Today we left Wits early again to get to Kwa Thema and start work as soon as possible. Robyn and Gareth were joining Catherine and I later – they were collecting all sorts of materials. We arrived to a huge mound of rubbish; it still hadn’t been cleaned as promised. Catherine left to visit the council with Mr. Cindi, and I started to plant the tyre bollards with Lawrence. Peter Le Roux gave us 24 hardy succulents, which will bloom with red flowers. They are perfect. The ANCYL guys continued our landscaping theme for the day by getting to work on the holes for our 18 odd trees. Catherine returned and rushed off again to order our outstanding steel. In the meanwhile, our sign writer artist, Velli arrived and began work on the power salute mural. This image is from the archives of the inquest which investigated the ’76 student uprising. We thought it was the most iconic, potent and relevant image we could adorn the building with, and there it soon will stand, casting its eyes across Kwa Thema. We were also joined this morning by a guy from the council who came to investigate the feasibility of installing lighting. He was extremely, if not irrationally optimistic, and saw us being illuminated before the launch. Now that would be amazing.
Catherine and I set about clearing the underneath of the stairs just before we all had lunch at Lizzie’s. Robyn and Gareth arrived at about 15:00 with a trailer full of great things, the most cumbersome being the grass. We all immediately went straight into overdrive and managed to plant 8 trees and roll out more than half our grass. The building is transforming dramatically.
We were astounded to find a small group of Kwaito artists gathering, filming and posing on the structure in front of the power salute outline. These guys filmed a music video here and will be joining us at the launch. The evenings in Kwa Thema are so beautiful, especially when viewed from the beer hall’s upper floor. The deep orange of the setting sun outlines shadows swollen by the fog of many chimneys, children play on the streets, adults socialise across walls. Idyllic.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpWDModLOFI
Friday 18 May - The Kwaito visitors
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