THUPELO CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP

GOEDGEDACHT CENTRE MALMESBURY
6 - 20 FEBRUARY 2003
EXHIBITION SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL GALLERY ANNEX 23 - 28 FEBRUARY 2003

Thupelo Cape Town held an intensive 15-day workshop for 23 artists from South Africa, Egypt, Zambia, Morocco, Congo, Lebanon, Australia, France, Zimbabwe and Kenya

The 5th Cape Town international Thupelo workshop took place at Goedgedacht Trust near Malmesbury between the 6th and 21st February 2003. The workshop was funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund. The majority of artists were from the African continent apart from three artists who came from Australia, Lebanon and France. The other international participants came from Morocco, Kenya, Congo, Zambia, Egypt and Zimbabwe, while there were 12 artists from South Africa. The final group of participants was not decided upon until after the workshop had started as it was hoped that one artist who was meant to participate would still be able to make it.

Most of the artists met at Greatmore Studios where it was arranged for a bus to take every one who had already arrived through to Goedgedacht in Malmesbury. More introductions were made once we had arrived at Goedgedacht, and the orientations that Jill Trappler would talk about in her speech were already under way. Jill, one of the founding committee members of Thupelo Cape Town and trustee of Thupelo, came to the workshop that afternoon to introduce the workshop to the participants. Jill explained some of the history and house-keeping of the workshop, but it also enabled participants to orientate themselves and consider the purposes of the workshop. Jill drew attention to the importance of relocating yourself physically and in relation to your work, finding references to focus yourself is an important way of doing this. Jill also talked about Thupelo being a contained space and the importance of staying with your work as a way of focusing and structuring the workshop and the importance of talking to the other participants and your work. The advice to "stay with your work" would be important for the participants to consider throughout the workshop as they dealt with distractions, whether these directly related to their work or not. Jill also said that each workshop has its own personality as this one would.

The setting up process offered itself as an opportunity for the participants, newly arrived at the space, to get to know it, while also making it theirs; not only was this a communal studio space, but artists were also able to find spaces within to for themselves to work and a space in which to anchor themselves for the duration of the workshop. Some artists spent the first few days working in different places, finding which places suited them, as they also felt out what work would suit the locations that they were drawn to. The relationship or connection between where the artists worked and what work they made was very evident, from an artist who worked with gold material who on arriving late found a space ready for him underneath a gold plaque to an artist who was using wielding equipment among other tools and he found a working environment that suited his needs in one of the farm sheds. Others shifted to different places throughout the workshop depending on what they were doing at particular times whether this was due to the portability of the materials such as being able to work outside because they were working from a small sketchbook, or it might have been because of the materials and tools that the artists were using. Others worked in different places in order to find an environment that they could work more comfortably while also having breaks from the intensity of the main studio space.

The evening slide shows were an essential part of the workshop, two artists would present slides of their work every evening. This enabled them to show examples of their previous art and to articulate this work to the other participants, as well as answering questions from the other participants. This enabled the participants to understand more about the art that each other were making now and to contextualise it a broader body of art. Many questions were unexpectedly challenging, which added an important dynamic to the workshop. It was clear to many that from the first couple of days that the participants got on well together, and it is worth noting that this characteristic of the workshop did not stop the critical line of questioning that was typical of the slide shows. I think that it is evidence of the professionalism of most of the participants that this did not have an impact on the general feel of the workshop.

The "walkabout" gave participants an opportunity to explain and articulate the work that they were doing during the workshop giving everyone an opportunity to touch base with what everyone else was doing and wanting to do at this workshop. This was done within the first week, when artists were just getting settled into their work - which led to some resistance by some participants who felt that they were just getting into a momentum of working but it was explained that this was an opportunity to invite other participants into the thinking and the actual process of making their art, it gives participants the opportunity to think about what they are working with and to communicate these intentions to the rest of the workshop.

How the working process manifested itself in the different ways was often reflected in the work, as well as in different artist's understandings of the making process and their aims and objective. Some experienced the process as more important than a finished work.

How people perceived the workshop was very affected by their own personal agendas and their own personal engagement with the work that they were doing and the environment in which they found themselves to be in. It was easy to transfer problems or distractions onto other people or the organisation of the workshop, which did occur when participants were not engaged with their work or felt alienated to a certain extent from the workshop environment.

South African National Gallery Annexe - The exhibition was well received by the public and regular visitors to Thupelo exhibitions, with many visitors coming during the week. But from comments that the artists gave in a meeting to close the workshop, the exhibition was considered to be a distraction from the aims of Thupelo. Some artists became very focused on producing work for the exhibition, even panicking about producing finished work. The selection committee that was set up to help artists decide on what work they wanted to show had an important role, in helping artists to focus on particular pieces for the exhibition, although one of the committee members suggested that this selection process should happen on the last morning, as many people stopped working after their work was selected - this is again evidence of the exhibition focus of the workshop, particularly in the last week. As participants suggested, having an open day at the end of the workshop might be a way of engaging the public with the work and allowing the aims and ethos of the workshop to remain strong.

I would consider Thupelo in general and this workshop in particular to have benefited enormously from the critical discussions and provocative insights that some participants contributed to the shape, character and direction of the workshop. I think that the complaints and feelings of vulnerability were important in shaking people out of a degree of complacency. I have heard the phrase, "comfort zones" discussed on a number of occasions in relation to how artists work and how they need to be shaken out of this place so as to be able to grow as an artist. How this comfort zone is identified and how an artist moves out of their comfort zone can be subject to questioning. But without the forceful criticism that was seen at the slide shows at this latest workshop I wonder how many artists would have really had to think about their work, to defend it and the reasons why they make the work that they do. Thupelo needs to think back to the early workshops, which installed the characteristics of experimentation and of artists challenging their work in fundamental ways, and to think about how such characteristics can be carried through and truly realised in these current workshops. This is more than a matter of talking about "energy" and "process", for there is always going to be energy of some kind present just as there is always going to be a process involved. Listening to what artists say about the workshop and what their different understandings of what Thupelo is about, will enable Thupelo to remain the adaptable and flexible workshop that it is renowned for; the workshop that adheres to artists needs.

Rhoda Elgar
30th March 2003

Rhoda was invited onto the workshop as a way of carrying out research for her PhD which will incorporate Thupelo Workshops.