Ubuntu 2010

City of Johannesburg website reports on the development of a Vuvu Carnival Orchestra in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. The idea was developed by Pedro Espi-Sanchis, a Spaniard who migrated to South Africa in 1971. The instrument is a plastic trumpet used in soccer matches.

Pedro describes the orchestra as the musical embodiment of Ubuntu:

This means that no one will play louder than others, and no one will play the same rhythm. What people play will interlock with others and complement what others offer.

Mass Observation

A New Yorker article reviews the English movement Mass Observation, which grew out of surrealism and became a kind of art sociology dedicated to exposing everyday life to public gaze as a power of demystification.

Mass-Observation undercut the nationalist message of the coronation. To one onlooker, the Queen seems to have bed head, and the King looks “bony, frozen-nervous, staring.” Another mistakes the Viscount Craigavon for Princess Juliana. Beside a radio in Nottingham, a hairdresser’s mother weeps and moans, “Oh, it ought to be Edward—it—it—it ought to be Edward.”
A woman praises snuff, unforgettably: “Eeee, it’s lovely, makes your navel perk like a whelk!” The book celebrates the pub as an active and social form of leisure, a way of life that, Orwell wrote when he reviewed it, was in danger of being “gradually replaced by the passive, drug-like pleasures of the cinema and the radio.”
In a 1938 radio talk, Jennings had suggested it was no accident that the search for the meaning of everyday life led to history. “Mysteries reside in the humblest everyday things,” he said; they are a kind of legacy, and the poet, by examining them, can extract “an idea of ‘what I am’ from the past.”

Caleb Crain 'The Mass-Observation movement and the meaning of everyday life'

Make the common everywhere

The use of recycled materials enables some artists to expand the scale of their work so that it eventually floods the entire gallery. This image is from Currents 98: Tara Donovan (Saint Louis Art Museum), and features more than 600,000 plastic cups. According to the artist:

A transformative moment occurs for me when the material ceases to reference itself and begins to take on a formal structure that relates to the natural or built environment

Donovan's work raises a difficult issue with the idea of making the common precious. Most of the artists in Craft Unbound resort to found materials as a form of resistance to consumerism. In Donovan's case, however, the wasteful production is accelerated by artistic excess. This work seems to have nothing else to say other than is sheer spectacle.

September 11

While most of the world considers today as the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the New York World Trade Centre, it is also the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Satyagraha, the movement of non-violence that originated by Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg, 1906.

Staple

Here's an interesting article on the word for common goods, 'staple':

A staple was always held under the command of the king, who appointed officials to ensure trade was done according to the rules, that quality was maintained and—especially—that he got his cut. Because of the great importance of wool, the merchants trading in it became known as staplers.

Chandragupta's coda

Here's an interesting installation shot of Chandragupta's Thenuwara's recent exhibition in Colombo. The work, titled Peace, consists of his trademark ceramic barrells, though in this case stripped of their normal camouflage colours. They look almost naked, eh? 

Ambedkar article

From an interesting new article published in an issue of Borderlands devoted to the Gandhi legacy, with a discussion of the activist Ambedkar:
"... all through the late 1940s right up to his death in 1956, he (Gandhi) travelled to many parts of Buddhist Asia—Sri Lanka, Burma, Tibet and Japan—in order to forge spiritual alliances and bring to life once again an Asian world formation that could converse with modernity in tongues both sacred and secular.
Bhabha, "vernacular cosmopolitanism" While I do draw on Bhabha's assertion that the phrase best applies to the orientation of embattled leaders and thought figures of the non-White, non-Western world—Du Bois, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Fanon, Morrison—who attempt to "translate between cultures and across them in order to survive, not in order to assert the sovereignty of a civilized class or the spiritual autonomy of a revered ideal" (Bhabha, 2002: 23-24)
Bhabha, Homi (2002), in conversation with John Comaroff, "Speaking of Postcoloniality in the Continuous Present", in Goldberg, D T. and Quayson, A. eds. (2002), Relocating Postcolonialism, Oxford: Blackwell.
Debjani Ganguly 'Convergent Cosmopolitics in the Age of Empire: Gandhi and Ambedkar in World History' (19/06/2006)

Bread woman in Santiago

Ananova - Bread statue popular with pigeons
"A statue of a woman made out of bread is proving popular with pigeons in a park in Santiago." An interesting prelude to the tour of Make the Common Precious to Chile.

