messaging as a postmodern human sign and symbol of computer mediated communication. Socio-linguistic theory, semiotics, philosophy and the psychology of identity are research streams that feed into the conceptual expression of text messaging in visual art, specifically new media art. POPTXT analyses specific cont