Tag: theatre

Visual artist and storyteller Saaiqa unpacks the mind as a theatre in her series ‘The Fourth Wall’

“The day of birth for every human being is the start of a lifelong battle to adapt himself to an ever-changing environment. He is usually victorious and adjusts himself without pain. However, in one case out of 20 he does not adjust himself. In U.S. hospitals, behind walls like [those] shown here, are currently 500 000 men, women and children whose minds have broken in the conflict of life.”

(Excerpt from LIFE Magazine’s 1939 article and photo essay, “Strangers to Reason: LIFE Inside a Psychiatric Hospital. The beginning of Saaiqa’s artist statement)

Saaiqa is a Durban-based visual artist, writer and storyteller expressing herself through film, photography, installation and mixed media works. Plunged into the world of artistic evocation from childhood, her creativity was fuelled by a desire to understand, learn and observe from the world.

From a young age, Saaiqa was involved in theatre and the dramatic arts which she took part in until the end of her high school career.

“It’s interesting in retrospect, acting and learning how to inhabit another character from such a young age; I think you start to get a handle on how human psychology, experience and conditioning is translated and manifested in how we as individuals exist in the world.”

Saaiqa’s fascination with the mind stems from a deep-seated interest in mental health. “I believe we all suffer from some form of neurosis; it’s just an inevitability. Even if you are not mentally ill we all have been marked by life in some way.”

She continues to open up by saying that members of her immediate family are afflicted by mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Her first-hand experience with this has shown her how difficult it is not only for the person afflicted by the illness but for the person’s loved ones to navigate the world living with this illness. She expresses that it is difficult to help someone in this position within a system that is broken and not very forgiving or understanding when it comes to mental health issues.

‘Neurosis’ – Rorschach

In unpacking her series Saaiqa explains that The Fourth Wall acts as a study of the psychological arena of the modern day human being. Through observation she has concluded that we are cognizant beings continuously attuning ourselves to an environment that is characterized by rapid change, causing both feelings of joy and of pain. Her aim with this body of work is to investigate this negation with life. This is achieved by witnessing the human condition as well as states of existentialism.

“I was motivated to explore a project like this because there is still a great amount of stigma, discrimination and a lack of education and discussion regarding mental illness and health in society. This often prevents people from seeking help and, particularly in under-resourced communities, this often leads to unfair criminal incarceration, homelessness, substance abuse and even suicide.”

Saaiqa continues to express that she feels that people have become more aware and are speaking about self-care but that she isn’t sure of the seriousness of people’s convictions. “I mean it can’t be this surface level thing; this romanticised tumblr type shit is not going to help people.”

‘The Tear’

She explains the link that she made between the theatre and the mind by stating that to her it feels like the perfect metaphor. She sees the mind as a space where performances manifest. “It’s this place where we literally stage our fantasies, suppress trauma, where we interpret reality, create and destroy identity – it is a performance in constant flux. The theatre of the mind is where one continually finds and loses oneself over and over again, through the course of life.”

To create this body of work Saaiqa’s process was research heavy. She emphasises the importance of research to her practice regardless of how a project conceptually or visually manifests. She had come to the decision that to approach this subject matter she would use alternative visual approaches that include a variety of mediums such as scans, photomontages, Rorschach prints and an installation work.

“I observed space a lot; I also look at objects and still lives. I think that spaces and objects hold such power within narratives and can often be the centre of the most compelling images. It can also be important to consider, especially when certain ethical decisions need to be made when tackling complex visual stories.”

‘The Mad Scene’

While creating this body of work Saaiqa was volunteering at a psychiatric hospital working in art therapy within the hospital. She regards volunteering as something that was very important for her to do. Although her series does not reflect issues surrounding mental health in a literal way, her experience in volunteering helped her gain a deeper understanding of different people who exist within alternative states.

“And because this also hits so close to home it was both an opportunity for experiential learning and a way for me to give back/ improve the lives (even if in some small way) of these people who are all too often forgotten by society. I worked in quite an intense unit, where a lot of patients had severe cases. It was definitely an eye-opening experience, even for me. The combination of poverty, economic strife, social stigma, lack of education, the exacerbation of some situations created by religion and culture – all form an immense barrier and lead to disastrous outcomes for most individuals. I learnt a great deal about mental health and the state of healthcare in South Africa. I also learnt a lot about myself during this time as well as the lives of women, which was interesting. In that environment, you realise how fragile we all are and how we all undermine our own and each other’s mental health.”

