Interwoven – Weaving Ways

The 6 x 3.5m weaving that once proudly hung at the Gaelic Club… found a new beam to hang from and a new function as the sign for the inaugural event at 107 Redfern St… ’72hrs of Art’.

The event saw around 750 folks come through the doors to check out the works in progress as well as the final exhibition. There was plenty of interactive activities as well as around 20 projects by invited local artists. Video games were designed and programmed, Put Put golf was played, paints were smeared, blocks were built and stitches were sewn. It was a dynamic 72hrs of art making!

Now it looks like the weaving is staying up for a while as general signage for the new space… so if you were once of the punters who wove at the Major Raiser event at the Gaelic Club… come check out your artwork hanging in a new space!

Keep your eye out for what 107 Projects is up to… 107 Redfern St is already making fun waves ! www.107projects.org

Current Peep Show Exhibition; Lucia Scurrah 3rd April – 23rd April 2012.

This must have by far been the quickest install Interwoven has ever done. We are used to taking days and days to weave on a fence to make a piece this size. But considering we carted all these panels half way across the world, we saved a lot of time, and managed to brighten up this poor empty fence right in Johannesburg’s cultural center, Newtown.

Naturally, with all the cable ties flying about and the panels being negotiated onto the fence by the three of us, we attracted a bit of attention. Hectar was one man with a lot of input for us during the process… He got the day off work, so he was merrily walking home when he stumbled across us. He promptly started to inform us where we needed to put more cable ties on and helped us position the elephant. He had the most solid working hands, it looked like he needed a Sunday off, but he had time and energy enough to be a part of the install. Thanks Hectar…

15minutes and the piece was up… The elephant and his woven environment have gone from the Gaelic Club, to Magaliesburg to Johannesburg city, where they will stay. What a journey, and what a beautiful place for it to wind up!

We would have loved to cover the entire fence around the empty lot, but knowing how long it would have taken, we would have to be living in South Africa for months to accomplish such a feat. Remember “Oh Alfred”?…

Perhaps that is not such a bad idea. Those wee elephants of Botshabelo showed us that there is most definitely good use for colour and collaboration in Joburg, and we love interweaving ways for those kids to be represented in the city streets.

We shall see how this piece gets received by the city. In a few weeks time Fitzy will return to see how the fence has settled in.

Thanks Botshabelo and thanks Johannesburg city, for being such receptive creative spaces that the interwoven crew would be most excited to return to.

Watch this space…

So we have only one more sleep until the public artwork install in Joberg! Preparing the 3m x 2.5m fence that was brought over from Australia was a breeze, thanks to the help of some Botshabelo residents.

Its fantastic to open up the process so that they see what is involved in creating  a public artwork… one that will act as a billboard for the Botshabelo community. Wish we could bring the entire crew of young Interwoven artists to come down with us to Joburg and not install a work but actually weave the fence…. but that takes a lot more paper work and dear old dollars! Hopefully one day we will be able to do this.

Considering the weavings have travelled 11,000 km from Australia… they are still in good nick. The Elephant on top is just exquisite… really brings the work together. Can’t wait to get down to Joburg and install onto the fence near Newtown Square.

There has been a lot of activity at Botshabelo… obviously there is the everyday crazy running of this amazing organism that ‘carries the hearts’ of so many people from the youngest 18months to the elderly folks who live in the village. The family of 4 adults who are the backbone of this place are working non-stop… so adding the foreigners into the mix must be helpful but also just more people to deal with… they have such patience.

There are 6 members of the Major Raiser team who have been very busy organising the decoration and revamp of the creche as well as organising portfolios for each kid! A lot to achieve in just one week. Plus three interwoven artists with our creative program of activities and then the wonderful Dr Pip and her son Simon and his partner Kate. Pip is a medical Dr who now specialising in resilience training and is doing some amazing work with the teachers of the school.

So that’s 12 bloody aussies in a new environment trying to apply ourselves as best we can. That said this process is not a one stop shop… where in and out you hop. We are trying to provide things that will have a longer term significance that us just flying in and leaving.

Interwoven are almost at the end of our journey here at Botshabelo… for this time. There is already a sense that the kids know that we will be leaving soon… we have been here for 8 days already and so there are only a  couple more days of prepping for the Joburg install.  Great thing is that we have been doing this with the college kids (all around 18 years old) weaving wire but mostly sitting down and having a good chat.

