#21: Rirhandzu Vermeulen

This week we are joined by 3rd year fine art student, Rhandzu Vermeulen, who tells us more about being a "t-shirt & jeans typa gal", Cloud Atlas (2012), Hollandaise Sauce, and more!

Rirhandzu (‘Rhandzu’ for short) Vermeulen is a 3rd year fine art student at Wits University. She’s been living in the city of Johannesburg for 2 years now – originally from her hometown of Hoedspruit, Limpopo. She is a multifaceted painter who doesn’t necessarily identify with a particular style, but strangely enough, there seems to be cohesion in her work. Currently, most of her oil paintings are about her moving from Limpopo to Johannesburg, while next year, she is looking into prioritising printmaking and sculpture. Other than creating art, she really enjoys going out with close friends – going down philosophical rabbit holes (s/o Slavoj Zizek & Nietzsche) and therefore, also just being in a state of existential dread.

We welcome her to The FRM Newsletter to share what she’s been into recently.

👕👖 T-SHIRT AND JEANS TYPA GAL
T-SHIRT AND JEANS are really my go to, Yoh. This combo is a lot. If you look at my feed, that’s mostly it. I think having an oversized colourful tee with some flared jeans/ pants is magical. This combo is obviously paired w amazing sneakers. You can’t go wrong. Obviously I do try and venture out of just that. I try to balance between the feminine and masculine but always prioritising my comfort.

🎶 S/o to my folks for my music taste
I’ve been told my playlists are so haphazard and nonsensical and that’s because I listen to anything and everything. My top 5 songs right now: ‘Lancey or Lancey’ by Lancey Foux, ‘Simplesmente’ by Bebel Gilberto, ‘Regret’ by Jejüne, ‘Bonfire’ by Childish Gambino and ‘Bledi’ by Chen Mami. Also, I’m Tsonga and I really vouch for Shangaan electro music. It’s so fun!

📖 Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga (1988)
I think I’ve read this book like 5 times. It really opened my eyes in terms of my positionality in this really weird world. I read it in grade 8 when I didn’t know anything about anything. This book made me want to investigate. If you’re interested in story-like biographies, Black history, race relations and socio-economics; read this book.

🎨💸 Are you an artist or just good at marketing?
I mean you can be both. Social media has created this culture of almost forcing creatives to market themselves as much as possible on online platforms. And I get it. We all want to profit at the end of the day. But my worry and observation is that audiences/ consumers of art gravitate to the creatives that market themselves the most (obviously) but the problem with that is this audience is in a constant vacuum and won’t really appreciate anything outside of what is the most marketed – pushed down your throat – thing is. Artists themselves also then start to make similar work to what’s now deemed successful, hence we find ourselves regurgitating the same music, visuals, sound whatever. It’s a vicious capitalistic cycle. I mean I get it, that’s the world we live in, but damn. I wish we could all really just tap into our true authentic selves. This is my opinion lol please don’t come for me. Let’s chat. Wehhh I hope this makes sense. I think what I’m talking about applies to like ‘surface level’ commercial art. The real buck and academic side, not so much.

🎥 FAVE MOVIE OR WOTEVA
Cloud Atlas. Watch it. It’s a great 3-hour long sci-if about our evolution as the human race. It’ll make you cry. Touches on interconnectedness and all that great stuff.

🍯 HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
I’m a fan of a good eggs Benedict. Problem is: my mom is the only one who I believe makes them – good ones. The sauce makes or break it. All I’m saying is that it’s supposed to be a good balance between sweet, tangy and sour. It’s not supposed to taste like watered down mayo. The Louise and Anna restaurant in Craighall is the only place that does it justice in Joburg. No promo lol.

🇵🇹🕯 Portugal
This is not so much a tip or suggestion or anything. I just really want to go here. Visit my aunt who has a whole farm near the sea. I can just imagine painting outside and being at extreme peace. Yoh but in this economy :( but yeah what I can say is. Travelling is important, it’s so good to get out and see the frequencies that other places operate at.