Interpretation Program

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CHIP CAMPAIGN _ Ethnic 9

210 JOBS/ 10 MILLION RANDS

…CHIP aspires to decentralise the creation and consumption of Contemporary African Art by transferring skills of creative sustainability in rural areas.

Artwork on Auction _ ZAR 3 M

  • Title_ Pervasive Computing/ Ukuba ibiyi Nyoka
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival Paper, 42cm X 58cm
  • Artist_ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation _ Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Year_ 2023
  • Price_ ZAR 3000 000/ $ 160 300
  • Pledge _ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document

CHIP CAMPAIGN is a fundraising initiative focused on creating 209 JOBS, in 9 Provinces in the Republic of South Africa.

CHIP_ Curatorial Heritage Interpretation Program was developed by Bongo Mei over an 8 year research period, focused on the contextualisation of indigenous information into the 21st century, through contemporary Art projects. Bongo Mei (Founding Curator) is fundraising for a National Archival Art project, to be exhibited from September 2024 – September 2025, at Miriam Makeba Rd, Johannesburg, South Africa.

the CHIP CAMPAIGN is currently AUCTIONING the Artwork Pervasive Computing/ Ukuba Ibiyi Nyoka, created to raise funds (ZAR3 Million/$160 300).

the Artwork is indigenously themed and contemporarily displayed… participate, buy an Artwork or Donate…

…great Art is an Alternative Investment.

Donate and Invest

Bank_ CAPITEC Account holder_ MR B MEI _Account number_ 1420856527 _Branch Code_ 470010_ SWIFT Code_ CABLZAJJ

Please use your name as a reference, cellphone/mobile transfers_ +27623756496

Thank you we appreciate your contribution.

bhelegallery@gmail.com

Contemporary African Archives Exhibition 2022_

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Disabled by SIFO NOKUFA BUTIKAZI

  • Title_ Disabled
  • Medium_ Installation, Width:300cm X Depth: 250cm X Height: 300cm. Mannequin, Digital Prints on Archival Paper.
  • Image Maker_ SIFO NOKUFA BUTIKAZI
  • Site of Creation _ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_2023
  • Pledge_ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price_ $1000
  • Item Code_ 0031

Sifo Nokufa BUTIKAZI is an alter that is cynical in perception and focuses on themes of social commentary. His focus is based on industrial history and culture, the above installation is called, “Disabled”. Dedicated to political pan Africanist ideologies that existed before the South African democracy of 1994. His use of a disassembled mannequin is reflective of Africans who are dressed up as independent countries/citizens for a first world fashion show. Where those who first scrambled Africa through colonization, can presently buy it officially. Ambiguously, it also comments on the ideologies that did not want any assistance from multinationals, but were disabled by other Africans who wanted to sell out the continent for their own capitalistic benefits.

Fashionable Ancestral Figures Existing In Hell

Nontetha sitting as a fashionable Ancestral Figure
Vuyisile Mini and Ntsikana facing each other in Hell
Fashionable Ancestral Figures existing in Hell without Satan
Fashionable Ancestral Figures existing in Hell without Lucifer
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‘They’ Virtual Exhibit by BHELE GALLERY

Bhele Gallery is an alter of the Transdisciplinary Practitioner, Bongo Mei, who has 15 years experience as an Art Practitioner. Gallery has been existing and practising for 10 years as an apprentice of Mei. Gallery prefers the pronoun, They. They are an individual collective as described by this alter, where they include 10 other alters who are also Art practitioners;

  • Bongo Mei (Male)_ Transdisciplinary Practitioner
  • Belhe Meu (Male)_ Conceptual Designer
  • Vuyisile Xoliswa (Female)_ Prose Poet & Performer
  • Sifo Nokufa Butikazi (Non- Binary)_ Witch Artist
  • Sebe Gqozo Ciskei (Male)_Archival Artist
  • Bongo Money (Male)_ Kitsch Artist
  • Ms Fortune & Ms Fit (Female Twins)_ Digital Conceptual Artists
  • Ntanda Loft (Male) _ Post Artist
  • Amen (Non-Binary) _ Post Artist

They call themselves an individual collective because they exist within one body but are cognitively separated. When one alter is in control, the others are completely nonexistent, others are not even aware of their relatives, they don’t know each other, much like people and humanity. They further describe the situation as that of actors and the different characters they play for a show. Or how humans change characters with different environments, like when one is in a professional space they don’t behave the same way as when in a social gathering, or when with family or in a spiritual institution or engaged in a hedonistic practice, like sexual intercourse. They interpret their dissociative ability as normal but it is naively understood. They regard themselves as highly intelligent and honest with reality. The artworks of the exhibit are inspired by this individual collective and how they perceive cognitive comprehension.

