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Plastic Histories Public Art Project by Cigdem Aydemir

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Plastic Histories Public Art Project by Cigdem Aydemir Plastic Histories Public art project by Cigdem Aydemir 14 July – 1 August 2014 | Bloemfontein, South Africa 1 14 July – 1 August 2014 | Bloemfontein, South Africa Plastic Histories by Cigdem Aydemir is the first experimental art commission for the Vryfees (Vryfestival) in Bloemfontein, South Africa, as a partner in the Australian based SITUATE Art in Festivals initiative, managed by Salamanca Art Centre. This new experimental art commission is part of the Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), developed by the Vryfees and the University of the Free State, to support long-term interdisciplinary research, cross-cultural engagement and development for the arts. 2 3 Contents Introduction 7 Framework 8 Waiting to exhale | Jonathan J Jansen 12 Poem: Vakuumverpak vir makismum varsheid | Gisela Ullyatt 14 Poem: Ndizalwa nobani | Kagisho Kolwane 20 Plastic knowledge, memory and history | André Keet 24 President Steyn’s pigeon: Making the opaque shine | Lis Lange 29 Poem: Bomme nkhekhe | Charmaine Mrwebi 34 Poem: Mmakgosi wa Afrika | Tessa Ndlovu 36 Plastic histories: Queering the historical South African gaze | Nadine Lake 41 Credits 46 4 5 Introduction Most 19th Century, and even contemporary monuments in post-colonial countries such as South Africa are typically a celebration of men’s achievements in serving the empires or their nations. These monuments serve to shape collective memory in public spaces, and ensure against the failure of individual memory. Yet, we now know that our memory, far from being set in stone (or bronze), is plastic in the sense that it is constantly shaped and molded based on our new knowledge of the past. We also know that there are multiple histories in every era, and that often these alternative histories are not represented in public space. Plastic Histories is an attempt to visualize this by uncovering alternative histories, in particular acknowledging the contribution of women from all races, sexualities and genders in the grand narrative of a post-Apartheid South Africa. Cigdem Aydemir, 2014 Plastic Histories by Cigdem Aydemir is an exploration into the nature and meaning of historical monuments in public space. By physically and virtually shrink-wrapping monuments of historical male figures in pink plastic, Aydemir opens up a dialogue around the representation of histories in public space and the narratives that are held around them. While she alludes to the significance and preservation of public monuments, she concurrently reveals the nature of their sometimes contentious and gendered historical function. Plastic Histories creates a, somewhat, temporary utopia where these monuments can be used to empower and commemorate the unacknowledged and equally deserving, rather than those simply in power. Still, the process of highlighting alternative histories does not eliminate the historical context or value of the statues or indeed the legacy of the men they represent. In fact they serve to highlight the narratives of these men and the historical moments they embody. In a time when the general public is rarely aware of their stories, Plastic Histories offers an opportunity to consider and debate the purpose of these statues, and add the additional histories of women from all races, sexualities and genders to these sites of collective memory. Cigdem Aydemir is a Sydney based artist of Turkish Muslim heritage. Her interdisciplinary art practice incorporates installation, performance and video. She explores the convergence of gender, queer, religious, and cultural identities as well as themes of body politics and intersectionality. Much of her work interrogates the void between body and dress as well as its social and political implications. Coming from a fashion design background and being the daughter of a tailor, her conspicuous use of fabric simultaneously holds, falls, conceals and reveals, adorns and obfuscates. Plastic Histories: Steyn (2014), Monument shrink-wrapped in plastic with neon pink enamel 6 7 Plastic Histories: Swart (2014), Monument shrink-wrapped in plastic with neon pink enamel Framework Plastic Histories is a multifaceted project comprising of three main components. This includes the physical shrink- wrapping of two monuments on the University of the Free State (UFS) main campus; the development of an augmented reality application for four monuments in the city of Bloemfontein; and an exhibition of digital prints, video and physically shrink-wrapped busts from the UFS permanent art collection, in the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery. The statues of President Martinus Theunis Steyn, sixth State President of the Orange Free State (artist Anton van Wouw, 1929), and President Charles Robberts Swart, first State President of South Africa (artist Johann Moolman, 1994), are temporarily shrink-wrapped in pink plastic. This is accompanied by an augmented reality component, designed in partnership with artist Warren Armstrong, for the statues of General James Barry Munnik Hertzog, third Prime Minister of South