"Thandi is a tree"

Thursday, May 17, 2007
Street Pause....

I have loved working with Catherine on our "duet" project... It has been so light and fun.
How these duets work is that each student gets a topic to research, then two students pair up and combine their thoughts to create one IDEA!
Catherine chose pavements and I chose trees, together we came up with the idea of 'Street Pause'.
When looking at the trees of Kwathema I found that trees inside peoples properties are treated with love and care yet those in public spaces are often neglected, and look like orphans...
Catherine found a similar situation with the pavements.
'Street Pause' is about creating a resting space along the barren pavements of Job Maseko street by planting a tree and paving the space around it. While working on this project something else emerged ..... the idea of treating and perceiving public space with the same care and awareness that comes with ownership of property.
We wanted to get the residents involved. We made an advert called 'thanda ishlahla' which means 'love a tree' in Zulu. Initially I made a spelling mistake saying ' thandi ishlahla' which means; 'Thandi (A Zulu girls name) is a tree'. Thanks to Sifiso, it was soon corrected.
The ad offers a tree with paving to be installed in the public realm outside a house, with a commitment from the owner to look after this space.
Kibas, a sweet and ciggie stall owner was our only respondee. I think he knowns how lucky he is...
So Catherine and I have been on a mission to get this process started...
Will keep you posted on our progress...





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