In these quasi-apocalyptic quarantine days of The Rona, The Cororo, The Coronavirus, fede fede known as COVID-19, we are reminded of the most popular sneeze in our country, not the one from that other bhayskop penguin, but the one that has become a landmark of South African lyricism; this is the timeless sneeze of the knees.

The Portrait Show is not an exhibition solely concerned with the technical abilities of an artist to depict (or, in fact, obscure) a sitter. It is a quest to explore and borrow from the artists’ deliberations about the state of the world today. Over a series of studio visits, conversations and the revisiting of artists statements, Nxumalo has compiled a collection of diverse sentiments about the Anthropocene, explored and expressed by a vibrant group of artists based in South Africa and beyond.

One country after another is going into lockdown, to one degree or another. People are being told to avoid unnecessary movements, to avoid crowded areas, to self-isolate if they are at risk. But at the same time, millions of workers are being told to go into work, forced to use crowded public transport, to work shoulder to shoulder, increasing the risk of contagion. This is putting workers’ lives at risk, but they are also at risk of taking the contagion home and infecting their families, all for the sake of capitalist profit.

Mayine, phew! what a song by Simphiwe Dana. No, a monster of sorts to be sure. This instant classic is from her third album offering, Kulture Noir. When I first heard that song, I was transfixed. Well, the whole album bubugqwirha nje, ukuthakatha of the Most-High vibrations.

These people are ideologically dislocated in terms of a political home. They have no theoretical, rational and ideological basis to be in the ANC. They are very sound but their soundness is virtually destined to non-effect in the light of their dislocation.

There is a political contest between the forces of the ruling elite and their appendages who are heading the state against the working class, which in this case is the only voice that can counter rampant neoliberalism of privatization of state owned enterprises. This contest is also carried out in the terrain of the ideological state apparatus wherein the media, radio, newspapers, bourgeois academics all echo the sentiments that Dudu Myeni plunged SAA into a financial abyss.

“Isphithiphithi is an album for those who listen more than just entertainment value. The AmaPiano songs on the album achieve the purpose to ruminate and remind both us and those who will come after us of the musical zeitgeist of 2019, of just how important in our current popular cultural life AmaPiano is.