Hello - meanwhile from South Africa,
The last days running up to our Chishawasha photo show were extremely work-intensive, but also extremely rewarding for all of us involved. We mounted over 250 photographs, many of them in thematic groups of 10, 6 and 4 photos per student. The themes reached from the kid’s personal background to weekend excursions to visual explorations of their close and seemingly familiar surrounding. Two more assignments (one still pending) were not part of the show but may yield still more interesting material. I’m proud to report the show looked beautiful by all standards and was a big success with everyone who saw it. Once again I can’t thank enough everyone who made this project a real joy, especially the Chishawasha staff and the teachers who were willing to accommodate my students’ extensive 3 week extra-curricular schedule.
We were incredibly lucky to have a large class room available at the Chishawasha school that was currently not in use and can now seriously compete with any Chelsea gallery in its beautiful simplicity and good natural light. And no offense to Chelsea art lovers - our audience was even more special: The Chishawasha school not only educates about thirty of its own residential orphans, but also about 45 village kids who largely live close-by. It’s safe to say they never saw anything like it and were accordingly excited (see our updated website photo at http://www.tribeofman.com/zambia ). As the show will remain installed for at least a couple of months it’s also safe to say that more locals will come to see it.
At the end of this (for me) very, very long day I enjoyed a one last communal dinner of enchima with chicken and vegetables, and then I was seen-off by my kids with an extremely entertaining (and very elaborate) living room teenage dance show followed by a very touching farewell medley of songs and poetry. I have to admit I had a real hard and emotional time getting on the plane - it just seemed way to early to leave but big things (…literally, as my wife’s belly is ever expanding) are awaiting me at home.
So now that I’m gradually making my way back to NYC I can’t wait to get going on phase three of this project, which should ultimately - after some tight editing and hard decision-making, bring high-quality artwork to you and to a general audience. Along with it we’ll try to bring you closer to life in Zambia as seen by our most lovable and individually talented Chishawasha students.
These project emails were not targeted a general public but are really meant for friends, colleagues, supporters, fellow educators and a few individuals who don’t know me but may find my first-hand accounts interesting enough to add potential value to this or to one of their own projects. As the workshop phase of this project is now winding down, my sometimes half-baked workshop reports will come to an end and hopefully give way to a well-suited effort to publish photographic results and tell a general audience about our workshop’s wonderful kids of Chishawasha. We’ll let you know eventually how that’ll go.
Greetings,
Klaus
On a foot note:
One previous statement of mine in regards to creativity should be clarified. Of course I would never question the Zambians’ collective or individual potential for creativity. I was however reflecting on real life circumstances I witnessed first hand. It is rather plain to see that too many Zambians are forced to struggle extremely hard just to meet life’s most existential challenges. Of course that too requires creativity - but not necessarily a kind that’s playful, exploratory and critical by nature. Zambia has many amazing cultural achievements to offer, including areas of individual artistic self expression that flourish in most enviable ways (just consider our kids dancing for example). One often encounters outstanding individuals here in Zambia and most of us foreigners will find Zambians to be of exceptional warmth and social graces. But as different cultures meet and try to work with each other, some ongoing comparison and self-reflection is unavoidable. Most of us are probably somewhat aware that - for example, ancient Egypt’s amazing and unmatched creative achievements came at a high price, in many ways being the product of most brutal oppression experienced by countless individuals in servitude. Or lets consider traditional arts and crafts when they fall into quasi servitude of a global tourism industry. It’s certainly great to be able to make a living with it but it won’t automatically benefit the quality of a nations traditional artwork. Or lets look at our own society: Awareness is finally spreading of the real term consequences our biggest ‘creative’ export - the global economic model, brings to countless far-flung individuals, at times even to whole nations who will likely never be the ones who benefit. So yes - any of my statements about Zambia should be seen in relationship to those individual- or society traits I came to pursue, recognize, criticize or value within my own cultural and personal background. I don’t intend to pass judgement on Zambia but simply reflect on things as they occur to me being the outsider I am.