The publication has arrived

Artists and friends of Common Goods gathered at Craft Victoria last night to reflect on the event and look at the catalogue. The evening evoked many fond memories and a curious exchange of information. One artist had received an email in perfect English from a Rafoogar in Najibabad. Everyone was keen to continue the exchange, and were regretful that there was less time for everyone to spend time together. Let's hope that this is not a one-off. Mark McDean and Mary Louise Edwards can be seen astounding themselves at the Common Goods publication.

Some thoughts from the Exhibition Designer

The exhibition design of Common Goods was particularly distinctive, with the use of netting rather than perspex. Here are notes from the designer with background to her choices in the display solution.

Design Notes - “Common Goods” Exhibition
By Rosemary Simons April 2006

Introduction:

Amongst the factors that influence design decisions are: exhibits,venue, budget and themes.These notes examine these factors and the design response to them, in relation to the exhibition “Common Goods: Cultures meet Thorugh Craft”, Curated by Kevin Murray, Director of Craft Victoria, for Craft Victoria.

The exhibition was designed by myself, Rosemary Simons.

Exhibits

All were craft objects but there the similarity nearly ended.

Many items demonstrated an ability to ‘make do’, where a limited range of existing materials and construction techniques, was responded to with inventiveness and ingenuity.

The artists were from a number of different countries.

Shape, size, materials and manufacturing techniques all varied. Some materials were man made and some were natural; some approaches were contemporary, whilst others were traditional; some items were 2D and some 3D; some were free-standing and some required suspension.

A portion of the exhibits would not exist until after the initial opening. These absent exhibits could have spaces left for them, or their exhibition furniture could be introduced with them.

There was no hierarchy of importance amongst the objects, all were to have as equal a status as possible.

The exhibits needed some protection from damage or theft.

Venue

No venue is entirely neutral however some announce themselves more strongly than others. This venue was the latter, the work of Denton, Corker Marshall making a strong architectural statement . The exhibition could quite easily have been made to look ridiculous or insignificant within the scale and strength of the architecture.

The space was not designed for exhibitions. It is a foyer to the Temporary Exhibition Hall , a ‘’shop front’ for the museum and a thoroughfare generally. It displays two impressive, large scale, exhibits and visible through a vast, glass wall, is a large scale granite art work.

On one side of ‘Common Goods’ was constructed a stack of giant flag cards, whilst half way through the life of the exhibition, the eye-catching, “Spirit of the Games’ exhibition, would be visible through the open doors of the Temporary Exhibition Hall.

Unless we opted for the other end of the museum foyer, which appeared too far from the action, ‘Common Goods’ must be made to appear entitled to its place within this setting.

Budget

The limited size of the budget imposed the need for very creative thinking in order to draw as much from the funds as possible.

Even if we had wanted it, a slick, highly finished, composition of glass or perspex showcases, was out of the question, as also was a lighting rig.

Themes
The brief, both verbal and written, stressed the theme of hospitality and the capacity for cultures to meet through craft.

Representation from a variety of countries and a broad range of works was essential to presenting these themes.

Design Decisions

Exhibit and Budget led:

Designing a stand to suit each exhibit was rejected due to cost, the possibilities of imposing status, and the fact that some exhibits were unknowns. A range of stands might also weaken the impact of the installation which clearly needed to have a presence within the space.

The tactile nature of the exhibits suggested a tactile component to the stands and the ‘make do’ quality seemed fitting for the stand design also.

Market places featured in early discussions and the experiences of the curator, Kevin Murray, as he travelled to visit the artists. Market stands were temporary, improvised , suited a range of items and were approachable. Even the layout of such markets suited the space. Markets and their stalls thus became a source of inspiration.