Africa (artist Danie de Jager, 1967), President Francis William Reitz, fifth State President of the Orange Free State (artist Laura Rautenbach, 1986), President Johannes Henricus Brand, fourth state president of the Orange Free State (artist JW Best Jr., 1893), and General Christiaan Rudolf de Wet, Acting State President of the Orange Free State (artist Coert Steynberg, 1954). A free, downloadable application allows these monuments to appear pink when viewed through a smart phone or tablet. In addition the voices of South African poets Kagisho Kolwane (Xhosa), Charmaine Mrwebi (Sotho), Tessa Ndlovu (Afrikaans, English, Sotho) and Gisela Ullyatt (Afrikaans) are heard when viewing the application. The three components are integrated into a larger social media environment to create a visible space for alternative histories in public. This includes livestreaming of the shrink-wrapped President Steyn statue for the duration of the project, and a #PinkPresidents campaign to support women’s and queer rights. 8 9 Plastic Histories: Swart (detail) Plastic Histories: Steyn (reflection from UFS Main Building) Plastic Histories: Steyn (detail) 10 11 Waiting to exhale There is something beautifully subversive in any creative project that takes on the somber and the sacred in social spaces. Such is discordant memory from a period of white supremacy and its attendant ills. Plastic can and does change shape and colour (sic) under the case with the decision of Cigdem Aydemir to vacuum pack two foundational figures in Afrikaner history, President MT Steyn and the hands of real human beings. Here is the case for agency and activism; history is not simply given, it is made and re-made by all of President CR Swart, whose statues feature prominently on the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State. us in formal settings like schools and universities but also in everyday life by what we talk about, remember and construct alongside, or in the place of, others’ sacred statues. “They can’t breathe!” whispered a colleague known for her playful melodrama; I made the obvious biological point—“they’re stone.” And yet her point is well-made. Enveloping these historical statues in tightly concealed plastic covers does convey a sense of asphyxiation, I am delighted that the two statues continue to exist on our campus; there is something mindless and mean in displacement alone. taking away the breath of social and historical life accorded these historical icons. But what do they breathe? What are the expressions Keeping some statues is one way of recognizing the sacred memories of others. However, if that is the only purpose for retention, of lives once lived, and yet still lived, that Steyn and Swart exhale? then the act of retention itself is a blow to social justice. The statues, however, also allow for ironic memory, the idea that despite our supremacist history these statues are surrounded by, and given new life through, the many changes happening around them, and to Theirs is of course a message of Afrikaner nationalism from its infancy following the South African War (once known as the Anglo-Boer them. All around Steyn and Swart new memorials are being created daily in symbolism and in substance, and hopefully in dialogic War) and its growing confidence that resulted in the narrow electoral victory of the Nationalist Party in 1948. It is white breath, for black conversation; that, after all, is what universities should do. South Africans were increasingly marginalized and oppressed under their respective regimes. But there is more than one story even as one should guard against moral equivalence of the anti-British struggle of the Afrikaners and the pro-apartheid oppression of the Finally, these sacred bodies are available for purposes of playful engagement, through this highly creative act of the Plastic Histories same people. President Steyn was a peacemaker, a person who sought, unsuccessfully, reconciliation between Kitchener and Kruger. project, to give new meaning, even transform, solid stones into new life especially for those long waiting to exhale. Swart has little to commend him apart from the fact that he was the first law graduate from the UFS. Yet for some people in the country Jonathan D Jansen these two men, and what they represent, breathe life into the hearts and minds of those who draw on nostalgia for making sense of an unhappy present. In that sense, these are living stones and when you touch them, expect reaction, as in the case of one blogger who wanted the Australian artist to rather go back to her country and mess with the aborigines; this of course has long been the standard trope among white South Professor Jonathan Jansen is Vice Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State and President of the South African Institute of Race Relations. Africans to foreigners (in the case of Americans, it is “the Indians” who should enjoy reflection) when there is any charge of racism. He holds a PhD from Stanford University, the MS degree from Cornell University, and honorary doctorates of education from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), Cleveland State University (USA), and the University of Vermont (USA, 2014).
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