Bazik Thlana
Five Million Incidents

About the Actant

Bazik Thlana is an artist pursuing his doctorate in Visual Studies. Precariously positioned between urban living and tribal roots, his work draws inspiration from the unique space he occupies. Bazik narrates his personal journey of coming of age and comments on political injustice like the central narrative of inept inclusion. His unusual approach often comments on the need to look closer and examine - to take the time to inspect and appreciate a culture and people that are often forgotten in the broader scheme of things. His work is often layered and multi-faceted: going beyond the subject but also the medium and sub-text. He enjoys challenging his audience and inciting people with his art, provoking thoughts and originating dialogue. He also makes artists’ book, zines and comics and occasionally writes poetry.

Bed Bugs Intimacy is a series of events that puts itself forth as a mode of singularity. It revolves around bed bugs - the enigmatic, blood sucking and unwanted parasite acting as a catalyst for metaphorical questions or otherwise. The series examines socio-political resubjectivation through the shifting conditioning of sleep and wakefulness. For this project, participants are encouraged to react to the propositions and exordiums and inhabit the space created for the project. Interaction with live bed bugs to generate new ways of thinking and acts of becoming. The resulting vulnerability and resilience proposed reenactments and creative outputs (in any form) would then be addressed as the proceeding events unfolds.