Art

A TRIBUTE TO SA’S FOOTBALL TRADITION

Katja Hamilton

“Fields of Play” will introduce you to such great personalities as Banyana Banyana’s Desiree Ellis who has skippered the national team for a record of nine years. Photo: Gavin Furlonger/Cape Town Stadium Visitors Centre

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If there’s one thing you absolutely must do before the World Cup hits Cape Town, and that is to go see Fields of Play.

Situated at the District Six Homecoming Centre, 15A Buitenkant Street, it stands to be one of the main tourist attractions during the 2010 World Cup, particularly because the centre is situated around the corner from the Grand Parade where the official Fifa fan fest and start of the fan walk will be.

Opened in October 2008, Fields of Play explores the dynamic intersection of memory and football in the history of Cape Town. It traces football’s development in the Western Cape from its early beginnings on Green Point Common until the period of forced removals, when football clubs were reorganised.

Thanks to a team of researchers, many of those who administered, played and watched football in Cape Town from the early 1800s to the 1950s have had their stories told, while photos and narratives combine to form a storyboard of oral tradition.

As you walk through the exhibits you’ll learn how football was played in Maitland (Royal Road), Langa (Langa Stadium), Kenilworth (Rosmead Sports Ground), Athlone (Athlone Stadium), Observatory (Hartleyvale), Salt River (Shelley Street), Wynberg (William Herbert Sports Ground), Rylands (Rygate) and Stellenbosch and will be introduced to such huge personalities such as Vincent Belgians of St Athenians, Desiree Ellis of Banyana Banyana, Pedro Meyer of Stephanians, Stephanus Stuurman of Norway Parks, Ebrahim Abdullah of Black Pool and Victor Masepe of Spes Bona, to name a few.

“It offers us some insights into the complex social history that defined Cape Town as a modern South African city; it bears testament to the earliest days when people came to play football on the street, how they started a club, then an association and how it gave people a sense of who they were and what it meant to be a member of a community. If you belonged to a club, it gave you a sense of belonging, a sense of importance,” says Tina Smith, curator of the exhibition.

There is so much history out there and memories in people’s shoe boxes, she says.

“One referee came here with a suitcase. It had wire around it. We had to get pliers to open it and out hopped these fishmoths underneath of which were these beautiful old records. His kids weren’t interested in them but he kept them in his garage and then brought them here. The idea that his and other ordinary people’s stories can be validated in this way is what has made putting this exhibition together all worthwhile.”

That people’s lives were uprooted and their social circles fragmented is the exhibition’s anticlimax, but in the wake of painful memories it also celebrates, through the lens of football, the resilience of individuals living in disparate times. Take this quote from Stephanus Stuurman of Norway Parks, for example who in an interview with a curator in May 2008 said: “Soccer was all we thought about. We ate soccer, slept soccer, dreamt soccer. It didn’t matter where we played. Whether it was on the street or on the field, that’s all we wanted to do.”

The indelible strength of character of so many unsung heroes is what will linger long after the end of your visit.

Walking from one storyboard to another a quote from the late Bafana Bafana’s Joe Mthimka catches my eye: “You cannot have a sport of any kind or culture where you don’t recognize who came before you”

How true.

With the construction of the new Cape Town Stadium and Green Point Common once again the focus of football in the city as we prepare for the World Cup, acknowledging where we have come from and the role that soccer has played in uplifting the nation has us coming full circle. Soon we can truly appreciate the miracle taking place at the 2010 kickoff – that despite our challenges, we are standing united as a country.

We have much to celebrate with the world. We have come a long way.

LOCAL CRAFTERS PREPARE FOR 2010 OPPORTUNITIES

Candice Bailey
Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Many of Cape Town’s skilled craft producers, from wire workers to weavers, stand to benefit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

With 450 000 visitors expected to descend on South Africa, the event presents a lifetime opportunity for local crafters to sell their wares to those who want a unique handmade item to remember their trip.

With the help of the Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI), a Section 21 company set up by CPUT and the Western Cape Province, a range of programmes and services are being rolled out to prepare local craft producers to make use of this business opportunity.

Manager of the CCDI’s GIFT Warehouse, Rose Reddy, said they have already set up a 2010 section at GIFT, which links craft producers to corporate buyers and retailers.

“We are sending out calls for products and are seeing some completely new 2010 event-related items, while others are adapting their existing lines,” said Reddy.

The 2010 section already boasts a number of products, ranging from beaded soccer boots to felt soccer balls.

Some craft producers have even produced wire and bead replicas of the Green Point Stadium, while others have taken a new approach to soccer bags and vuvuzelas.

Bearing in mind the stringent FIFA copyright rules and guidelines, the CCDI has appointed a 2010 project officer to work closely with the craft producers to ensure their wares meet FIFA regulations.

Creativity, Design and Innovation manager at the CCDI, Alan Alborough, said craft producers are being encouraged to make innovative, high quality products.

Alborough said craft producers eager to perfect a prototype of a product will receive hands-on assistance at their AMTS FabLab.