Objects may be protected by electronic beams or sensor pads, however these, like glass or perspex protection, would not have been possible for all the exhibits, given the budget. Further to this, and more importantly, such protection did not lend itself to a ‘make do’ construction. Another protection was needed.

Kevin recalled a country museum, no doubt ‘making do’, using chicken wire as a protection for a glass bottle exhibit. Whilst this could be perceived as a greater barrier than glass or perspex, it did not cause reflection problems and did not place a solid albiet transparent, material between the viewer and the object. Wire, in the end was replaced by netting. The netting had a tactile quality that was sympathetic to the approach and allowed the object to ‘breath’.

Stand materials were unpainted steel, ply, fabric, hardwood dowel and netting. Whilst man made, the materials are not particularly ‘high tech’.

The construction techniques utilised, was to tie the stands together using cable ties. Whilst some fabricators doubted the viability of this approach, I took confidence from the large tied bamboo scaffolding and permanent villages I had seen in Asia.

Scenic Studios devised a finish for the ply, that took away the newness. The air would do the ageing for us in regard to the steel. Terracotta tiles became the plinths or supports where needed, adding a final stand material to the mix.

Nothing was fixed to the walls as if the ‘market’ could pack up and move on.


Venue led:

The colour chosen contrasted with the surroundings, to help this modest installation stand out.

Whilst the stands had a ‘make do’ feel about them they nevertheless, needed a strong presence and an acceptable level of finish in order to have a legitimacy with the surrounds. This was the design tight rope to walk.

Height was incorporated to allow for suspension of objects, add to the presence, carry graphics and to provide a scale balance between the installation and the venue.

The layout made use of the available light and left the pathways free for people and machinery.

Theme:
Warm colours, the tactile nature of the stands, the use of fabric and the simplicity of the layout, was designed to enhance the friendliness of the installation and draw people into look at the objects.

Ideally, objects are best with no barrier and even the possibility of being handled. The netting, whilst forming a grid between the object and the audience, also had the effect of drawing people to the object and created a type of ‘fascinator’ for the object.

Whilst netting or wire may not have the acceptance or versatility or glass or perspex, it nevertheless deserves a place in the repertoire of options available for protecting works on display.

© Rosemary Simons 2006

Borana hut

If you get the chance, it is worth going to the National Gallery of Victoria Sculpture Garden to catch a glimpse, and 'whiff', of the Borana huts that were hand-made by the Borana pastoralists from Kenya themselves in the weeks leading up to the games.

Miniature goods

Following Common Goods, there are more artists arriving in Melbourne from the Commonwealth countries. Khadim Ali is an Afghan-born artist from Pakistan who paints miniature watercolours. This work (Heroes with Weapons I-III) features the dandelion, which during the harsh time of the Taliban was a symbol of hope - a plant that survived even the harshest of environments. As a work, it evokes the barrelism of Chandraguptha Thenuwara

John Howard pays tribute to Gandhi

His wife Janette by his side, Prime Minister John Howard scattered flower petals on the Gandhi Memorial in New Delhi yesterday.
Howard said, "He was a very great man and I certainly, like most Australians in my generation and other generations a2006/03/06/1141493611304.htmls well, know a lot about his life."
See The Age

Museum opening

Artists gathered for the final time at the opening of the exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. There many dignataries present, including the Victorian Arts minister Mary Delahunty and ex-Premier John Cain. Jasleen Dhamija warmly opened the exhibition, remembering her time with Gandhi and his love of handmade toys. It was wonderful to see representatives from the residencies there, such as Simon Spain from ArtPlay and Gordon Morrison from Ballarat. The highlight of the evening was the Sega dance by Mauritian artist Lewis Dick, celebrating not only the start of carnival, Shrove Tuesday, but also his birthday on 29 February. The carnival might be over, but there are many partnerships will continue. Images to follow...

Enthralled by darning

The Rafoogars talk with Wendy Lugg and Priya Ravish Mehra drew a facinated crowd. 

Installation time

The final works at being installated at the museum. Hlengiwe and Lucy are placing their collaborative piece based on the 'ponytail plant'. All will be revealed on Tuesday night. 

