Although not in our square mile, situated as it is in the inner city, we decided to involve one of the nearby suburbs in the north in our second intervention.  So, on a very hot day, we set out to Parkview, with a pair of scissors, some buckets and water, to involve suburbians in ‘Moving the Nation’.  The suburbs, in stark contrast to our mile, are predominantly upper middle class, with a population of mainly white families, supported by maids, gardeners and other service providers, who are almost always from other ethnic groups, mainly black Africans.  Security is tight indeed, most houses are surrounded by high walls and fences, topped off with barbed wire and usually electrified, supported by roving patrols of armed guards and ‘rapid response’ teams from private security firms.
We walked around the neighbourhood, and would stop off at likely looking gardens, buzzing the inhabitants and explaining what we were up to – that we were artists, working with Johannesburg Art Gallery, and required them to donate flowers from their gardens, which we would use to decorate a ‘space’ in Hillbrow (the opposite end of the social spectrum).  We would then photograph their flowers in situ and return to them a postcard in thanks.
We received mixed responses, from ‘not today thankyous’ to offers of cash!  We refused the money and explained that it was merely a donation of flowers we required, which puzzled people, but quite a few said yes straight away.  We soon had two carfuls of flowers with which we would ‘move the nation’ and left the suburb satisfied with the results of our quest. (We had been told by several people that it was a a mad idea and we would not get any flowers – so we were pleased that human nature and generosity triumphed and we proved them wrong). Here’s some photographs of the intervention

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Yesterday saw us ‘move the nation’ at George Khosi’s outdoor boxing ring on Claim St in Hillbrow.  From last week’s intervention we found that many people’s ‘unsafe place’ was Hillbrow, so we were determined to make an intervention there as soon as possible – and where safer than alongside George and his stable of championship boxers?  We had invited participants from last week to attend, and to our delight, many did!
We first set up by decorating the boxing ring with the flowers donated from suburbia the day before, put lots of flowers into beer bottles and placed them around, hung up the labels from last week and wrote Move The Nation on the fence in multicoloured ribbons.  George and his people seemed puzzled, but amused at the transformation of the space into something much jollier than usual and bent over backwards to help and get involved.  We put on loud house music, blew bubbles and clowned around in the space and soon drew a crowd, who we then enticed in to tell us stories, have a juice and get their photograph taken with the flowers next to the ring.
Using the boxing ring revealed all sorts of metaphors about how people struggle to survive in the ‘city of gold’, the addition of the flowers giving a positive, hopeful spin to this.  We chose beer bottles as vases as there is a huge issue with alcohol in the area – often the case where poverty raises its ugly head- which often leads to violence, both sexual and physical and there is a culture of abuse on all sorts of levels in the neighbourhood.
We had soon attracted a large crowd of children, as well as the adults, who we enticed into the boxing ring with the promise of a ‘dance workshop’.  Kyla (tired already after a couple of rounds with George, who is convinced she has the makings of a champion boxer), led the workshop – getting the kids to teach her steps and sharing some of her own, so they would come up with short routines.  We had about 40 of them performing a limbo dance at one point, the children enjoyed themselves immensely.  Children leave class at 2 in the afternoon here, after an early start, often their parents are working until much later which leaves them to the streets and its many dangers until later.  So having this ‘organised’ and fun activity was obviously great for them and there was much laughter in and around the boxing ring.  After a couple of exhausting hours, we sat them down with juice and oranges and chilled out together.  We then got them to make a group pose for a photograph with them all holding flowers, before sending them on their way with a wave and an invite to next week’s intervention at the Greenhouse envirnmental project, just around the corner at Joubert Park.
We also continued to interview adult participants, this time getting them to write (or writing for them) detailed stories of their safe and unsafe places, before photographing them clutching one of the flowers from the suburbs. Sandra also interviewed Elijah, an ex-tsotsi (criminal), now reformed, who is rapidly becoming the ‘spirit’ of the project – for 1 1/2 hours, and who came to our first intervention and has promised to come to our next.
We now have lots of fantastic photographs which we are going to use to make printed postcards for our ‘I heart Hillbrow’ campaign. These postcards will feature a photograph of Hillbrow residents, with the flowers donated by the suburbians on the front and a short story of a safe or unsafe place on the back.  These postcards will be distributed via arts and community venues to be sold or given away, depending on the venue, with any profits being split between George Khosi’s boxing club and the Greenhouse Environmental project.  So now we have a legacy for our project.
Next week’s intervention will consist of ecology workshops and an ‘adopt a plant’ project at the Greenhouse.  Watch this space!

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