‘Suffer Well’

‘Restless Chafing’

‘Penance I’ & ‘Penance II’

14 May 2018
School of Anxiety // Processes of (Un)learning in Collaborative Art Praxis

“Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate.”

― Søren Kierkegaard

The School of Anxiety (SoA) is positioned as a collaborative space of (un)learning. Conceptually derived from psychological notions of ‘anxiety’ and references the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s text The Concept of Dread (1844). However, it extends beyond the space of literary and conceptual theory into artistic practice. The project facilitator and Uganda-based curator and writer, Moses Serubiri believes that ‘subjective anxieties’ relate to the societal notion and process of ‘becoming someone’ He writes, “this project is about how to essentially refuse to take on the guilt of becoming a subject: whether this is a civilized, tribalized, politicized, and radicalized subject.”

The first iteration of the SoA took place in Johannesburg during September last year. After an immersive experience of exploring spaces like ROOM gallery, Keleketla! and the Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum, a public panel entitled What to do with anxiety? ensued. It manifested as part of the Berlin Biennale’s public program I’m not who you think I’m not. The project positions itself as a space for (un-)learning, centred on the experience of subjective anxieties and the processes of “becoming”.

Portrait of Nyakallo Maleke by Papa Shabani

His praxis explores “meta-narratives and scholarly practices” – transcending the perceived boundaries of art. It often probes the activation of a network of people, focusing on forming conversation with those engaged in the process. “I think of my work as trying to engage beyond the field of art and with practices and disciplines that challenge our current understanding of art.” The participating artists include Awuor Onyango, Nyakallo Maleke and Sanyu Kiyimba-Kisaka. Their inter-disciplinary approaches span video, sculpture, theatre and poetry.

The second event was hosted in Nairobi last month. The workshop was located in Uhuru Park – often a site for national rituals. Moses describes the dynamic tension between opposition and pressure groups as visible in the proximity to Nyayo House – government buildings and a detention centre, notoriously known as the ‘Nyayo House torture chambers’. In 1992, a group of Kenyan mothers staged a hunger strike to resolve the release of their sons who had been detained as political prisoners and protest for the restoration of democratic practice.

Portrait of Sanyu Kiyimba-Kisaka by Zahara Abdul

This historical event was the foundation for the public performance and second SoA iteration. Moses reflects that, “it was crucial that no-trace of the performance was left, because we were not aiming at re-authoring the actual space, but rather pursue symbolic gestures that would allow us to deepen our dialogue with historic anxiety.”

He describes the synchronicities between each workshop as conceptually tied to an exploration of autopoiesis, mourning, and obsessional doubt, as well as, “becoming immersed into a whole new environment. For both iterations we have spent majority of the time visiting places, going to museums, talking to curators, artists, writers, and cooking and shopping. The project is as much about learning as it is about unlearning.” Not being bound to the pressure of giving art in exchange for some kind of financial remuneration, “we have been able to really have meaningful exchanges that avoid the system of regurgitating and reproducing oneself into a brand of some kind. I think that the SoA members have stepped out of their usual practices to engage other ways of ‘doing’ that have emerged through a conversation.”

A third iteration and extension of SoA will take place in July 2018 during the 10th Berlin Biennale.

8 March 2018
An experimental performance on what it means to be a young woman in 2017

“When I grow up I want to be sexualised, objectified, made to feel wrong, ignored, used, abused and belittled. I want to be defined by the colour of my skin, the size of my tits or the use of a tampon, my hair, my muscles and what I’m packing in my toolbox. I want to be looked at and touched without asking, I want to be made to feel uncomfortable just for saying no, I want to be expected to be something I’m not, expected to change for you, expected to go with the flow and let it happen without speaking up.” These were the words written on the back of the flier for the performance titled Encountering the Other. When read out of context these words may cause readers to feel offended and confused. However, the purpose of this was to express what women do not wish to experience. Encountering the Other, which forms a part of the British Council Connect ZA 2017 Programme, has been described by its creators as a riotous and often times comical look at what it means to be a woman in 2017. I had an interview with one of the directors of the performance, Katy Weir from ODDMANOUT, Darlington, to suss out some information on the performance that has been produced across the two hemispheres.

Katy tells me that ODDMANOUT’s collaboration with the Market Laboratory came about after she visited the Newtown-based theatre school in Johannesburg when she was given a grant from the Artist International Development Fund. During her visit, she learned about how the school functions on a strategic and artistic level. “This involved sharing practice, devising a piece of work with the first year students, and working alongside Clara Vaughan, Education Officer at The Market Lab and the Lab associates to open dialogue around process, cultural offerings, training, and skills sharing.”

