FEATURE / ARTS WRITING IN AFRICAWIELDING THE PEN / HOUGHTON KINSMAN 7/10 ARTAFRICA
submissions policy does not compromise the Zine’s criticality in so far as the content
remains relevant to Namibians. We like to think of Artwolfe Zine as an art object through
which people can share insights and perspectives about what Namibian artists are doing.
This year, we organised a series of workshops called ‘Writer’s Room’ in collaboration
with the Namibian theatre corporation, Black Tree Productions. The intention of these
workshops was to facilitate a space where aspiring writers could bring their work and
hone their craft through discussion.- LAYLA LEIMAN
Layla Leiman is a Johannesburg-based independent writer. She
contributes arts, design, fashion and other writing monthly to the
creative showcase site Between 10and5. Her writing has also been
published in the inaugural Dance Umbrella Festival Gazette, The
Star, Sunday Independent, Mail & Guardian and other online
culture blogs.HK: Do you think your work – writing about South
African artists – has contributed to a dialogue with
artistic production in the rest of Africa?Layla Leiman: My choice to write about South African art and art practitioners is not
necessarily a deliberate one, insofar as I live in South Africa and am interested in art. I
generally like to write about things I can actually see, experience and engage with. Over
the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of working with many talented South African
artists, and the pleasure of promoting their work through the content that I create. I can’t
say exactly who reads this content, what they might glean from it nor the dialogues it may
provoke. But, of course, it would be great if what I’m doing here did filter through to other
countries and prompted interaction between South African and international artists. It is
through communication and exposure to other forms of art that art grows. The Internet
has opened up new avenues for information sharing and allowed transnational dialogues
to take place. However, one must be wary of taking too simplistic a view. Someone,
somewhere in the world, reading an article that you wrote and maybe even clicking a
‘share’ or ‘like’ button, doesn’t really constitute a dialogue. While I enjoy reading and
learning about creative work being produced in other parts of the continent, my writing
is located in and focused on the South African creative sector, so I don’t profess to know
details about artistic production in different countries in Africa. I remain mindful that
Africa is a vast, nuanced and constantly shifting geo-cognitive space. To try and sum up
‘Africa’ in any one sense would be a failure of both understanding and imagination.