Aryan Kaganof, provocateur-of-all-arts (except cooking, so far), has no need for the multi-mask of pseudonyms, he was born someone else. Five novels; several collections of poetry; various international art exhibits; three bands; oh, and around 120 films (mostly shorts, but still) strapped to his quantum belts, Kaganof is also founder and editor of a vast (we’re talking biblical proportions here) arts blog. By the time you read this he’ll have notched up several more works. Originally making a name under his doopnaam, Ian Kerkhof graduated from the Netherlands Film and Television Academy with Kyodai Makes the Big Time, which promptly garnered the Golden Kalf for Best Picture (Dutch equivalent of the Oscar). Said debut subsequently gulped down Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival. What followed was a frenzied gush of experiments in cinema – within a handful of years he’d racked up dozens of full-lengths and shorts, notorious for plunging into abysses of taboo, and other dangerous, black-lit scapes of the human psyche. Titles like It’s the Children: Incest; Merzbow Beyond Snuff; the celebrated Ten Monologues from the Lives of the Serial Killers; and Nice to Meet You. Please Don’t Rape Me! speak for themselves. The turn of the century saw Kerkhof experience a personal revelation, which led to his rebirth as Aryan Kaganof. The films continued to gush – if less rabidly – his output now spilling into literature, music, theatre and art. When local publishers wouldn’t publish his debut novel Hectic, Kaganof created Pine Slopes Publications, whose roster now includes works by the likes of Lesego Rampolokeng and Helge Janssen. Moving from smoky thighs to sticky barstools to fictional authors, Kaganof’s literature tirelessly roams the playscapes of authorial deceit – mostly in clipped, simple sentences that periodically leap into the profound or shocking – while his poetry feeds on everything (with a sweet tooth for teenage girls), and remixes itself. On the side he’s tirelessly been documenting various local phenomena - from Sharp Sharp! (The Kwaito Story); to an exploration of Post/non-Colonial African thought via the likes of Lefifi Tladi and Geoff Mphakati (who also co-directed) in Giant Steps; and Africa’s first experimental electronic music festival, Unyazi, in Unyazi of the Bushveld. In 2005 he coined the world’s first full-length feature film shot entirely on cellphone, SMS Sugar Man, which Kaganof says “introduces South African audiences to the feel-bad movie, a genre of my own that I have finely honed and shaped over the past 20 years”. For the unveiling universes of Kaganof, see ‘loci’. Loci: Aryan Kaganof AK Thembeka Ian Kerkhof Abraxas Younity Movement Virgins Freedom Fighter www.kaganof.com www.myspace.com/africannoisefoundation www.kaganof.com/kagablog www.pineslopes.book.co.za www.smssugarman.com 18
one small seed