Jamal Nxedlana: FAKA Portrait, 2019

Aperture is pleased to release this limited-edition photograph by the artist Jamal Nxedlana on the occasion of the “Orlando” issue of Aperture magazine, curated by Tilda Swinton.

A photographer, artist, and creative director of the South Africa-based platform Bubblegum Club, Nxedlana is fascinated by the intersections of fashion and street culture in Johannesburg. For his collaboration with FAKA—known as Fela Gucci and Desire Marea—he took the interdisciplinary artist duo to Times Square in Yeoville, a neighborhood in Johannesburg known to some as an “intergalactic spiritual portal.” Nxedlana styled FAKA for their urban odyssey with spectacular dresses that reference Brenda Fassie, the South African singer and queer icon. Not unlike the title character in Orlando, FAKA’s looks transcend gender, race, and class binaries using uncategorized clothing, makeup, and hairstyles. Together, they escape the confines of linearity as figures from the ongoing past, becoming somehow all genders, all ages, all times, all at once.

Each limited-edition print is hand-packed with great care and ships from New York within 3–5 days.