We’re into our final week of the residency here in Jozie, boohoo.  We have continued with workshops, working with a group of young men at Johannesburg Art Gallery on mapping and installation creation.  It’s interesting, as they are in a relatively ‘traditional’ art class, but as ever, despite a little resistance (quickly diverted) they’re going with it.  I was reflecting the other day why working class black South Africans (Africans in general really, Jozie being such a melting pot) are so willing to join in with stuff which may be outside their comfort zone.  As you will have seen from the previous posts, we’ve had no trouble getting people involved in our interventions, just on the spur of the moment.  We’ve had comments from people of a more ‘european complexion’ that they probably wouldn’t become ‘ensnared’ by our tactics – so why is this?  One theory is that they have less to lose, and so are more open to opportunity as many people here in the ‘city of gold’ are trying to ‘better’ themselves, economically and socially, and so keep their eyes open. The jury is out on that one, but it bodes well for future visits (we shall return).

On Friday we took a ride out to a couple of gardens on the edge of the inner city. The Siyakhana Bezuidenhout food garden was a highlight.  Using permaculture, sustainable materials and hard work, the team there grow vegetables and herbs for a variety of community uses.  Linking up with local NGOs, they distribute food to those in need, grown locally and organically.  They also create herbal remedies, creams and aromatherapy oils to treat a variety of ailments, and are completely committed to putting these to work for the most vulnerable in society (and over here, that is extremely vulnerable).  It was wonderful to meet them, but also upsetting, as this great crew of people are constantly under threat from lack of funding and support, always a month away from closure, despite the great work they do.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for them, this project deserves as much support as it can be given, it is empowering for the people that benefit from its produce, and from the commitment of its workers.  Friction salute you!

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As I said, our time here is drawing to a close.  It has been wonderful – we’ve met some incredible people, from all strata of society, made some (imho) great work, and had a lot of fun.  We’ve also stayed safe in this ‘dangerous place’, while staying true to our ethics and our approach.  Really, Joburg fits us like a glove, partly because there is a clear need for Friction’s work here.  ‘Proper’ socially-engaged practice is still in its infancy here, there aren’t many people doing stuff like we do (excepting of course Anthea and Kyla) that bridges the gap between making art and making a difference (there aren’t that many in the UK, for that matter).  Because of its very in yer face social issues there is space for us to make our work, and a will to make it happen.  Many South Africans do have a commitment to their country and their people, there is a will to make this country something special and a willingness to work together to make this happen. It is very refreshing for us, coming from the cynical old UK and at the moment, in many ways, it feels more like home than home does.

It has also been a very exhausting residency.  We always try to give as much as we get, and it has been quite draining, physically and emotionally, making the work, and working with the people we have during our time here.  So next week, rather than returning to the UK, we’re taking ten days or so out and having a holiday in Cape Town.  Of course, we’re never off duty, so expect some more posts on the contrasts between Cape Town (a more functional city  by all accounts) and Jozie, its ‘ugly sister’ (we love you Jozie, despite what they all say).

Anyway, we haven’t gone yet, and there’s still stuff to do before we leave.  The wonderful Mr Banjoh Matongo is helping visitors to the gallery to upload to the square mile site, so do go there and check out the Johannesburg community for more posts by some of our participants, and while you’re there, have a look at some of the other ‘square miles’ across the world.  Big highlight of the week promises to be the ‘Rumble at Wembley’, where we are going to see some of Gorge Khosi’s (our ‘guardian angel) boxers partake in the noble art of punching someone repeatedly in the face.  I never thought I’d get involved in boxing, not being the violent type (with exceptions), but the work George does in one of the most troubled areas of this troubled city is imp0rtant and special.  Anyway, he insisted we come, furnishing us with free tickets, and I am not going to argue with someone who has arms as thick as my waist, am I? Expect a report soon.

On Sunday we had a kind of ‘landing’ show at Johannesburg Art Gallery.  We set up our project space as an exhibition reflecting the interventions we have made during the project.  Anthea ‘squozzed’ orange juice for the audience, surrounded by photographs from ‘Nourish the Nation’, nailing the empty orange shells onto the wall, and asked audience members to add to our collection of labels.  Kyla undertook some boxing training with George Khosi, framed by beer bottle ‘vases’, filled with flowers – several audience members had a go themselves, George went easy on them, thankfully.  I stood next to the letters from the ‘Joubert Park Fax Machine’ and recited stories we had gathered from participants about their favourite trees.

The audience participated fully in the experience, very different from the usual shows they might expect to see at the gallery.  The audience was incredibly diverse and joyful, children were climbing on some of the bronze sculptures in the gallery (and were allowed to).  We finished by cutting a ribbon across the threshold between the gallery and the park and declaring it ‘officially’ open to the public.

We then took a walk, a hundred or so of us, across the park, taking in the places where we had made interventions and explaining to the crowd what had happened at each place.  When we took them to the Greenhouse we found our first participant, a lady hawker, who had run into ‘Grow the Nation’ and introduced her to the crowd.  Sean taught the crowd his tree rhyme in English, Zula and Sutu and they all joined in before giving the ‘philosopher tree’ a group hug and returning to the gallery.

