Cape Land Art gathering: Witsands Beach

Thank you to those of you who joined for our first Land Art session/meetup! Here is some pictures from the day in Radloff Park.

Please join us again on Sunday 18 May 2014 at Witsands Beach, Southern Peninsula. It's about a 45 minute drive from Plumstead - view the map on our new Facebook page.

We will be there from 9h00. When arriving, walk the site and begin creating straight away, as soon as you find a spot that inspires. i.e. play first, meet later! We will meet at 11 for refreshments and conversation. We can then visit one another’s work, and choose to leave or to continue with our installations for the rest of the day.

A few suggestions:

• Our focus is on process, on temporary work and exploration. Don’t put yourself under pressure to perform! For ideas or inspiration, look at the Site_Specific website and landartsouthafrica.blogspot.com or just google 'land art'!
• Please respect the environment and consider using only local, organic materials. Or you may need to remove MOOP (Matter Out of Place) at the end of the session.
• Please keep an eye out and stay clear of the nests of birds on the beach
• Feel free to clean up and collect litter as you go along.
• Some artists prefer to work quietly, so perhaps save your greetings for the break.
• For safety, stay close enough to keep an eye on other artists. Please note that participation is at your own risk, please take all precautions to keep yourself safe. 
• There is no charge, so bring your own refreshments, hat, sunblock and especially enough water.

Join our mailing list: eepurl.com/SLoMz
Join the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/capelandart
Also join the Site_Specific facebook page: www.facebook.com/sitespecific.landart

Please RSVP to Janet Ranson - janran@cybersmart.co.za - and make sure that we have your telephone number. Please save the number 072 3331 5057 for Janet Botes, in case you get lost or can't make it on the day. Hope to see you there!

Namaqualand Bodymapping workshops: support needed!

These are photographs from a workshop that took place on the farm Begin!, located on the R362 between Klawer and Vredendal in the Western Cape. The project is organised by Desireé Brand, and forms part of her research at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, focusing on the state of art and artmaking in the Olifantsrivier Valley of Namaqualand.  The area plays host to a lot of creative and talented people, however there is no public art, galleries or other platforms for local artists. It's difficult enough for artists to create great art despite criticism and self-doubt, but it's even worse when there is no platform, no support and no community for the creative work that you do and to share your interest and passion for art. 

The Koekenaap workshop, in which I participated in 2011 (read about it on my blog, my work created during the workshop, my account in Afrikaans),  was one of the opportunities created for artists in the region, and was organised by Desireé and the Wesland Kunsvereniging. The workshop brought artists in from different areas of the Western Cape, creating a space for interaction, collaboration, art-making, discussion and ideas germination. It also culminated into an exhibition in Vredendal held at the Wesland Kunsvereniging, showcasing the work created during the 10-day workshop or residency. 

Artmaking during the 2011 regional Koekenaap workshop

The current project is focused on doing body-mapping with people from different sectors - bringing together farm workers, people from the towns and people from the townships in a supportive space where their creativity can be explored and utilised into shaping a collective. Up to now the funding for projects such as this has come from the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs & Sport, but this workshop is the last project that will be funded by the department, leaving a huge gap that needs to be filled. This is where you come in. If you can support or fund the project in any way, please contact Desireé at +27 27 2132567 or info@caperockwines.co.za.

9 Days left to Moving Planet!

Saturday, 24 September 2011, is moving closer and we're all getting more excited! Remember to decide what low-carbon mode of transport you're using to get to the Cape Town Train Station Forecourt, whether it's train, bus, minibus-taxi or carpooling. Remember you're allowed to bring your bicycle on Metrorail for R10 extra on the day. See you there!! Also please help spread the word, here is some visuals that you can use, share, post, circulate and MOVE around to let people know about the event.

Invite/emailer:


Website/blog banners:





Download and print the leaflets (right-click and choose "Save link/target as..."):
http://www.janetbotes.co.za/PRINT_4_on_a_page_leaflet.pdf

And the poster (right-click and choose "Save link/target as..."):
http://www.janetbotes.co.za/MovingPlanetCapeTown_POSTER.pdf


And here's the links to share!
Moving Planet Cape Town
"Like" us on Facebook
RSVP on the Facebook Event Page
Moving Planet - CT on Twitter

Also if you're keen to help with some mud stenciling and reverse/clean graffiti during next week, sms Janet at 072 331 5057.

350 Moving Planet - Cape Town

"In Cape Town, a collection of green leaders have come together to create a massive event that will celebrate environmental successes while simultaneously demanding change from our leaders.