ALL physical artworks displayed were purposefully destroyed for the purpose of presenting them as original digital prints

  • Title _ Bongo Mei
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival paper, 42cm X 58cm
  • Image Maker _ Bhele Gallery
  • Site of Creation _ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2023
  • Pledge _ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price _ $800
  • Item Code_ 0023
  • Title_ Belhe Meu
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival Paper, 42cm x 58cm
  • Image Maker_ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation _ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2023
  • Pledge _ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price_ $800
  • Item Code_ 0024
  • Title_ Vuyisile Xoliswa
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival Paper, 42cm x 58cm
  • Image Maker_ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation_ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2023
  • Pledge _ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price _ $800
  • Item Code _ 0025
  • Title_ Sifo Nokufa Butikazi/Disease Death Witchcraft
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival Paper, 42cm x 58cm
  • Image Maker_ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation_ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2023
  • Pledge _ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price_ $800
  • Item Code_ 0026
  • Title _ Sebe Gqozo Ciskei
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival Paper, 42cm x 58cm
  • Image Maker _ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation_ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2022
  • Pledge_ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price_ $800
  • Item Code _ 0027
  • Title_ Bongo Money
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival Paper, 42cm x 58cm
  • Image Maker_ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation_ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2023
  • Pledge_ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price_ $800
  • Item Code_ 0028
  • Title _ Bongo More Money
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival Paper, 42cm X 58cm
  • Image Maker_ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation _ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2023
  • Pledge_ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price_ $800
  • Item Code_ 0029
  • Title_ Ode to Samson Mnisi
  • Medium_ Digital Print on Archival Paper, 42cm X 58cm
  • Image Maker_ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation _ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2023
  • Pledge_ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price_ $800
  • Item Code_ 0030
  • Title_ Ms Fortune & Ms Fit
  • Medium_ Diptych, Digital Prints on Archival Paper, 42cm X 58cm each
  • Image Maker_ BHELE GALLERY
  • Site of Creation _ Johannesburg, Africa
  • Year_ 2013
  • Pledge_ Authentication Certificate & Concept Document
  • Price _ $1400
  • Item Code_ 0033
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Bongo Mei as BHELE GALLERY

THERE ARE MANY WAYS OF SEEING

The artist Bongo Mei works under two characters; one as Bongo Mei whose influence comes from African mythology and creates contemporary African mythological art. His 8-year independent research about African mythology informs his contemporary interpretations.
The other character is Bhele Gallery who investigates and experiments with the concept of aestheticism. His work interrogates the academic perception of aestheticism, with a thorough connection to his investigation about what aestheticism is, where he argues that, if the same object is in different environments, it can receive miscellaneous responses. Therefore, such a situation allows for critical observation, culminating in the fact that there are many ways of seeing.
Currently his body of work is titled, Post Art: Vulgarity as a Process of Aestheticism. The body of work explores the ambiguity of meaning and aestheticism, while at the same time defining the genre of his work as Post Art. He defines Post Art as an alternative method of creating and exhibiting Art, informed by transdisciplinary research. The term he emphasizes that it is descriptive of a move from traditional methods of maintaining a singular perception, regarding the aesthetics of what Art is. He further draws attention to the perception that, excellence and expertise is definable through the appreciation of refinement and consequently, in the information age it should be almost compulsory to research art themes with a connection to other disciplines of influence and information.

‘Nokufa, Sifo, Buthikazi/ Death, Disease and Witchcraft’ / Digital Print on Archival Paper / 95cm x 64cm / Bongo Mei/ 2023/ $527

‘ uMoya ka Bokwe’ / Mixed Media on Paper/ 90cm x 50cm / Bongo Mei / 2023/$450_ SOLD

‘Aesthetic 1’ /Digital Print on Archival Paper / 90cm x 60cm / Bongo Mei /2023/$400

‘Aesthetic 1‘ / Close Up

‘uMoya ka Ntsikana/ Ntsikana’s Spirit’/Digital Print on Archival Paper /90cm x 60cm/ Bongo Mei /$400

‘Arsethetic’ / Digital Print on Archival Paper/ Size on request/BHELE GALLERY/2023/$800

‘Arsethetic’/ Close Up

‘Ka Mhle, Shaman’s Daughter’ / Digital Print on Archival Paper/ 160cm x 120cm/ Bhele Gallery / 2023/ $700

‘Ka Mhle, Shaman’s Daughter‘ / Close Up

‘Arsethetic Flower‘ / Digital Print on Archival Paper/ Size on request/ BHELE GALLERY /$1200

‘Arsethetic Flower‘/ Close Up

Ethna Frankenfeld’s Spirit / Digital Print on Archival Paper / 90cm x 60cm / Bongo Mei /2023/$400

Ntsikana’s Cow Spirit/Digital Print on Archival Paper/90cm X 60cm/ Bongo Mei/ $500

ALL Artworks were first created as mixed media on paper, photographs were taken and then all the originals were purposefully destroyed to create new originals. Responding to the digital age, the new originals evolved into digital prints on archival paper, inspired by the conceptual view that an image is validated by perception.

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Bottle Totem as Industrial Ancestry

Bottle Totem_ Bongo Mei 2022_ Digital Print _ $2000

The beer bottle is an industrial totem, indigenous to all political struggle, locally and globally. It has been used personally by the proletariat to numb disadvantageous working conditions. Collectively it has been upcycled into a weapon as a petrol bomb, used as a pipe to smoke marijuana, a candle holder, a self defense device and a container for home made remedies.