Here’s some pics, more to follow:

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Just a quickie.  We’re planning an event on Sunday at Johannesburg gallery and I wanted to drop a quick post about it.  Firstly, a truncated, de-bumfified version of the eflyer, photo courtesy of Musha Nehuleni, after my version was judged too ‘grainy’ (a photographer, I’m not, as you will have realised by now.)  We’ve been blessed with working with some great photograhers during this residency, particularly Musha, Bethule Nkiwane and  Tawedzerwa Zhou.   Anyway:

The aprons have almost become an iconic image for the project – I’m always looking for an excuse to put mine on-  but they are also symbolic of a lot of  the issues we have been coming up with, and the four of us, of course.  So on Sunday, we’re having an interactive exhibition of the work we have made with Anthea Moys and Kyla Davis and people in Joburg.  There’ll be orange squeezing, mapping, boxing, flowers, films, audio, adopt-a-seedling and whatever else we cook up between now and then.  There’ll also be a series of images, taken by some of the photographers above, and ourselves, in small and poster format, installations that we and our participants have created (together and seperately) and samples of audio and written contributions.  Best of all, we are bringing people across the threshold of the park gates and into Johannesburg Art Gallery and vice versa.   One of the most rewarding aspects of working with people in public spaces, is that you see connections being made, that may never have been made without the work bringing people together, and this has been something that has very much happenend with this short project.  It’s nice to see legacies arise from the work you make.

As a climax to the day we will be launching a series of postcards, depicting images from our interventions and some short stories and comments by participants.  We’ll be giving everyone a single image, but will be selling ‘gift packs’ of a full set of five, all profits to go to George Khosi’s Boxing Club in Hillbrow.

Anyway – as I said the aprons have played a big role in the project and have become almost iconic to us – check out this bad boy:

Thanks to Bethule for the photograph, thanks a lot… And if any of you out there are in and around Joburg on Sunday, please drop in and join us.

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Our 4th intervention, ‘Map the Nation’, was focussed on mapping the biodiversity of our square mile.  We also wanted to continue our ‘threshold crossing’ theme, so decided to bring some of our previous participants, and any new guests, and cross the threshold between Joubert Park and Johannesburg Art Gallery.  As the ‘Joubert Park Fax Machine’ (as one participant called it) was so succesful last week, we continued that approach.  This time our ‘airmail’ letters were attached to trees, containing a similar tantalising message, an invitation to help us on our ‘mission’ by meeting the ‘man in the straw hat’ at the fountain, at an appointed time – and of course, sealed with a kiss.  Hardly had we installed them, than they were gone, and we had to make more on the hoof.
When particpants came in search of the mysterious stranger, they were met by Kyla and Sean.  Sean is a local tree expert, who, along with Kyla (and George Khosi, the boxer, our guardian angel), would take them on a tour of the park, pointing out certain trees and relating facts and myths about them.  Their next encounter was at the gates of JAG, where they were presented with a bag containing pencils and paper, and further instructions.  They were to remember a certain tree and to think of associations with that tree – did it give them shade, somewhere to meet, a place to jog a memory or did they have any stories about that tree?  Then they had to follow a blue and white ribbon and they would find out more.  The ribbon led them from the gates of the park to our project space within the gallery.
Inside, Sandra would greet them (and calm them down) by singing a beautiful old english folk song.  She would ask them to sit and then to draw out a picture of their favourite tree, to cut this out, and then to attach it to wire we had hung previously.  The trees were suspended over the park on the giant map we made last week.  This time, we asked them to mark on the location of their favourite tree.  The installation, with the trees hanging over the map in the black-walled space, looked beautiful.  Once they’d hung their tree, we asked them to write a short story about the tree – these will be attached with thread to the trees in the installation, creating a web of stories.
We have all been on a journey through this project so far, the artists and the participants, and will be moving into a different phase, in the final half of the residency.  Over the next few weeks we will be having smaller scale workshops, with the participants who have stayed with us, and all being well, they will begin to share their own stories with the rest of the ‘square mile world’.

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Last weekend, as Si Walker was only with us for (sob) such a short time, we decided to take a couple of days off and go ‘on safari’.  We took a three hour drive up to Pilanisberg Nature Reserve to see some animals.  It was wonderful – despite having to stay in the car (I really wanted to get out and touch the animals, not recommended apparently) – which is partly why the images are a bit blurry, and partly due to shaking with excitement. Jaw-droppingly good fun, as well as the animals pictured, we saw stuff like groups of meerkats doing their cute running-sitting-up-looking-around-manically thing, driving alongside an elephant who was clearly on a mission for about a mile, staring full into the face of a white rhino 6 feet away, watching a huge lioness stalk a herd of zebra etc, etc. Fanbloodytastic.

Loads to report on this post, busy as usual.  We made our third intervention this Wednesday, at the Greenhouse project, one the edge of Joubert Park. ‘Grow the Nation’ (we didn’t use a title, but that fits nicely), was a series of activities, based in the Greenhouse space, including their half-built ‘Earth House’, completely constructed with reclaimed and sustainable materials.

