Day Four

Published on 16 June 2020

Angels, ancestors and winged creatures connect the works of Palesa Flory and Buhle Ngabe. Form is function in After God’s Own Heart and, using online social media, the audience decides on the fate of a young woman killed in a taxi accident. In Swan Song, Taung, beset by grief finds her wings and her transfiguration from broken swan to fully actualised being is wondrous. “Poetry as wings of compassion” is how Ayanda Billie navigates through adversity and emerges stronger in his poetic narration of the tribulations of life in KwaNobuhle. It is music that Liso uses to cope with the current pandemic and her personal style of Ancestral Jazz is a spiritual plea to her audiences and the ancestors. The commonality of art as leverage through difficulty is a tactile thread through this work, whether it be rhyme or rhythm, its value in times of adversity is evident. The sheer escapism of it, however, is encapsulated in the brevity of Lockdown Went Wrong. The scale of terror it evokes is belied by its length and the motif of an unlucky escape is echoed in another short film, Cake.