This facility offers design software which links digitally to manufacturing technology, such as a laser cutter, vinyl cutter and small milling machines.

“It is essentially a prototyping environment and this access to equipment changes how people approach design,” he said.

Other services for craft producers include programmes for enterprise development, skills training and mentoring.

Meanwhile, the CCDI is also extending its support programmes and services to crafters in rural communities. Craig Carbutt, Rural Outreach Officer at the CCDI, recently held workshops for craft producers in Mossel Bay.

More workshops are planned for other regions in the Western Cape.

The CCDI GIFT warehouse is situated at the CCDI headquarters at 75 Harrington Street, Cape Town.

HATS OFF TO VISIONARY ENTREPRENEUR 

Katja Hamilton

Tucked away in a garage in Constantiaberg is an extraordinary group of artists that is working hard ahead of the 2010 Fifa World CupTM to make their famous makarabas.

Iconic soccer hats, makarabas inject life into many a football crowd and enliven the grandstands with nodding plumes, toppling figurines, sunglass cut-outs and waving side pieces with team insignias paying tribute to the prowess of fans’ teams.

But, as much as they are trophy pieces, they are also a window on the world of soccer in the 70s in South Africa when fans donned hard hats to Kaizer Chiefs games to deflect the blow of flying bottles. Soon, fans started painting and decorating them – and so the festive makaraba was born.

And now you too can have a piece of the magic. Wear one on your head at Green Point Stadium or at the fan jols during the World Cup, get your friends to join you and have the time of your life – in fact, the spirit of your favourite Bafana Bafana players depends on it.

All this will be thanks in part to online business Makoya Makaraba and its visionary brainchild Michael Souter, who is taking his Constantiaberg team to new heights. In just under five days of placing an order, artists will sand a hard hat, cut out wild and wonderful shapes into it and paint it for you. And the best part of this creation is that it’s handmade and customised to your specifications and according to the colours of the team you support.

Michael’s enterprise had its early beginnings in 2004. “I met a few guys who made makarabas for themselves in the townships. I wanted to try my hand at designing them and to see if I could push the limit on what Capetonians were used to,” says Michael.

He designed his first hat for a friend in the UK who is a Celtic supporter and as a result many more expats in the UK placed their orders. Now Michael gets orders from as far out as California. But, Michael says, he could not have made it without the support of his right-hand man Sipho Mhlana.

However, Michael does not want to see the growth of the business end there and is on the look-out for a sponsor who could help him relocate his business to bigger premises.

For further information, contact Michael on 082 925 2537 or visit www.makaraba.co.za

TIME TO MAKE SOME NOISE

Katja Hamilton

With the 2010 Fifa World Cup around the corner, isn’t it time you joined in the resounding chorus of vuvuzelas on the streets and let the world know just how proud you are to be South African?
Now is the time to rise to the occasion with a pick of Adam and Michael Carnegie’s masterful creations dipped and brushed in beautiful colours, designs and national icons: handmade vuvuzelas made with none other than dried kelp.

Dried naturally in the sun on the beach, the vuvuzelas take on interesting shapes, and under the Carnegie brothers’ artistic guidance they transform into snakes, proteas, whales, chameleons, fish, frogs and snakes.

But Adam’s first love are his kelp warriors – weird and wacky vuvuzelas depicting people, some serious, even fierce, while others are funny.

“Kelp is amazing stuff,” he says. “It grows dynamically from the dark depths of the ocean to the light at the surface. The kelp plants support one another – working together – braving the elements and the huge waves of the mighty sea. The kelp forest provides shelter for a thriving marine community.”

Inspiration for the vuvuzelas came quite unexpectedly for Adam, who has designed and illustrated a range of books – children’s and educational – and illustrated for various magazines and publishers.

It all started from the humble recesses of a garage when Adam was tasked to find a project for his son’s class to make a craft for sale at their school fundraising fête.

He hit upon kelp vuvuzelas which, beyond being an awe-inspiring craft project, motivated the class to get together to collect kelp on the beaches, then paint them. It was as much a social project as a creative one.

The class made 22 vuvuzelas, which were sold out in the first half hour of the fête. It was clearly a good business opportunity, so Adam founded the Kelp Environmental Learning Project or, simply, KELP.

Partnered with a team of unemployed men the project grew into a social development project, which took seed in Imhoff Farm in Kommetjie under the direction of Adam’s brother, Michael.

“We want to create jobs, make a noise, make people laugh, remind people to be in the moment,” said Adam.

The project’s big break was when the City of Cape Town’s Youth Environment School ordered 250 vuvuzelas to give to the young people on their courses. They asked for a range of designs, including 50 special animals to fit in with the environmental theme.

The KELP team was commissioned to design a range of vuvu sea creatures for the opening of the Save Our Seas Foundation offices in Kalk Bay, and arum lily frog and western leopard toad vuvuzelas made for great gifts at the launch of the Beyond the Pond temporary exhibition on frogs at the Two Oceans Aquarium.

And, ever since, the demand for these intrepid artworks has grown.

