We’ve been working hard on our3 Minute Heroes (3MH) project, and we’re very proud of what that work has achieved. Si, Soes, Sanj and the team have been working with some great people to find out who inspires them, to reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary. Please go to 3 Minute Heroes and take a look at some of the material they’ve created and feel free to nominate your own hero. The stories people have told us have ranged from the heartwarming to the heartbreaking and we have responded to them in a whole variety of ways.
On Saturday 16th April, at the Edge, we will be launching 3 Minute Heroes with an exhibition made in response to the stories we have collected through the project. To help to celebrate the unsung, a series of sonic installations, projections, performances and sculpture have been created by a team of artists using the stories and voices of the people we have worked with as inspiration. We’ve worked with extremely diverse groups on the project and it’s been wonderful hearing their tales of the people who inspire them, local heroes and people in their lives who make a difference. You’ll see in the exhibition just how extraordinary the ordinary is, the hidden gems that you walk by everyday – and that everybody can be somebody’s hero. Now, how did that song go? ‘You’ve got to search for the hero inside yourself’.
See you there or on the website
We held our seminar about our South African residency on Thursday, and it went pretty well, I think. Despite an unexpected snowfall and a few consequent last minute cancellations (part-timers 
), it was standing room only. We really enjoyed delivering the seminar and the audience seemed to as well – nobody walked out at least (actually I’m being a bit too humble, we had lots of ‘inspiring’ and ‘amazing’-type comments). I’m going to try and post a video of the whole thing over the weekend – all being well. It’s an hour long, though, so be warned!
We mentioned joy a lot, as it is so inherent in our work – as well as looking at the issues, thoughts and stories of the people we work with, we are always keen to have moments of joy in our work. For us, joy is what art is all about – the joy of discovery, the joy of thinking about things differently, the joy in making the work and on and on – joy is omniportant. We tend to choose time-based approaches to what we do, interventions, performances, interactions because joy only happens in the moment – it can only be experienced right here, right now, not in the future, and not in the past, it’s a celebration of life, of just being here (this applies to all other artforms, we just like the instant gratification of being in it). Too often we get caught up in the systems we have created to make sense of the world, religion, politics, social systems, heirarchies, those systems give us a sense of safety, because there’s nothing scarier than letting go of all that. Just being in the moment, where you are right now, experiencing what’s real, what’s authentic. We always ask ourselves the question, what’s really going on here, interrogating the moment, to try and tease out the authenticity of a situation, to find the joy within it.
It makes life much more bearable -trust us.
So take some time to find your moments of joy today, try and experience reality for a moment and forget those systems and constructs you normally distract yourself with. Reality can be scary – but don’t be scared, just feel it – you’ll feel better, promise.
Sort of. And second post of the day, weeee!
If you’re from the cultural industries or the public sector and you’re interested in projects that focus on particpation and engagement, intercultural dialogue or legacy, or an artist interested in international work or how interventions can work in differing cultures, then this is an event you should not miss. As usual, the event is free (and unfunded, feel free to donate), refreshments will be available, and there’ll be a big, fat Q+A at the end which will go on for as long as the audience require, then retiring to the annexe (the Anchor public house and real ale emporium), for a ‘debrief’.
RSVP if you would like to attend, there’s a limited capacity and a lot of interest, first come, first served!
See you there.
Edit: We’ve just confirmed a visit by Diana Ivanova (Bulgaria) and Babak Salari (Iran), to present their project ‘My Street’, where they have been working in Cuba, documenting stories on the streets of that unique country – top recommendation from Friction, a great project, from some fantastic artists. My Streets will be presented at the Edge on 27th of Februaury, 2010 – full details next week.
And don’t forget to block out your diaries for our resident fools - from the 19th to 28th of March, Jonathan Kay and the Nomadic Academy of Fools will be in residence at the Edge for a series of workshops, performances and foolishness. This is the only appearance by the fools in the region this year, and so is not to be missed! Again we’ll be posting full details, workshop and performance times next week.