Katy expresses that the collaboration was a starting point for discussions zoning in on exchange, heritage, and creativity. She continues to say that these discussions highlighted the similarities and differences between young people in South Africa and the North-East of England. In further discussions, they raised questions about how they would go about exploring this creatively. The conceptualization for this project took place with both companies at the core and the four directors based in SA and the UK.

The performance aimed to bring together a variety of voices, their stories, and experiences from two different continents with music, dance, colour and a few comical elements. As Katy explained, the foundation of this collaboration was to create a performance based on the performers’ experiences and interpretations of womanhood, including both male and female perspectives. This was all done in an attempt to allow the performers to introspectively understand themselves and the world around them.

This collaborative project utilized live performance, the Internet, and digital media in its creation. It is important to note that this performance was, for the most part, produced across two hemispheres, meaning that the full cast did not have much time together to rehearse, leaving a sort of impromptu nature to the performance. But if truth be told, it was difficult to see this unless you were made aware of it before hand.

When asked about the title, Katy tells me that it refers to meeting someone from a different background, but might identify with you because of a shared experience such as everyday sexism. 12 performers aged between 18-25 years old shared material with one another over the internet and based their preparations for the final piece on what they had shared. After this, the group met up in South Africa and were left with 8 days to prepare before they took to the stage collectively for the very first time.

When asked about the meaning of cultural exchange for her, Katy responds, “Cultural exchange is about learning from each other. When the world can be a scary place we need to unite to work out how we get a more positive world, and we will only get that by talking together.”

The collaborators from the UK are 6 emerging artists from the North of England and were auditioned in August of this year. Katy expresses that their decisions for performers were based on passion for the story, their reason for wanting to be involved, their ideas of womanhood and what they thought they could learn and bring to the experimental performance project. Their South African collaborators are second-year students at the Market Theatre Laboratory and were auditioned by Clara. They were tasked with creating an original piece of work challenging traditional notions of womanhood.

In my interview with Katy, she explains that this performance was put together by the stories of the young performers. This story is theirs and adds an interesting twist to theatre performances that traditionally run according to the book. With this project the performers were given room for self-expression and were not told what to do with their piece.

Katy tells me that this performance speaks to the experience of being a young female today, and how the male gaze affects us. Katy continues to say that this kind of unfair treatment towards women forms a part of rape culture that is easily brushed off. She left me with a last thought about their experimental journey – “We are trying to celebrate difference rather than pin point what these differences are.”

Credits:

Katy Weir – Director

Scott Young -Director

Clara Vaughan -Director

Jaques De Silva – Director

Performers:

Katie Powell

Brogan Gilbert

Rebecca Graham

Alanna Wilson

Charlotte Grey

Leah Mains

Matthews Rantsoma

Darlington Justice Khoza

Tumeka Matintela

Boikobo Masibi

Ncumisa Ndimeni

Sinenhlanhla Mgeyi

This article forms part of content created for the British Council Connect ZA 2017 Programme. To find out more about the programme click here.

14 November 2017
The Black diaspora in context: Reflections on the Black Portraitures conference III

The black body is a highly contested terrain that demands serious and complex examination into the lived experience of marginalized people. The Black Portraitures conference III, “a series of conversations about imagining the black body” was held from the 17^th till the 19^th of November 2016. This event was to be “a forum that [gave] artists, activists, and scholars from around the world an opportunity to share ideas from historical topics to current research on the 40th anniversary of Soweto”.

Though it was initially meant to be held on the Wits university campus, due to the growing fears of student protests in Johannesburg, it was later moved to the Turbine hall the home of Anglo America. This new venue with its concrete walls and security at every corner would ensure that this conference would continue without any outside delay.

The far-reaching influence of South African Artists like Ernest Cole and George Pemba would influence the decision to host the conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. Their works showed the harsh realities of black people under Apartheid and would give record to its struggle. It was also the music of Miriam Makeba and the images featured in Drum magazine that revealed this country as a rich source of a cultural production whose influence would make its way across the Atlantic.

Today this influence continues through the works of Zanele Muholi. Her works on queer black bodies in the South African townships would constantly be referenced throughout the panel discussions that I attended. She would also contribute to the opening remarks as she asked the South African participants to sing their national Anthem, a motion that would be consumed with wide-eyed enjoyment of our mostly American colleagues.