The Cape Town Moving Planet event will feature a huge march/parade with floats, costumes, puppets and more, with thousands of people, young and old, marching to make change. The event will seek to raise awareness of climate-friendly alternatives to damaging practices like driving your car, cutting down trees, and many other harmful actions. As fun and exciting as it will be, the event will also be a petition, demanding change in the policies and programs put forth by our government that damage the environment.

Alongside the march we will also be hosting an exciting bike ride to promote cycling as an active mode of transportation.

The event should be very exciting and seeks to represent all members of the Cape Town community. We would love it if you got involved, as we want this to be the most powerful and exciting event to date. We are still in the early planning stages of this event, so more specific details like the time and location are to come, but we are excited and hope you are too!"

For more information:

About the Moving Planet action day:
www.moving-planet.org/about
www.350.org

GET INVOLVED!

Event Page for the Cape Town event: www.moving-planet.org/events/za/cape-town/978
Facebook Page for the Cape Town event: www.facebook.com/pages/350-Moving-Planet-Cape-Town/137845456301050


Some of the amazing organisations represented by the people that have joined for this event so far:

• Project 90 by 2030
• Shikaya
• GreenPop
• Fairtrade South Africa
• ...350 Africa
• LitterAWEH!ness
• Anti-fracking Group
• WESSA
• Ecobuzz
• UCT Green Campus Initiative
• Public Health Movement (PHM)
• Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN)
• Cape Town Bicycle Map
• Green Your Art (GYA)
• Skateboarders Association
• UNIMA South Africa
• COPART
• Jungle Theatre Company
• Anglican Church

GYA artist gathering on Friday, 22 July

22 July 2011
3pm

37 Bryant Street, Bo-Kaap

Cape Town, South Africa

GYA is about "Greening your art" and at the moment is focused on creating a platform for artists to gather and talk about ways that we can change all stages our artmaking to be eco-conscious and authentic.

On the 22nd of July we'll be having a look at what Michelle Searle did in a park in Bryant street in the Bo-Kaap in Cape Town. She initiated and pulled through a project where she and her neighbors improved the park so it would be safe for kids to play there. She did a creative mural, and also painted a flower on the pavement in the park, where kids now play and Michelle and other women can have activities with the kids.We'll have snacks and something to drink in the park and at Michelle's home (just around the corner from the park) while talking about either further improving the park or identifying another park or area that needs creative upliftment.

Please bring:
a smile, creativity, enthusiasm, snacks and something to drink (no Coca-Cola please - try and bring ethical, fairtrade and environmentally aware snacks and drinks!) :-)

Looking forward to see you there!

DIRECTIONS
Buitengraght...into Bloem...sharp left into a road with no name...into Buiten street.....up...& up turn left at Big green house..and drive along Bryant Street to a bright pink house. We meet at the house and then walk the few metres to the park.

For more info about the park or this gathering call Michelle at 021 424 7054 / 0825044130. For more info about the GYA gatherings in general call Janet at 072 331 5057.

Google map link to the venue



Facebook event page: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=209404052413414

JULY DESIGN WORKSHOP by Karen Suskin, Haldane Martin, Helen van Zyl

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY: 5 JUNE

What are you going to do this year for World Environment Day? Show your commitment to the preservation of our environment, and your awareness of our dependance and interconnectiveness to nature by doing one or more of the following:

• HOST A LUNCH
  Host a lunch in your home, invite your friends and ask them to donate anything from R25-R200 to a great cause, Soil for Life. You cook and your friends donate online and you all stand a chance to win great prizes!
  Read more on http://www.eatfortheearth.com/
  
• DONATE A TREE with Greenpop
  http://www.greenpop.org/
  
• VISIT THE EARTH FAIR FOOD MARKET
  Give the franchise supermarket a skip, and buy fresh foods at the Earth Fair Food Market in Tokai. Open every Saturday 9.00 am - 2.00 pm
  
  More info and a map: http://www.earthfairmarket.co.za/
  
• GO HIKING
  
  Wherever you are, find a place to go and walk - breathe in the scent of dried leaves, and enjoy the colours and variations that autumn brings, with the stark and interesting shapes of bare branches against a blue sky.
  
• HELP CROCHET A CORAL REEF
  The Woodstock Art Reef Project gathers every Saturday between 11am and 4pm in the Blue Shed at the Waterfront. They are building a crocheted coral reef as an art installation that aims to raise awareness for our oceans and the effects of global warming on sea life.
  artreefproject.ning.com/
• READ AND SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT SUSTAINABILITYGo and read up about the ways that you can help and support sustainable development, how you can make a difference by making small changes in your lifestyle, and what you can do to make more people aware.
  Read about the pros and cons about each energy option on Life in Balance:"Energy - what is the answer?", an insightful article by Richard Asher
  
  Read The Advanced Energy [R]evolution: Greenpeace's energy blueprint for a sustainable future and green development

...and after World Environment Day:

If you're an artist, come to the GYA (Green your Art) gathering at White Rabbit Studio on 17 June in Gardens, to talk about what we're going to do for Moving Planet on 24 September 2011.