First we enticed people in from the park and off the street using a few strategies.  We constructed a ‘string slide’ from the first floor of the Earth House to a lampost in the park.  We attached airmail envelopes, with ‘open me please’  and ‘for you’ in english and Zulu on the covers, and a lipstick kiss on the back.  Inside was a letter telling the reader to follow the chalk arrows on the floor and ‘you never know what you may find’.  Loads more people took the letters than we expected and we soon had as many people as we could manage, some even ran from the park! In the entrance gate Kyla and Anthea, in their best flowery swimsuits, were ‘taking tea’ and would lead participants to the first activity.  Here’s some photographs (all photos by Bethule Nkiwane and  Tawedzerwa Zhou)

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When they came into the ground floor of the Earth House, they were met with Lee and Sandra, who explained they were from the UK and needed help navigating Joburg.  So we asked them to make us a map, putting on where they live, work, play and where were ‘good’ and ‘bad’ places – and putting on routes and journeys they take.  People were more than happy to comply, concentrating really hard and often spending 15-20 minutes on their maps.  We had a great mix of people attending, around 50 adults and 50 young people during the afternoon. More photographs:

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After they had completed their map, we took them up the (rather dangerous) stairs to the first floor of the Earth House.  Here they were confronted with a huge map of our square mile, covering most of the floor of the building (thanks to Si and Ben). We asked them to take off their shoes and then photographed them standing on the map at the place where they live. and then asked them to fill in details of important (to them) places and buildings. It made a beautiful meditative place, again people were concentrating very hard and silently walking round this massive map of their inner city and marking significant places.  Even more photos:

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After this we led them around the Greenhouse yard, where Kyla and Doreen were running an ‘adopt a plant’ workshop.  they showed people how to make pots out of recycled coke bottles, then how to plant and look after a seedling (mostly vegetables and tomatoes).  we asked them to bring their plant back to us next Sunday (1st), when we are having an event inside Johannesburg Art Gallery, showing all the work and documentation to date, as well as launching our ‘I Heart Hillbrow’ postcards.  Even, even more photos:

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The event was a huge success and we ran out of seedlings (naievely thinking 100 would be enough.  We also asked people to come back next Wednesday, when we will be back in Joubert Park, this time running workshops mapping the biodiversity of the area, getting people to draw their favourite plants and trees and then adding them to the huge map in the gallery.

We have also been busy on other things.  We have taught students in Soweto and Alexandra townships, with Anthea.  Both groups are attending media, marketing and  design courses – not our usual thing, you might think, but these students are very different from the ones we are used to in the UK.  Whilst still wanted to ‘get on’ in life, there is a real sense that these young people also want to put back into their communities. They clearly enjoyed working with us and were a joy to work with.  The Soweto class even gave us an impromptu performance of spoken word and song at the end of class, which was a pleasure and an honour.  We’re taking the weekend off for a little safari, so expect some photographs of beasties next week!

We had our first dinner on Friday and a great success it was.  This was our first, so we took it quite gently and invited some other artists, an architect amd Mubule from the Greenhouse project and his lovely wife.  As people entered the space we helped them over the threshold:

We had decorated the room (in Anthea and Gwydion’s flat – thanks guys!) with the labels from Nourish the Nation’, a slideshow of our first intervention and drawn maps of our first couple of weeks on the project, so people knew they weren’t coming to just any dinner, and it worked a treat.  The conversations were intense and wide-ranging, taking in (inevitably), politics and race, the state of the nation, local conditions in Johannesburg and so many more concepts and ideas that for most of the night I just shut up and listened. We also discussed the role of the artist in the world and whether we could hope to make any real difference to conditions ‘in the real world’ as it were.  My take on this is that we have to treat the world as if it is the one we wish to live in, even if it patently isn’t.  To treat people as if they are kind and good, even if they are selfish and venal, and must continue to make our work, even if it is only a ‘grain of sand’ to disrupt the cogs in the machinery of society – aren’t pearls said to come from grains of sand?

The whole dinner, though, just proved the complexity of this city and country and the issues facing it as it heads into an unknowable future, but also how passionate its people are about making that future a better one, not just for themselves, but for their fellow South Africans, a story we are hearing a lot (with notable exceptions).  It makes me long for those long ago days in the UK when people seemed to care for something other than themselves, their careers and their bank balances, when there was such a thing as society and it was a place to be shared.

We ended up like this:

Today we went to Parkview – a poshish suburb to the north of town, where we knocked on doors and asked residents to donate some flowers from their gardens for our next intervention, ‘Move the Nation’, which we are making tomorrow at Georges boxing ring on Claim Street, on the edge of our square mile in Hillbrow – everyone’s ‘favourite’ dangerous place (to be fair it is on the edge of Hillbrow and we will have all those big muscley boxers to protect us, so don’t worry). I’ll try and post up the results on Thursday, and explain why it was so important for us to go on our ‘blagging mission’ – check back then!