2005 winners report back
2005 Commonwealth Arts and Crafts Awards winners report back
Every two years, the Commonwealth Arts and Crafts Awards identifies a group of young, promising artists and craftspeople and enables them to spend time working, learning and sharing in another Commonwealth country. The 11 winners of the 2005 Awards have been undertaking their residencies in different countries during 2006. Here, we hear from four of them.
Kabelo Kim Modise
A painter from Botswana based in Namibia, Kabelo Kim Modise undertook a residency with Caribbean Contemporary Arts in Trinidad and Tobago.
Apart from work painting in my studio, I created a programme for individual artists - local community artists and other visiting artists - to visit my studio to talk one to one. When they visited my studio, I gained critiques and appraisals concerning my work, and I shared some of my cultural background with them. I was able to teach people about my experience as an artist and my African environment. I realised that people had a very wrong perception about my African continent. All they knew and feared was that Africa was an extremely poor continent, and they thought it was all the same. I was able to tell them that North, East, West, Central and Southern Africa are totally different from one another and have different approaches to development within their own cultures. I believe they learned by not only seeing my paintings, but discussing them, learning more about the culture behind them.
I joined the other artists at Studio 66 Art Support group to paint up a new mural in one of the local steel pan musical schools. We finished up the mural and the following day restored the old murals which had been fading. Every Saturday there were classes for kids, which I assisted with. The portfolio I produced in Trinidad was mostly about children from Africa and the Caribbean. My main subject was to come up with visual images which depict the characteristics of feeding, eating or the supply of food to children. Some of the photo references which I used were taken from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, as well as Trinidad and Tobago. I was also privileged to visit a couple of the carnival costume producers and factories. It was really amazing, and it took me by surprise to see carnival art and how it is made.
I held an open studio for the public. About 80 people visited my studio and I tried to explain and answer all their questions. Most of them learned a lot about my works of art and also my environment. People were interested in my realistic style. I was able to teach some other artists how to print T-shirts using a stencil, without a screen printing. I am planning to try certain media which I was not interested in before. I want to use found materials as part of my new approach and as an influence from other artists. I also developed an interest in trying sculpture.
I was able to achieve my goals of trying to learn the difference between African culture and Caribbean culture, how similar they are, and how they differ.
Marnie Slater
From New Zealand, installation artist Marnie Slater travelled to India.
Coming to India has forced me to rethink the way I work as an artist, and I feel my main achievements have been a result of that new flexibility. The projects I initiated took a very different form than they had previously, and stretched my skills as an artist and arts professional. Adapting my practice has been a process of adjustments that have had to negotiate and acknowledge limits and parameters of the local context. These limits and parameters have also led to new exciting opportunities not available to me in my home country.
My time with Sanskriti Kendra, an artistic foundation, enabled me to spend an intensive two weeks with other practitioners from all over the world at various stages in their respective careers. This close relationship allowed a critical, supportive environment to develop that enabled advice and help to be shared freely among the resident artists and writers.
I have been working with Critical Research Initiatives Trust on a series of pieces of writing, concentrating on my experiences in Mumbai, that will be hosted on its website. I have also been working with the Slum Rehabilitation Society (SRS), a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation which designs, builds and manages buildings for recently relocated slum dwellers. I have joined a volunteer staff of two architects, one from Italy and the other from Belgium.
I helped to develop a project with a local Indian artist for SRS. We were asked to design a mural for the interior of the kindergartens that are built by SRS for every new building for slum relocation. The design must take into consideration the multiple functions the kindergarten fills and must be simple, as we will be working with members of the local community to execute the final design.
Bryan Duncan
Also visiting India was Bryan Duncan, a sculptor from Jamaica.
I'm from a country that has beautiful weather all year round, wonderful white sand beaches, crystal clear seawater - and it is the place where reggae music was born. Paradise, isn't it? However, even paradise has its problems. It was by highlighting some of these challenges we face on a daily basis that led to my visit to India. My work focuses on social commentary.
By using linear sculptural forms with woven overlay, I would depict the clever disguise used to deceive. In African folklore the 'anancy' is a character that represents the trickster, hence the linear forms would be symbolic of this, while the woven overlay is the face that it bears. Toxic blends are sometimes used to symbolise the cancerous condition that is not only affecting but also slowly polluting our nation.
My aim in visiting India was to compare the understanding I have of life there with my experience of life in Jamaica. There are positives and negatives to be taken from any colonial experience. It is surprising to note that the chilli pepper was brought here by the Portuguese, and over time the chilli is king, so to speak. In my work 'Dancing with Devils' the chilli is depicted as a romantic yet sinister figure. He would caress the taste palette while burning lasting memories in the mouth and stomach.
I have realised that a culture such as this needs to be studied for a long period of time for it to be fully understood. The culture is multi-layered in different ways: class, caste, religion, politics, economics. There is also cultural fusion from the West. I have been able to understand a little.
Nutan Bala
Nutan Bala, a sculptor and mixed media artist from New Delhi, India, visited South Africa.
I based myself at a women's community co-operative centre in Soweto, where women work as weavers and knitters in the medium of wool. In the company of these women I worked with wool, beads, wire - media quite different from those which I had to date used. I tried to use beads in a different and innovative way. Together with a crafter from Sibukeng village, we started to work in beads, steel wire and telephone wire - yet another new medium. I closely studied the use of wire as a raw material for craft-making in South African culture, and incorporated these elements of technique and design in my work. I and my colleague crafter ventured beyond the traditional bowl and lid shapes. We developed different stitching and weaving techniques, combining techniques used by these crafters and those being used by Indian crafters. I am using a stitching technique and piercing beads and wire on the wire frame or structure. It gives me a sense of preservation and creation.
Knitting and weaving work are symbolic of women, who build a home like a bird picking up small grasses and weaving them into a nest. Weaving can be a metaphor for diversity, for the weaving together of materials can be read as the making of a connection, unifying and harmonising. Beadwork has been a long and continuous tradition in the cultural history of South Africa. Beadwork in KwaZulu Natal is used as a form of communication; each colour used has a distinct meaning, which can be seen in a Zulu love letter to send a message to a lover.
I feel I am giving back as an individual to this society. This is a small step towards the day when these artists and craftspeople receive due recognition of their art and themselves, and become considered as the continuation of an artistic tradition, rather than being seen as a household craft only. There is a vast difference in mindset between a crafter and someone who considers themselves an artist. I want these artisans and crafters to learn new techniques while retaining their distinctive personal interpretations and design which is a part of their heritage. I have helped them to produce collaborative quality handmade works of art, aiming to empower unemployed women and men to learn together more about traditional customs and crafts. I want to help these people to learn creative and imaginative skills, and encourage them to take risks with materials, scales and forms. My work stands as symbolic monument, celebrating African culture through the examination of traditional ritual and through community involvement, to promote core values of inclusivity and collaboration, leading to innovations.