GREEN DRINKS Cape Town

GREEN DRINKS CAPE TOWN

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DATE & TIME: Monday 16th May 2011, 18h30 onwards (Talks at 19.00pm)
VENUE: The Josephine Mill, Newlands, Cape Town
BRING: An open mind, a good attitude, some friends
JOIN: email greendrinks@josephinemill.co.za

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The energy story will not go away. This month we are giving the floor to Earthlife to hear their strong convictions against the continuation and development of Nuclear Power. This is topical for South Africa as we approach the finalisation of an Environmental Impact study relating to a proposed new nuclear facility near Cape St. Francis. (The direct cost of the Japanese Nuclear calamity is estimated at $100billion.)

The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster - 25 years after Chernobyl. What do we know about Fukushima and what does it mean for South Africa?

Gray Maguire has been involved in socio-environmental justice causes since 2003 when he was working in Tanzania. He subsequently did a degree in development studies while still working in much of the rest of Southern Africa and later did a six month hitch-hiking expedition through 14 countries investigating community based development strategies. He started an environmental management consultancy called Green Earth Consulting in 2008 as well as a Public Benefit Organisation called the Nomad African Trust. He’s presently in the middle of a post graduate degree in environmental management and while being a freelance sustainability consultant also serves as branch secretary for Earthlife Africa Cape Town.

EarthlifeAfrica is an environmental and social justice NGO that has been active on these kinds of issues since the 80's. We have been standing in opposition to governments nuclear ambitions for most of that time and were successful in our campaign to stop the Pebble-bed modular reactor.

If you too would like to share your dreams or what you do, please let us know (greendrinks@josephinemill.co.za). Make a presentation in the future…. and become a part of a growing, conscious–living community. Share knowledge, wisdom, skills, hope, and enthusiasm.



Further details: www.josephinemill.co.za/greendrinks.html

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This post was created by using the Green Drinks Cape Town email newsletter/notification. All content have been created by the Green Drinks team.

ENERGY lecture at the Book Lounge

Monday night in Newlands, Cape Town

Screening of GASLAND

YOUR INVITATION FROM WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:

Gasland, the Oscar-nominated documentary about fracking – an environmentally destructive method of natural gas exploitation that may be used in the Karoo soon – will be shown at:

The Labia on Orange cinema in Cape Town on Monday 21 March at 6:15pm, on Tuesday 22 March at 8:30pm and on Wednesday 23 March at 6:15pm

and at:

The Bioscope Independent Cinema in Johannesburg on Monday 4 April at 8.00pm, Tuesday 5 April at 8.00pm and on Friday 8 April at 8.00pm.

Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown - Gasland is the must-see documentary of the year!

The largest natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudi Arabia of natural gas" just beneath the country. But is fracking safe?

When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled town in the neighbourhood reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country Fox calls Gasland.

This documentary is particularly relevant to South Africans because Royal Dutch Shell and other local and international oil and gas companies are about to start exploring for natural gas in the Karoo. The fracking technique that will be used for extracting this gas is extremely water-intensive and known to cause devastating groundwater pollution. Watching Gasland is a bit like watching the Karoo of the future – if we allow fracking to happen here!

The screenings will be followed by a facilitated audience discussion.

Tickets for the screenings at the Labia can be reserved by calling 021 424 5927. Tickets for the screenings at The Bioscope can be booked online at www.thebioscope.co.za or by calling 087 830 0445. We strongly recommended that you reserve tickets to avoid disappointment.

This event is presented by the Labia, The Bioscope, www.fractual.co.za, a South African anti-fracking website, Earthlife Africa and While You Were Sleeping, a Cape Town-based non-profit film collective committed to bringing progressive, non-mainstream documentaries with important social, political and environmental messages to South African audiences.

Contacts:

The Labia:
021 424 5927

The Bioscope:
087 830 0445
www.thebioscope.co.za

Official film website:
www.gaslandthemovie.com

Fractual:
info@fractual.co.za
www.fractual.co.za

While You Were Sleeping:
Andreas Späth
084 749 9470
Andreas_Spath@yahoo.com
www.whileyouweresleeping.wordpress.com

A new leaf

It's a new year and everyone that I've been speaking to is amped and ready for new challenges, opportunities and for making a difference in a way that makes the most sense to each of each.

COPART (Connecting Out Planet And Re-imagining Together) is planning their second Climate Fluency Exchange for February, and have many more plans and pipeline projects - head on over to COPART's blog to read the plans for 2011!

