"CROWDED" BY DOUGAL GORMAN
A photography exhibition by Dougal Gorman
'DOGG POUND DAYS' BY KARABO MOOKI
Mooki’s Dogg Pound Days delves into underground South African punk band T.C.I.Y.F and their development of the music and skateboarding scene in Soweto. Mooki’s photography seeks to reveal an authentic and honest side to life in South Africa, with a focus on distinctive casting and under-represented faces.
Dogg Pound Days is open from,
7th September - 6th November
Dogg Pound Days is available for purchase at our Darlinghurst Gallery and at Pass~Port Store & Gallery Online
Karabo Mooki is a photographer & filmmaker from Johannesburg exploring race, gender, sexuality, and class through his work. Mooki’s photography seeks to reveal an authentic and honest side to life in South Africa, with a focus on distinctive casting and under-represented faces.
Mooki has held solo exhibitions in Canada (2023), Sweden (2021) and Denmark (2020). His work has been selected for numerous international photo festivals including Photoville (NYC), Contact Photo Festival (Canada) and Head On Photo Festival (Australia).
The band T.C.I.Y.F. is made up of Thula 'Stroof' Sizwe (guitarist), Sandile 'Tox' Mbatha (bassist), Nhlakanipho 'Jazz' Nkosi (bassist), and Puleng 'Peezy' Seloane (vocalist). Initially, they got together to share their love for skateboarding in the township of Soweto. At a time when skateboarding was mostly accepted by people living in outer suburban areas, the restless youth of Soweto realized they needed to create something of their own, a scene they could develop and nourish from within South Africa’s largest township.
'We all met because of skateboarding,' Stroof explains. 'We're glued together by the skate family Skate Society Soweto (S.S.S). We spent so much time together that it made sense for us to do something more.'
In search of an outlet to express themselves off their boards, they developed a self-taught passion for playing music, which quickly lead to the formation of T.C.I.Y.F. and the systematic destruction of even more social barriers and stereotypes of residents’ interests and abilities in the townships. Their 'fuck what you think' philosophy resonated deep within the townships and spread through suburbs like wildfire, bridging the divide between different demographics and bringing attention to the waves of counter culture rising from the township.
The youth that once felt disenfranchised can now acknowledge the future possibilities thanks to a band of unlikely heroes that opened the gates. The band’s influence inspired all to freely express their identity in a safe space, to converge their creative ideas, and to foster more growth within the community.
Redefining the one-dimensional music scene in South Africa was never TC.I.Y.F’s sole intention, but sharing their stories and giving the middle finger to the scenes that failed to recognize their early potential absolutely was. Their music and clout has given the future of misled youth a platform to be unafraid, to create, and to destroy any barrier that would set them back.
