The Standard Bank Art Lab might be what the arts community needs to connect the broad community of artists with audiences

Jazzman Nduduzo Makhathini’s NPR Tiny Desk performance screening, Ntu Sonicities: Devotion Suite in Five Movements worked perfectly well at the place.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

I had not been at the Standard Bank Lab since its launch earlier this year. This I a space the bank has emphasised on several occasions that its launch is neither a replacement of the Standard Bank Gallery in downtown Johannesburg, nor its competitor. The gallery in Johannesburg CBD for one will remain a place where one could still go and view exhibitions showcasing for example, its extensive African art collection, while the lab will be a space for experimentation and trying new ways of engaging with the bank’s clients as well as the art loving public.

When I went to its launch, I was skeptical, not only because its location is right in the heart of a mall, a place that represents big capital. But it turns out that part of that mall, the Nelson Mandela Square is owned and run by one of the Liberty Standard bank group’s subsidiaries. And so, it makes business sense for one to have the Lab located there.

However, after going back there on Monday, August 18, having been invited to what was billed invitation to “The Standard Bank Art Lab for an intimate live screening of Nduduzo Makhathini’s NPR Tiny Desk performance, Ntu Sonicities: Devotion Suite in Five Movements, that gave me another perspective about what the bank is trying to do. I have in fact shifted my thinking around what they are trying to do. In fact, it looks like a really good idea.

This looks like another way of engaging with art, the broad arts community besides visual artists, art audiences as well as of course the bank’s clients. For example, besides enjoying the screening, which interesting painted a portrait of the jazzman, Makhathini in a totally different light from what we are used to during his concerts, was quite revealing.

The performance was intimated, showing not only the high-level artistry of the award-winning jazzman, but his vulnerability as a mere human being contemplating and grappling with his spirituality as a black man in a black body, which exists in a n environment where in the world its presence is constantly being questioned by the loud and highly visible. It was n interesting discussion indeed well moderated by Kaya FM jazz show host Brenda Sisane. The conversation between the two flowed easily, almost organically, without each side trying hard to get the best from each other.

Makhathini shared his stories of first how the people behind the screening had been following him, whenever he traveled the world to perform, recording his shows, while requesting him to do this particular recording.

“However, when I was shown what they had done with Adullah Ibrahim, I relented because they had done a pretty good job with the master himself. That was important to me. That changed everything,” he explained.

Makhathini, who is known for his humility on and off stage, also shared an experience he had being on controversial podcast Mac G’s Podcast and Chill, and how he actually saw anything wrong with a person of his profile in jazz being on that platform.

”Of course, after going there, I received criticism from my scholarly circles, with some feeling that I should not have been there as what we do is different. And of course, in jazz circles, there has always been that sense of being exclusive as what we do is see as the other.

But personally, I do not see anything wrong with sharing what we do with others,” he commented while confessing that he enjoyed also watching Mbuso Khoza another high-profile musician’s interview on the same platform.

Mac G’s platform often gets criticized for what others see as the use of sexually explicit language and objectifying women. It however has a huge following especially among the youth as they see it as speaking their language unfiltered.

Makhathini advocated for the use of social media to by artists to promote their work, drawing from his own experience in the past 10 years since he won the Standard bank Young Artist award for Jazz, an event that propelled the hugely gifted pianist’s career to another level. He thanked the Standard Bank for handling his social media handles successfully.

Today the jazzman is one of the busiest artists, whose get fully booked both locally and around the world. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Makhathini’s is the hottest property when in South Africa, and certainly one of the much-admired jazzman from South Africa around the world.

And so, the discussion was great, and the Standard Bank Lab, might be the one thing that the arts community around Johannesburg needs right now as it appears to be emerging as one of the most innovative ways of connecting the audiences with the broader arts community, such as musicians, fashion designers, poets and of course visual artists with audiences in an intimate environment.

I therefore today withdraw my initial reservation about this initiative.