The first HumanEarth Exhibition is happening from next week - check our previous post for the information /invitation to the opening.

This is an invitation to all of the Ecojunki members, supporters and enthusiasts.
If you would like to post updates on the Ecojunki blog about environmental-related events, creative ideas and other related eco or art stuff, please email Janet at ecojunki@gmail.com to be added on the author list. A few artists and friends are already on the author list and able to contribute to the blog.

On 15 January there will be an informal Ecojunki workshop or gathering. It will be during the morning from about 10am and be finished at 12am. Venue to be confirmed next week. Keep the space open in your schedule! ------ gathering postponed to February!! WATCH THIS SPACE.

Hope that your first experiences in 2011 is all happy, hopeful and inspired.

First COPART Climate Fluency Exchange!

The first Connecting Our Planet & Re-imagining Together (COPART) Climate Fluency Exchange (CFE), scheduled from the 4th-10th December 2010, in Cape Town. The CFE aims to turn complex climate change information into accessible ways of knowing, as well as accessible practices in our lives. The CFE facilitates a transdisciplinary intersection between scientists and artists; activists and creatives as well as the general public.

This CFE is the first of seven scheduled between December 2010- December 2011, these are week-long social learning processes that facilitates creative and innovative participation and learning for artists, activists, scientists and the public. This event is also strategically scheduled to run concurrently with the COP16 climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. Activities, concepts, ideas, comments and other forms of communication will be sent to a parallel exhibition within COP16.

There will be interactive public activities scheduled for the weekend of the 4th-5th of December, which include public artworks and mobile installations/performances on trains, by the sea side, within the Company gardens and at Iziko Natural History Museum. The rest of the week we will offer a variety of different talks, presentations, film screenings & other showings of artworks/performances.

What makes this week different is that there will be facilitated artful processes that will encourage participants to explore various different artistic genres and "ways of knowing", the turn the information we will be exchanging, into real lived alternatives or practices.

If you would like to know more or find out details on how you can participate contact Dylan armadylan@gmail.com

The COPART CFE is kindly funded by:

Don't miss the Hout Bay Green Faire!

Have a look at this call for participation for the Hout Bay Green Faire! This looks like it could be a lot of fun!! Get in touch with them ASAP at info@envirochild.org, 072 797 0904 or 021 790 6696 if you're interested...

Please join us to trade or participate

in the HOUT BAY GREEN FAIRE

on Sat 27 Nov

at Kronendal Primary school, Hout Bay
Please see invite attached...

We are desperately looking for artsist who can put up, or make a installation out of recycled materials on the day.

If you require any information please do not hesitate to contact us....

It's going to be a fun green weekend!

The "Nature-minded Expression" event for the 350 Work Party event on Sunday is self-regulated, self-initiated and self-managed. You as artist or performer are fully responsible for your own 'piece'. The venue is the Celebrate Life festival which will be held at the River Club in Observatory, Cape Town. Remember that a strict No-Trace, No-Harm policy is being adhered to, so leave no trace, mark or residue and also do no harm to people, festival stalls, property or the area. Other than that, have fun and create awareness!!

Also remember to wear GREEN!



PLEASE HELP!

I need your help and participation for Saturday and especially Sunday! We're setting up a small space where people can join in and make things from 'waste materials' especially empty plastic bottles, milk cartons and other food packaging. So what we need is the following:

- You, please commit an hour or more of your time
- Tools like scissors and pliers
- Lots of creative ideas
- And of course any materials that you think we can use!

Please contact ecojunki@gmail.com - your help is needed to make this a success!

For more info on the festival
www.celebratelife.co.za



HUMANEARTH Exhibition #1

If you missed the HumanEarth Brainstorming session at Greatmore Studios in Woodstock, don't worry, you can still participate in the first exhibition! Planned to open on 27 November 2010 in Cape Town, this exhibition will feature new as well as existing work by local artists focused around human interaction with our planet. Send your information, ideas or images of your art to Nastasha Daniels at nastasha797@gmail.com.

HumanEarth Brainstorm!

Hi everyone, there will be a brainstorm around the concept HumanEarth. This event will take place on 30 Sept 2010 between the hours 18:30 and 21:00 at the Greatmore Studios.

The purpose of the brainstorm is to explore

• What HumanEarth means
• Set out the basic parameters of forthcoming exhibitions
• Network
• Exchanging creative thoughts with other artists and participants
  

Address:

The Greatmore Studio
47-49 Greatmore Street
Woodstock
7915

There will be wine, music, good company and creativity. I look forward to seeing all of you.

For more information contact:
Nastasha Daniels, 084 676 1053, nastasha797@gmail.com