Night air

What's a 'common' thing? Something we all own or something that's too, well, common. This week the Night Air takes a stroll into the middle ages, across an ancient English Common (with writer Roger Deakin who founded 'Common Ground') to discover just what it was that made sure common land stayed common.
Listen.

We are finished!

Our residency in Ballarat has come to an end. The exhibition works are completed, and Zakir and Intekhab have mended a variety of textiles brought in from far and wide.

All that remains is to thank those who have made us welcome- Gordon Morrison and his very special team at the gallery, as well as members of the local Indian community and Dulcie Corbett, who hosted dinners for us. We also thank those who contributed to the project in various ways- the Trades Hall, Evan Evans, Hilton Fabrics, and John Dullus.

My personal thanks go to Dulcie who took me in and helped in so many ways, to ArtsWA for their travel assistance, and to Craft Victoria for inviting me to participate in this wonderful project.

Finally, my thanks to Intekhab, Zakir and Priya for their gift of friendship, and for sharing their cultural traditions. Their presence in Ballarat has enriched the lives of the many people who came to visit during our residency.

We are all eager to return home, but we are taking happy memories with us.

A royal presence in Ballarat

People have been bringing items for the rafoogars to darn. A gentleman brought precious gloves, worn by his father before him, and was thrilled to have them mended.

The rafoogars eyes really lit up when a large paisley shawl was brought for mending. This was a challenge worthy of their skills. Two days later the damage had been repaired, and there was virtually no trace to be found of the several small holes and one large tear.

The shawl's provenance made it even more exciting. It had been gifted by Queen Victoria to an unknown lady, subsequently spending time in (then) northern India before eventually making its way, from one owner to another, to Victoria.

And more to be seen

Last night, Niki Hastings-McFall opened her studio to the public, and it was evident that she had been up to something more...

Lei Lines

It is 'O' Week at La Trobe Uni where much of Kerri-Ann's and Niki's work is taking place. Under the theme of Hawaii Five-O, the Student Union is strewn with leis - symbols of welcome.

Things are afoot

After some days of getting to know each others work and trading ideas, and with Niki hitting opportunity shops searching out materials, something is afoot. Niki is stringing together Kerri-Ann's porcelain frangipani flowers, with shells from bead lengths she has found in the second hand shops of Bendigo. The shells, originally of course from the South Seas, seem to be returning there.

Article about Chandraguptha Thenuwara

Fresh on Craft Culture is an article about Chandraguptha Thenuwara by Damian Smith.

Hastings-McFall gets it together with Abbott

Kerri-Ann Abbott makes sculptural work from fine porcelain, incised, peirced and decorated. Niki Hastings-McFall most often uses found materials to construct body ornaments and decorations, based on forms borrowed from her Samoan cultural heritage. When they met, they had to decide how they were going to get it together. (What form would their collaboration take?)

Hastings-McFall arrives in Bendigo

Niki Hastings-McFall arrived in Bendigo and settled in with a visit to the 24 Coles. She was driven up from Melbourne by a friend - also called Niki.

Cultures meet through craft in Ballarat

Quiet times stitching became rare as the word spread, and more and more visitors arrived. It was good to recognise familiar faces, as people like Duncan and his family came back for return visits. Duncan is a very fine shoe-maker, who brought a large shawl owned by his grandather to show to the rafoogars. They found some areas which needed darning, and offered to undertake its repair. When Duncan returned to collect the shawl he, in exchange, demonstrated some aspects of his craft, with the rafoogars watching attentively.

Swapping lines

Hlengiwe Dube in the Craft Victoria library with local basketmakers Eric Collins and Wendy Golden, eager to learn the intricacies of the telephone wire weaving.

Finishing touches

Ahmed Nimad, the carver from the Maldives, is carefully inlaying pieces of rusted metal that Lorraine Connelly-Northey has found and cut for their piece. For Nimad, the accomodation of these elements into a traditional Maldivian form is a very important expression of cultural collaboration. Traditionally, bronze is often inlaid into tombstones. Barbed wire found by Lorraine has replaced the rope pattern of the original design. All the Common Goods artists are very busy putting the final touches to their collaborations, to be presented to the public on 28 February at the Melbourne Museum. 