The speakers of the conference were drawn form academia, the arts, theatre, art history, journalism, literature and dance. These intellectuals would go on to provide a diverse analysis relating to black lives dealing with “the recent Rhodes must fall protests, #BlackLivesMatter, photography from post conflict zones, the poetry and politics of black hair and the 40^th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising.” (http://suttonpr.com/assets/In-Context-2016-press-pack.pdf)

The presence of US Ambassador Patrick Gaspard, armed with his suite clad body guards whispering into plastic ear pieces, reflected on the importance of this conferences:

“It is of keen consequence that this conversation arrive in Johannesburg not only at a moment of historical reflection, but also at the a critical juncture when the masses of young Africans throughout the diaspora are no longer mere subjects in the running narrative on equal access to justice, but have become the provisional producers and curators of their own provocation” (www.blackportraitures.info)

Yet the discussions within the conferences panel would go to show the black diaspora were never just the subjects of such narratives to begin with. The conference would show the ways in which black bodies have been constantly excluded from the very mainstream knowledge production that would seek to establish them as inferior. What I would see is an examination into how those same bodies would seek alternative avenues in which to assert their identity and humanity in the midst of their systematic silencing. It is this very same process which continues today resulting in the emergence of new political movements that continue the struggle for the recognition of black lives.

One such panel whose focus on Afrofuturism would examine how this literary and cultural aesthetic was being used in Detroit by artists and musicians to create new urban movements against gentrification and for basic amenities in mostly back communities.

A well attended panel on “Universal Blackness: The diaspora Experience in the 21^st century” would be presented by the Art Noir collective. Their discussion examined the deep challenges of black production within the arts. The very conference would be an expression of such challenges with the view that the conference was American organised and mostly funded. Although featuring many black American artists what resulted was the sidelining of the ideas and perspectives of local (South) African artists. The struggle was one from those from the South to take back their own spaces of production but also be very conscious of their own complacency within the very artistic structures that would maintain the unequal position of black artists in the art world.

One panel on Black power and protest went on to examine how “images have been used to protest ignorant notions of inferiority, while simultaneously combating apathy by attracting citizens to join movements.” Zanele would herself present in this discussion examining how her work as a photojournalist documented the lives of those sidelined in society whilst also acting as reclamation of their existence through portraits of black queer bodies.

With over 150 papers presented there was no shortage of good conversations and questions from the participants. The afternoon would also offer much entertainment and visual inspiration. For the opening night The Goodman gallery would host the conference opening with a festive reception and a celebration of its 50^th anniversary in 2016.

As part of celebration the Goodman would host the exhibition Africans in American which formed a part of their In Context 2016 series. The series functioned in “tracing the criss-crossing lines, shared histories and points of departures in the field of African, African Diaspora and African American Art and Art history” by working with the Black Portraitures Conference in “addressing [the] gaps in art history and re-writing it from diverse perspectives” (http://suttonpr.com/assets/In-Context-2016-press-pack.pdf).

The closing ceremony of the conference would be held at the Johannesburg art Gallery and feature some of South Africa’s leading figures in historical and current contemporary art. Some of the artists include Mary Sibande, Tracey Rose and Zanele Muholi. Also featured are the works of Dumile Feni and Gerard Sekoto as part of the historical presentation (https://friendsofjag.org/news-stories/2016/11/11/the-evidence-of-things-not-seen).

Though the conference may be over you can still view the exhibition at the JAG and Goodman Galleries, that for any contemporary South African art enthusiast is a definite must see. Though the conference is over its impact can still be found in the ideas and challenges presented to its participants and speakers at the event.

Yet one has to be in wonder of the logo for the In Context 2016 series. It features image of two continents, North America feeding into an Africa coming from below. This ironical presentation of the North to South dialogues seems to unintentionally reflect the deep power imbalance between these two continents. The conference aimed to find the commonalities between our lived experiences as a black diaspora. However, are we adequately able to engage with such ideas when global inequalities are so apparent, especially amongst its participants? Its privileged American (and even local) participants enter the space as Americans and the power that comes with such citizenship where the majority of African’s are being excluded from such opportunities.

The question to ask is how the dialogue amongst its participants would have been different had those without the power and privilege of being able to enter such middle class spaces? The very spaces that claim to be engaging with the ideas surrounding black knowledge can inadvertently exclude the very voices that they claim to be engaging with. There can be no real discussion surrounding equality and justice when those most affected by the lack of such are excluded from these debates.

23 November 2016