Wang’ Thola Collective
Wang’ Thola Collective - Cosmo City
I was part of a collective of six artists from different areas of Johannesburg that formed the Wang’ Thola Collective (Wang’ Thola is a slang word that means do you get me? Do you understand me?). The mission of the collective was to start a conversation within our community of Newtown. We were awarded a grant from VANSA (Visual Arts Network South Africa) to complete a fully immersive one-year participatory art project in Cosmo City—a suburb north west from Johannesburg. The goal of this project was to examine physical or imaginary borders and conceptualize collaborative interventions. Cosmo City was overpopulated with people from all over Africa moving to Johannesburg in search of work. People were flocking to Cosmo City to take advantage of the new government housing, yet the influx of immigrants brought xenophobic attacks, riots, and government house owners charging rent to build informal houses (structures built with zinc and wood) in the yard space. Cosmo City turned into a hostile environment. With support from local libraries and local schools, Wang’ Thola set up a bright red gazebo in the marketplace, the heart of Cosmo City. We interacted with curious homeowners and shopkeepers in their daily routines. In order to learn about the community’s perception of physical and imaginary boundaries, we set off holding collaborative interventions including drawing workshops, collaging workshops, screen printing workshops, and murals. We learned very quickly that school-aged children flocked to our gazebo during school hours. These children weren’t in school and we realized that this could be the only education some of these children had received and they became our regulars. We themed our drawing workshops around simple questions like, “Do you know your neighbor? What do you want to be when you’re older? Draw your home. Draw yourself.” The answers were astonishing and deeply moving, including: pictures of police shooting civilians, some of the children’s only dream was to be able to drive a car, and mostly nobody knew their neighbors. We negotiated with homeowners to allow us to paint murals on their walls. We also used the powerful imagery the children created to populate a large wall, painting a mural with the help of the children and some of the local mothers. We held screen printing workshops to print the children's drawings onto t-shirts we provided. We also developed a coloring book with the children’s drawings, and these were donated to local libraries and surrounding schools. Local people were inspired by Wang’ Thola and our red gazebo, including a local family that started their own screen-printing business based on the skills they learned from our workshops and it thrived.
Coloring In Book
Wang’ Thola Collective - March Against Xenophobia (Johannesburg CBD)
Artist Proof Studio students marched for peace against the xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg. The march was as spontaneous as the attacks, and we quickly made protest banners and t-shirts to join the march.
