ONE SMALL SEED MAGAZINE Issue #29 Digital 04 THE BEST OF | Page 26

A deft painterly touch nevertheless distinguishes his
technique from that of the street artist.

As Mustafa explains, ‘I think my work deals more with ways of seeing and
experiencing life and how the world in turn, sees you. I am inventing the
subject and placing it in a context of my own making. The subject, so to speak,
is my idea and does not exist outside of my thoughts. Characters in my works
exist in very complex societies and particular spaces that could exist in the real
world.’
Despite working with inanimate source material, there is an intimate interaction
between the artist and his subject that evolves through the process of bringing
them to life.
‘My source material is just that, material. I have a lengthy process of editing,
mixing and remixing this material and refining it until I am able to use it in the
production of a painting. Their origin or original purpose is irrelevant to the
reading of my work.’
Likening his role as painter to a film director in charge of a cast of actors,
Mustafa asserts that his characters ‘are who I make them to be.’ ‘I am the
scriptwriter, the costume designer and the lighting technician,‘ he continues.
‘My characters however, are frozen in a kind of time capsule, doomed to
forever be staring out at the viewer and play their part in my production.
The abundant paradoxes in Maluka’s work begin to make sense as one
charts the 31-year-old’s career. It’s the story of a young hip-hop head from
the flats who, after some obligatory twists of fate, lands a residency at one
of the Netherlands’ most prestigious fine-art academies. Ironically (but sadly,
unsurprisingly) it was outside of the land of his birth that he first began to
attract serious attention. During a four month stint as an artist in residence,
Marlene Dumas paid a visit to his Amsterdam studio and shortly thereafter
helped set the ball in motion for tenure at De Ateliers - a nurturing ground for
imminent sensations.
His time in Holland