The initiative has expanded more recently to a workshop space at Streetwires’ premises in the Bo-Kaap, where the team is able to meet the growing demand for vuvuzelas from 2010 World Cup hungry fans.

Speaking of next year’s showcase tournament, Adam says: “We’ve had our eye on the 2010 World Cup from the beginning. We’ve got a range of team vuvus – black and white for Pirates (football club), black and yellow for Chiefs and red and white for Ajax. And we do one in the colours of the South African flag.

“And, closer to the time, we’ll start doing them in all the international team colours.”

Watch this space!

For inquiries, call Adam on 021 705 3950 or 083 455 5805.

TACKLING TERRY ON LIFE BEHIND THE LENS

Photo: Terry February

Out of the remnants of the old Green Point Stadium rises a new stadium on the Green Point Common – a symbol of the long road to transformation that South Africans have walked.

And there to document it all has been Terry February, former director of communications at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Capturing history in the making, his appreciation of every line and curve of the stadium was as apparent in his debut photographic exhibition at The Green Point Visitors Centre, as it will be when he publishes his book On Track in April next year.

Page for page it will give a history of the common while tracking the progress of the stadium’s construction, with articles on people who were integral to its rise, making for great anecdotes and insights. On Track will provide an insider’s view into this remarkable milestone achieved by the City of Cape Town and its partners. Instead of simply capturing the construction of the stadium as an industrial project, Terry introduces a sense of poetic sensibility to his work.

“The use of light is what consistently distinguishes a landscape image – it can turn a scene from boring to evocative, giving a location atmosphere and mood,” he says. “At the stadium I constantly looked for light that dramatised the scene, and over time I learnt to recognise the time, duration, colour and quality of the light that made it look most photogenic. Sometimes as the sun sinks low in the sky, the light changes on the scene rapidly, so I had to anticipate and keep shooting at intervals, since a single image probably would not have captured the best light on the scene. At the time I managed to get the most effective light by being patient and simply waiting for a low cloud to move in from over the ocean. The tone of the light changed The Green Point Stadium into a luminous landscape.”

The image of the stadium with the cranes poking through the mist taken from Signal Hill is first prize for Terry and stands out as an experience for him.

He was among 15 photographers poised to take photographs of the landscape.

“Every other photographer focused on the sunset. I was the only one who focused on The Green Point Stadium, anticipating the change in light and cloud condition.

“I observed the mist rolling in from the ocean and I anticipated that something was going to happen. I was looking at this changing situation and I started firing one shot, and the image wasn’t quite right and I started looking through the viewfinder of my camera again and I could see the mist coming in closer to the coastline and the stadium, and I fired off a second and a third shot and I stopped and looked – and then something unexpected happened. The mist very quickly embraced the stadium and you could see the stadium partly through the pillars with the soft setting sunlight on the cranes. It was as if nature said ‘I’m giving you this opportunity just for this moment’ and I took two shots and 10, 12 seconds later the stadium was completely covered with mist.

“It was completely blanked out and you wouldn’t have thought that there was a structure beneath this cloud cover. It was completely gone, and it was then that the best part of the sunset revealed itself, kissing the tops of the low cloud cover. It was pure magic. “

An avid observer of human behaviour and a philosopher at heart, Terry’s depth and love for his work reveals itself in his interviews with the construction workers at the stadium. Everyone will get a mention in his book – from the architects, to the security guards, carpenters and engineers.

“When I started to shoot inside the stadium I met the first female crane operator. I photographed and interviewed her. Once I honed into her story and those of the other individuals, it added another dimension to the stadium and their contributions revealed interesting things. This crane operator, for instance, always aspired to be a pilot and now she manoeuvres a crane among 18 others at the stadium.”

But as layer upon layer of Terry’s creation reveals itself, his book would not be complete without a final chapter of the fall of apartheid and of the laws that permeated the world of athletics particularly at the old Green Point Stadium.

No stranger to the face of human tragedy, Terry’s brother Basil was killed by the apartheid regime, and having been an integral member of the TRC, he knows the kind of soul searching that is necessary to liberate one from the pain of the past. For him using Green Point Stadium as his subject in his book represents a going back over old turf, opening old wounds as part of the cleansing process.

“When the old Green Point Stadium was built the powers that be of the day excluded the majority of South Africa’s population from using the facility.

“However, years later non-whites could apply to use the stadium on a permit basis and the conditions were strict. In my youth I was a Western Province athlete in the early 1970s. We had our sporting activities in our racially designated areas, but on occasion our athletic body applied to the Council to use The Green Point facility. That used to happen two to four occasions a year and it would only happen on a Saturday during the day or as an evening event. “

Today, for Terry to look at the venue where he once performed as an athlete, and to hold it to the light with the new photos of 2010 Green Point Stadium signifies a triumph of the human spirit.

“Something good did come out of this with the construction of the new all-inclusive Green Point Stadium and when it will be completed it will be there for everybody – and for me this is a celebration – that is what I wanted to capture with my images.

“In witnessing the building of The Green Point Stadium, those who have suffered and those who have passed on watch over us with joy and celebration.”