Feeling a way of life

One of the great things about the Common Goods residencies at ArtPlay is the fact that the kids involved readily use their hands to make things. Mostly the things they are making are created using free or very cheap materials and result in high quality and rich artifacts. Encountering artists who use such materials in their everyday practice is important for the kids to see that in order to create things of beauty and cultural significance does not necessarily require going to a store and purchasing special materials. The sheer tactile quality of the clay or flax is something all the children approach with equal vigour. it is very likely that within the school environment kids would never use flax or found wire to weave but at ArtPlay they are able to play with such materials and create work of their own. Of course this project has wider objectives however on a simple level the handling of the craft materials themselves gives an insight into another way of working and living.

I really do exist

Someone pointed out that there didn't seem to be any pictures of me appearing in the blog messages from the Ballarat residency. I'm usually the person behind the camera, but here is an image caught when I was printing the fabric for my side of the stole I am working on with Intekhab, just to prove that I really do exist.

That's Zakir watching in the background. Although he is a very talented rafoogar, he actually comes from a family of block printers, so was intrigued by my very different approach.

Progress at Ballarat

Intekhab has finished his side of the Indian stole, or "Patka". Having selected the blues from the pashmina and fine cottons he brought from India, he arranged them then patched them together to form a ground, to which he added off-white borders. Finally came the main feature, of stars cut to the same 8 point design as the original Eureka flag from which he drew his inspiration. There are four stars used as corner motifs, and a central star surrounded by dark blue cross bars. These were tacked down, then appliqued. The final result is very striking.

I finished my side of the Patka on the same day as Intekhab, but only because he obligingly slowed down and I worked late into the night on several occasions. At the beginning of week two when he was close to finishing I had hardly started stitching, because up till then I had been out and about seeking supplies for the residency. At the time, Priya told me that the rafoogars were waiting with great interest to see what I would produce. I suspect the truth is that they were waiting with bated breath to see if I would actually stay still long enough to produce anything at all!

I had started by patching together a ground using old mended fabrics from my collection, supplemented by fabric sourced from one of Ballarat's op shops, but now the time had come to commit to the major design decisions. Once again Dulcie came to the rescue, tracking down the fabric ink I needed at a local art supply shop, and finding me a source of local native plant to use for the printing. As is always the case, once the decisions were made, the rest was easy.

Now all that is left to do is for Intekhab and I to embroider outlines around some of my printed leaves. Then comes the excitement of joining the two sides together.

Weaving and workshops at Geelong Gallery

Positioned in the Gallery foyer, adjacent to a large window that looks out to Little Malop Street, Hlengiwe Dube has received a great deal of attention from passers-by. Many have ventured into the Gallery to watch her weave colourful telephone wires into beautiful bowls and learn about the process. The response to Hlengiwe and her works has been fantastic and she has been extremely enthusiastic about sharing her skills with visitors to the Gallery. A recent visitor - the owner of a South African foodstore in Geelong - greeted Hlengiwe in her native language and delivered South African delicacies to ward off homesickness!

Melbourne-based artist Lucy Irvine recently joined Hlengiwe at the Gallery and both have been busy learning about their respective materials and techniques. While both weave with 'industrial' materials [Hlengiwe - telephone wire, Lucy - plastic piping and cable ties] they are also influenced by natural forms and patterns, particularly those found in plants. A day at Lucy's studio introduced Hlengiwe to additional influences that have inspired Lucy's practice - including the work of Australian artist Fiona Hall.

Back at Geelong Gallery, Hlengiwe has been extremely generous with her time and has held workshops with student groups from local primary schools. A visit to the Common Goods artist-in-residence has provided the opportunity for schools to extend their studies of conservation, the environment, recycling and other cultures. Hlengiwe has conducted beading and weaving activities and shared stories of life in South Africa with the students. As an extension activity, teachers have been provided with a power point presentation which includes images of South African life and culture. The excitement of working with Hlengiwe and learning new skills will no doubt remain with the students well beyond their experiences at the Gallery.