Capitalists recognize it as a golden calf. It is a symbol of industrial indigeneity.

In the 60s, political spheres wittingly altered the brand-name CASTLE for the South African beer, into a bilingual abbreviation for, Can Africans Stand Tall Like Europeans? And in Xhosa, Cinga Abazali Sidenge Thumela Le mali Ekhaya (Think of your parents you fool, send this money back home). Both expressions talk of an oppressed and dislocated circumstance, which the subjects are constantly mindful of, even when winding down over a casual drink, since that very moment was also extremely fleeting. It should not be unexpected as many Artists such as Thami Mnyele to Miriam Makeba were always reflective of the bane of an apartheid lifestyle, something that came to be known as Protest/Township Art.

In families across racial and geographical borders, the beer bottle has an effect as a symbol, in different languages and abbreviations, as a stimulant for a festive event or melancholic memory, it is an animistic ancestor, for all those who have been and still are in the industrial revolution.

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Oral Tradition as Archeology

Since 2013, Bongo Mei embarked on a transdisciplinary research project, investigating multiple fields comprised in cognitive science, devising and developing an interpretation model through contemporary Art and Literature. The outcome after 8 years of research, experimentation and exhibit, a CHIP_Curatorial Heritage Interpretation Program was completed. Looking at how to properly interpret African Indigenous Intelligence/Information into the 21st century.

In 2020 he completed his module program where he presents Oral Tradition as conceptual Archeology, Archive and Artefact.

Currently his project is focused on creating Contemporary African Archives through the Arts, these include Visual Art, Dance, Literature, Music, Theater, Fashion, Film and New Media (VR/AR/XR), where he curates exhibition concepts and display methods with emerging and established artists.

Bongo Mei has been curating and exhibiting professionally for 14 years.

Ndi Mhlophe/Veil of Custom_ Bongo Mei/2013_ $2000

Ndi Mhlophe is a part of the diptych Veil of Custom, created under the topic New Democratic Public Images. The Artwork is an interpretation of a longing or a desire for attachment, and such an emotion is represented by veils, acting as a uniform of conformity, embracing an institutional and constitutional denial of individualism, accepted as ethnicity. Indigenously it was evidenced with medieval cosmetics of crude ochers to national flags, professions, lifestyle and Fashion.

Ama Qaba/Veil of Custom_ Bongo Mei/2013_ $2000

Ama Qaba is a part of the diptych Veil of Custom, created under the topic New Democratic Public Images. The Artwork is an interpretation of a longing or a desire for attachment, and such an emotion is represented by veils, acting as a uniform of conformity, embracing an institutional and constitutional denial of individualism, accepted as ethnicity. Indigenously it was evidenced with medieval cosmetics of crude ochers to national flags, professions, lifestyle and Fashion.

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Indigenous Intellectual Heredity

Heritable intellectual DNA can transfer genetic information in the form of unexperienced memory also termed as a dèjavu/iThongo (in the language of the Xosa). This type of information/memory can be received in different spheres/faculties depending on the environment. For instance, with indigenous academia/rituals a student in the field of medicine/alternative medicine is secluded from circular environment (indigenously known as Ukuthwasa in the Xosa language), where one is allowed to access the memory of one’s own ancestry, through heritable information/memory, the practice varies in degrees from elementary ethnic memory to tertiary human memory (not limited by race, geography or field).

The most basic introductory lesson in a form of a children’s game is Ukukhangela similar to hide and seek, where an object is hidden where most of the elders of the student/child used to meditate or gather, if the student/child does not find the space, they’re given more attention until they do.

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Madiba_ Beauty of Progress

Contemporary African Archives Exhibition

Madiba_ TOTEM NAME & PRAISE

” Buso be Mali, Beauty of Progress”,” Buhle be Mpumelelo, Face of Money” is a new ethnic totem/clan praise for the Madiba house, celebrating the progressive legacy of an international Icon (Nelson Mandela) and African culture. The Xhosa expression Buso be Mali means Face of Money, Buso is a noun that means Face and Mali is derived from Money, the noun can be used metaphorically just as the word Face in English, the direct translation for the expression is “The Face of Money” but rather in Xhosa, linguistically the metaphor is pronounced as “The Beauty of Progress”.

“Buhle be Mpumelelo” also a Xhosa expression means “Beauty of Progress”, Buhle as a noun means Beauty and Mpumelelo means Progress, the word Buhle (Beauty) and Buso (Face) can be used interchangeably. The metaphoric expression is used as “Beauty of Money”, inspired by the face of former President and freedom fighter Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela being on South African Bank Notes.

Price _ ZAR60 000 neg_ (Image only available for Buyers/ Collectors)
Buyer’s viewing on appointment

+27725245927_ Bongo Mei

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Rare Disease Day Public Exhibition

Art Therapy

An exhibition focused on using Art Therapy as a way of accepting or being affected by a rare disease. The activity will include creating an alter ego concentrated on pursuing a perceptual shift from unfavourable thought patterns.

“May I please be misunderstood?” Is a statement complimentary of an individualistic type of awareness, where each person recognises themselves as a primary priority… a guide will be supplied on the day.