As there is so much going on… its really about working with the wonderful chaos. So the ladies had time to do some amazing weavings…

We had planned to use them for the install in Joburg but alas with other priorities and the shrink wrapping of time we needed to change course… so now these will be attached to the Botshabelo School fence. All the wire and fabric is all ready to go… so when the older girls have time they can continue the artwork and bit by bit keep adding to the fence. Also is cool that they can show the younger kids how to do it:)

We have decided to focus on the Elephant for the public artwork… thanks to the beautiful Yvonne its already looking pretty good. We will see what it looks like on Sat when we pull the fence work out of the van and lay it all out in our makeshift studio.

Thursday morning began bright and early… with the main fence woven Cook and Fitz decide to make the most of the am by taking some fabric down to the fence at the entrance to the school. A little one-off artwork by us for the school as a thank you for all the amazing work they have done of the big fence. Will have pics of that later:)

First we gotta get into the toy making session with the wonderful Year 4 and their teacher Nicholas. Lokie and Cook spread out the materials on a table in the front of the class room… needles, thread, buttons, fabric left overs and scraps, paper and pens.

They begin by drawing their template then cutting it out.. and using it to cut the shapes out of the fabric. Some of the kids chose to make flowers, some bunny rabbits (like the one Bob made above), some little character people,  a lot of cars and a fantastic worm:)

None of them had sewn by hand before so it was a very exciting experience. In fact class finished at 12 15 but more than half stayed by to finish their toys. Really fantastic stuff.

We are going to leave the fabric, threads etc so that any of the classes can have a toy session. Will make a little workshop sheet for the teachers… so that any year can have a go once we are gone. Also the fence itself can be rewoven… Year 6 is actually doing a session on weaving in a few weeks time so they can use the fence to do the practical.

The big artwork for Joburg is coming along slowly… the family are so busy running the village its hard to track them down at times, but we have cut out the elephant shape thanks to an old sheet and a bit of imagination:) Can’t wait to see what it will look like on the fence in Newtown Square.

We have till sunday morning to finish prepping everything… AHHHH! so much to still do!  Including gumboot dancing lession, heaps more broulding, spoken word workshop and having fun with the kids!

The weaving workshops have been going very well… the entire school has now woven the fence. That’s 200 kids over three days + 9 teachers + all the wonderful random helpers along the way… very appreciative of everyone’s contribution! Together we have woven 30m of fence.

This photo just can’t do it justice. Please remember these are just happy snaps along the way. Fitz is getting the good stuff on her amazing camera. One that she has been sharing with the kids through a series of photography workshops. Right now she is up in the art room playing music with the kids. We are also gonna get some gum boot dancing lessons before we leave.

Just now the kids supper, there was a chance to see the non stopper but behind the scenes maker… Marion’s husband Con. Have not seen him since the first bonfire night. He commented that when they first heard of fence weaving they were a little apprehensive… but now its ‘beautiful, really beautiful’ !  We are so glad everyone is happy with the way the weaving has been happening.

So what happened to that piece of wire??? well leave it to Brould and you are bound to get the wire wound up in some new contraption.

At first we thought it was just the springs he fashioned to fix the trampoline… but wait there is more! He then used it to fix the fan for the broken fridge fan!

Tomorrow toy making using the scraps of fabric left over from the fence and other projects. Then in the afternoon a spoken word workshop… can’t wait to work with the naturally musical mouths of these kids.

We are having such an amazing time here and its all going so quickly and there is still so much more creative fun to be had.

Each day has involved 2 weaving sessions with all the kids from the school having the chance to participate.   Both the teachers and the kids getting right into it…. picking their favourite fabrics and getting stuck into making magic.

Was fantastic to see the older kids helping the little ones… there is a real sense of looking after each other, especially the ‘babies’.

Each session lasting around 1.5 hrs in the hot sun… but everyone is loving the activity so much that outside of the workshops… they are coming up and weaving with us . There are definitely some master weavers here. A bunch of the kids picking it up within seconds, then passing their knowledge onto the friends sitting beside them, wonderful collaboration.

Some of the boys get costume creative… turning pieces of fabric into fun Ninja outfits:)

As the heat of the day cools… we have gone down to the fence to tie up some loose ends. As we weave the kids tap us on the shoulder and point to the pieces they have woven saying ‘look, look, what i did!’

The fence is looking like an explosion colour… reminding us of abstract painting styles  from the 1980′s.  It has fantastic flare and chaotic creativity that is just bursting with life!