Lewis Dick at work

Mauritian carver Lewis Dick at the Incinerator Complex working on a large wooden sculpture of sailor. He was given some wood from a tree that once grew on the Avenue of Honour, and Lewis has decided to make a work as a gift to the city of Moonee Valley. Incidentally, Lewis' birthday is the day of the opening, 28 February, almost. He was actually born on 29 February, the seventeenth child whose mother died in childbirth. His life has been very much about trying to recover from the shadow cast over his destiny by this incident. He says it was the 'slap' that the doctor gave him after he was born, to help him breathe, that set him forward in life. Every day, for Lewis, begins with this slap. To listen to Lewis talk about how he started carving, click here - four minute MP3 file)

A team effort

As soon as the plans had been made for the Ballarat residency projects, Zakir began darning the many small holes in the Trades Hall Eureka flag, whilst we tried to source matching fabric to replace the badly shredded areas. This proved to be quite a chase, and a great team effort. Through the Trades Hall we discovered the name of the manufacturer, who kindly donated some fabric. This turned out to be a different blue to our flag, and because the fabric is synthetic is was not possible for the rafoogars to dye it.

Searching the local fabric shops, I found several variations of cloth of the right colour but wrong fabric content. By day four, it seemed that the blue cotton homespun would be the closest match. Then Dulcie Corbett, who has taken me into her home for the duration of the residency, put her local knowledge and her detective skills to the test. She took a small sample of the flag, and the new blue fabric sent by the flag manufacturer, and returned triumphantly three days later with the new fabric dyed to match the flag, having tracked down a commercial dyer who kindly offered his services at no charge.

There was much excitement when Dulcie arrived at the gallery with the newly dyed fabric, now a perfect match for the damaged flag. Zakir and Intekhab immediately put their heads together, consulting on the technical details of how to proceed with the repair. It was eventually decided to make a clean join right across the flag, entirely removing the shredded section. Only two hours later, the new section had been neatly darned to the old. Next came the task of adding the cross bar and star to both front and back of the flag.

Thenu in Caulfield

To the sound of hip hop from the students of Caulfield Park Community Centre, Chandraguptha Thenuwara and David Ray are working on pieces for the Common Goods exhibition. Thenu is interested in taking David's tiles and camouflage into the third dimension. One very practical benefit from Thenu's residency is to discover a pigment for creating a bright yellow on ceramic glaze. The yellows in his clay barrels fired in Colombo have tended to burn out. So yellow becomes an Australian gift to Sri Lanka. Thenu was also very pleased to find a local Sri Lankan restaurant, Gedera, meaning welcome.

Slide talk coming up

Rafoogars at the Ballarat Fine Art GalleryA Craft Victoria residency program
 
Capturing the Past - A Slide Talk by Wendy Lugg & Priya Ravish Mehra.
Wed 22 Feb at 12.30pm
 
For the past 10 days the Rafoogars, Zakir Hussain, Intekhab Ahmed and Western Australian artist Wendy Lugg have been working in Ballarat Fine Art Gallery on the Common Goods project organised by Craft Victoria as part of the cultural program for the Commonwealth Games
Wendy and Priya have prepared a slide show titled Capturing the Past where they will talk about aspects of the Common Goods project. Wendy will talk about traditions of making do and mending in Australia and Asia. Priya will discuss the fascinating art of the Rafoogars who repair exquisite Kasmiri shawls made for special occasions.
Entry to the talk is free.

Ahmed instilling Maldivian design

The South Kids at ArtPlay were particularly keen to see the silicon block that Maldivian stone carver Ahmed Nimad was working with. Ahmed stressed greatly the adaptability of Maldivian design, beyond stone carving to graphic design and fashion. He is hoping that his visit will leave the South Kids with a lasting legacy. Let's see if in the next generation of Victorian designers and makers reveal strange curvilinear patterns in their work. To the right are some of the materials they have been gathering for Lorraine Connelley-Northey. Ahmed and Lorraine are getting together next week to make their piece for the Common Goods exhibition to open on 28 February.