I Can't, We Can Tour, 26 February, Yeoville Koppie, Johannesburg Art Gallery, De Villers Street

·         Education is in tatters.

·         Is what being taught relevant?

·         How is technology impacting on what is being taught, and how we teach/learn?

·         Just folding arms

·         A new system which has been put in place in South Africa; NCV, National Curriculum for Vocation; available to learners from grade 9. Developing skills which have direct real world application; tourism, business management etc. Students are excited by what they are learning and that they will be able to earn a living by acquiring these skills.

·         Taking Education and bringing it together; integrating

Reflection on Tour

I had a wonderful interview for Art South Africa with Claire Bell. She is also an educator, performance artist and interested in craft. Her probing questions have injected the performing with new awareness.

I am working with a photographer, Jeaniene Dekker. Having someone photograph the performances comes as a relief, as I can focus on the knitting, menditations and conversations.

It does bring it's own set of ingredients which alter the context: The audience becomes more self-conscious through the presence of the camera and photographer. These ingredients turn the space into a ‘set’, bringing a greater sense of theatre.

I also feel more physical secure with the presence of Jeaniene. I have been feeling more vulnerable since I had my bag snatched in Khayelitsa.

I have noticed that I feel more comfortable if I am more ‘dressed up’. This element brings in a sense of theatre helping me move into a more focussed space, and I think assisting the audience into the intervention.

The camera always raises issues for me: Does the performance exist if it is not recorded? Does the performance exist only because it was recorded? The inclusion of the camera/photographer changes the performance.

This also introduces the posed shot, the glam shot, the photography becomes something in its own right, with separate intentions. At what point does the performance tip into becoming a photo shoot?

These questions have made me examine the performance itself and re-assert:

The Educators New Clothes performs menditations on the State of Education by:

·         Collecting education documents

·         Stitching education documents together

·         Tearing education documents into lengths of yarn

·         Binding the torn lengths into balls of yarn

·         Knitting education documents into cloth

·         Performs these menditations in public spaces, and spaces which the performance has been invited into

·         Develops conversations about the state of education with whoever is willing to engage

·         Takes these conversations and distil the emergent themes

·         Menditations are not dependent on conversation

·         The performance is valid even if it is not witnessed by others