King Debs
Africa Reimagined
Installation view of Bokamoso by King Debs, AVA Main Gallery, 2020
King Debs draws his influences from his Tswana heritage and lived experiences as a child, born in Mafikeng and growing up in Tshwane (Pretoria). King Debs focuses primarily on African identity, scriptoria, handstyles, and indigenous ideographics. Using various media from music and sound design to 3D/CGI film and video creation to bring his vision to life, King Debs has created a visual language to represent a futuristic version of South Africa. In the framework of this exhibition, South Africa is referred to as Azania, which is a protest name given by Steven Bantu Biko in his works around Black Consciousness during his fight for freedom and liberation. After a 2-year social sabbatical from 2016 to 2018, King Debs has developed a visual language that encapsulates his ideas around empathy and humility in the ever-expanding information era.
King Debs, Khumo (Wealth), 2020, 3D CGI digital print on archival paper, edition of 5, 119 x 84 cm
"I have created an alphabet, which is a proposed visual language/script for the nation of Azania. It is meant to spark a sense of awareness of owning up to one's own identity, and also think about what it is to be an African in a contemporary context of the global village. My work also aims to rebuild a constructive dialogue around our identity as a nation, a nation that is conscious of our social-political climate and one that can engage in dialogues that can offer solutions on how we can heal from our traumatic past, and progress towards the future in a united front."
- King Debs
King Debs, Manong, 2020, 3D CGI, digital print on archival paper, edition of 5, 119 x 84 cm
Kings Debs describes his artistic journey as having started when he was a young boy watching his brother draw…“It’s a funny thing, I was always exposed to art but always thought of it as something that I “could do”, rather than something “to do”. When I was young, my art was a series of intentional accidents until, in 2005, I got my first spray can and started doing graffiti. That was my first major outlet outside of my drawing book”. From there on, Kings Debs went to study Multimedia Design and Technology, which opened him up to the world of graphics and multimedia design. This new set of skills, combined with the Eurocentric attitudes he encountered in the academic environment, lead him to challenge the idea of what a “traditional" African figure should look like. Working both in the digital and the physical spheres, Kings Debs creates a powerful vision of future African spaces, through CGI portraits and murals.