Our final week in the ‘city of gold’ and we are so not ready to leave. The relationships we have made whilst on this residency are so tight, we just know we’ll be back, by hook or by crook, sooner, rather than later. Last night we gave a presentation for the Friends of the Inner City, in a crowded basement in Hillbrow (top of the ‘danger list’ in the city. Almost a hundred residents gathered for their weekly meeting, packed together, a metaphor for the obvious solidarity they provide for each other. One resident spoke about struggles with a landlord who clearly wants them to leave their building to make way for redevelopment – they have had no water of electricity for eight years! This right in the centre of the metropolis -another indication of how lucky we are in the UK, can you imagine the hullaballoo if a building had their water and power off for a week? But the FOTIC are working together to make this stuff a thing of the past in Jozie, we hooked up with their chair, Moses, fairly early on and have been networking them together with various other NGOs and NPOs in Johannesburg, such as the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee – more voices = louder voices means that maybe someone in the government may do something. We’ve discussed with them strategies for getting more publicity for their campaigns, through the press and the web and Kyla has agreed to continue to help after we have left. Some of the stories are harrowing – people thrown in jail for fighting illegal evictions, kids falling from balconies and dying on a monthly basis, but despite all these problems they clearly love their community and are committed to working together to improve it. Wonderful people.
Here’s one of the postcards in our limited edition series of five we made as a legacy fror our project – I’ll post the rest very soon. This one is taken in Hillbrow and depicts local children, post ‘dance workshop’ (they taught us), brandishing flowers we blagged from the rich suburbs:
Move the Nation, indeed. Later.
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.
Here’s some poetic text, written by Sandra in chalk, spiralling around Johannesburg Gallery, on steps leading to our project space:
What’s below the surface, bellowing below the surface
Whats bellowing below the surface, (the thin line below eruption ) Why are we here? What are we together? Stories – territories, terror stories. Fresh, stunned eyes join a pool of possibilities. Our 1 square mile in a kilometric city. Thresholds. How do we invite ourselves and others to cross these? Thresholds and thinly veneered surfaces where are they ? –heart, head, mind, pavement; round the corner. The energy is ever present, effervescent, infectious. What are our responsibilities – our ability to respond?
The four pink aprons set off to walk together in Hillbrow. One step forward, five radar moments beside and behind. Look back to look forward. Steps and squalor, memories and corners. I was born here but can no longer be here, Why? Home…. for whom.?Where are they now? At night? At day? Stale places re-invigorated with new African brothers. Memories nestle in a changed, longing landscape.
Potent images, charged conversations, elicit shapes of things to come. We juice, we play, talk, connect. We notice accidents, pockets of surprise, we dig in the fertile square mile in a kilometric city, plant seedlings, draw distant threads together over dinner. ‘Its the Wild West’ ‘Its Africa’ a divided city. The walls can rise and fall here with a smile, crackling with electricity.
Passions emerge across the concrete threshold with abundant flowers and measured offers. Hillbrow embraces the ‘North’ in an energetic burst of boxed flowers, beer bottles, charged children in search of a sense of place beyond the territories of Joubert park, home, church and school.
The Chiefs of fear are Nigerian and we meet Chief. An ex-gangster warrior he now gives tough love in a block in Hillbrow. He also gives life to four SA street kids as well as his own, nurturing the gap left by absent parents. He is a provider of dark basements, homes, slivers of hope for a swelling population seeking their own gold rush in a mercurial city of hope.
The park, the park, with its English landscaped gardens of trees populated by elbow-close clash of cultures in search of different peaces. The landscape is below head height. A newspaper pillow, a sprawl of bodies looking for shade. Below this surface, temporary homes, playgrounds, meeting place, resting ground and looming screens of 2D dreams.
Inviting intersections at divisions to meet, celebrate profoundly in possibilities for us each to cross a new threshold daily. The four aprons draw their short-time strings and weave more questions, gather the pearls of people met to offer a sideways glance at potential futures.
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.
"@krishgm because he's morally bankrupt?"16 hours ago"@SarahABGee V.gd thanks stonkin' coupla years ahead, do u fancy a coffee and view from our wonderful roof top 'Edge'? great plans afoot..x"yesterday"@getgood @TalkAboutLocal @karenstrunks you've the same photo face I make when photo-ing people Karen! miss you Nicky. Sandra x"yesterday
