BROTHERS' PLAY. Zanzibar
“BROTHERS' PLAY” (20-12-2016) is a visual art performance done by two performers from two completely different continents meeting each other in visual art and beyond. The performance is mainly about humanity and its continuously inability to go beyond looking towards each other in a “black and white mind set”.
dated 2017 until 2019
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BROTHERS' PLAY. Meeting point.
2017
Video still 01:
Meeting on the beach and decide to go and "play on the beach" together in harmony and joy.
FILM: For viewing the performance documentation film, klick on the picture and you will find the link to You Tube. If you are on that "enlarged picture page" please scroll down on this window to find the film.
“BROTHERS' PLAY.” is a visual art performance done by two performers from two completely different continents meeting each other in visual art and beyond. This meeting was on Paje / Jambiani beach Zanzibar, melting pot of cultures, spices, food and believes in which the (Indian) Ocean plays a huge role. Sadly enough this island played also a huge role in slave trading which is a history fact that this artwork cannot do vanish or change in a positive sense, but it likes to present a (small) new positive gesture against these negative human actions (of the slave traders / buyers / users) and negative history for the once who were affected. This art work of course is a very small gesture, and in no relation to the huge impact of what happened to those who were effected.
BROTHERS' PLAY. Imprinting.
2017
Video still 02:
Making body prints in the wet white sand seems to be an obvious statement to make while we are playing on the beach.
This performance and installation artwork is also a continent-, time- and site- specific installation executed on a quiet, white tropical beach on Zanzibar which last as long as the (sea) tide is not taking it away.
This performance was executed on Paje / Jambiani beach Zanzibar, melting pot of cultures, spices, food and believes in which the (Indian) Ocean plays a big role.
For viewing the performance film, klick on this "picture and text" page and you will find the link to You Tube.
If (by clicking) you came on that "enlarged picture page" please scroll down on this window to find the film.
BROTHERS' PLAY. Imprint.
2017
Video still 03:
Empty body imprints.
The body imprints on the beach are, in this context, also an “action of play” (referring to the artist his child memories, him playing as a child on the beach), which is giving an extra layer and / or insight of that person playing in/with his own body imprint. Besides that is “playing” is an opposite / contrasting action towards the hard working fisherman and seaweed farmers. This is reflecting (and should make us sensitive to the fact) the tourist destination which Zanzibar is, wilts their original inhabitants are too poor to travel (for fun, holiday, etc. but also many times to poor to travel to the nearest hospital!!) and have to work hard as fisherman or the woman who work in the harsh seaweed farming. It is this contrast and unfairness between "the west" and "Africa" which is not ok.
For viewing the performance film, klick on this "picture and text" page and you will find the link to You Tube.
If (by clicking) you came on that "enlarged picture page" please scroll down on this window to find the film.
BROTHERS' PLAY. Coloring result.
2017
Video still 04:
Looking at the result, together.
“BROTHERS' PLAY” is a visual art performance done by two performers from two completely different continents meeting each other in visual art and beyond. The performance is mainly about humanity and its continuously inability to go beyond looking towards each other in a “black and white mind set”.
This performance was executed on Paje / Jambiani beach Zanzibar, melting pot of cultures, spices, food and believes in which the (Indian) Ocean plays a big role.
For viewing the performance film, klick on this "picture and text" page and you will find the link to You Tube.
If (by clicking) you came on that "enlarged picture page" please scroll down on this window to find the film.
BROTHERS' PLAY. Food items used.
2017
Video still 05:
Body imprint with colouration of the opposite colour of skin made with food items.
Working with black/brown and white food items makes it even more site specific (locally purchased items), economic and political. For example: Corn flour (white) in Zambia and Malawi are subject of political influence (price and distribution) and corruption (in Malawi there was a food shortage in the 2015/2016 harvast year because the emergency sock (enough for 3 years) was sold to benefit a few). A more personal observation (but far more less worse that the first): in the village we stayed in Zanzibar we were drinking instant coffee while they grow coffee on the mainland of Tanzania but it was not for sale on Zanzibar (for a reasonable price at least)!
As we all know the same food items are not equally distributed all over the world mainly because of a strange and complex combination of supply and demand, politics, international economy, local economy and/or due to high transport costs (especially when land locked). With using food items I also like to point out the fact that basically a few big multinational consumer goods companies (KraftHeinz, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, P&G and Nestlé) “decide” what the prices are (on their maximum profit), what we eat, and where. They would probably call it a healthy response to “supply and demand”.
For viewing the performance film, klick on this "picture and text" page and you will find the link to You Tube.
If (by clicking) you came on that "enlarged picture page" please scroll down on this window to find the film.
BROTHERS' PLAY. Showing color.
2017
Video still 06:
Showing true colour.
Filling the body imprints by the performers with the “two” contrasting food item colors is an "obvious reference" to their skin colour, and in this situation the colors of the food items were not matching their skin color, but where intentionally swapped. Because, maybe, the “white” performer has a more “brown” mind-set than one could observe from just the outside, and the “black” person maybe has a more western mind-set that one can access externally, still we cannot wipe out their backgrounds and histories and that is way they are performing together and show this to you in a positive mindset and wanting to move constructively forward together (as one).
For viewing the performance film, klick on this "picture and text" page and you will find the link to You Tube.
If (by clicking) you came on that "enlarged picture page" please scroll down on this window to find the film.
BROTHERS' PLAY. Food is politics and art.
2017
Video still 07:
The upcoming sea is crawling towards the short lived "art installation".
I’m not using food items easily (for an art work) in a country (and maybe the whole continent) where so many people are struggling for their daily energy (food) intake and many die not succeeding their goal. It is maybe more because of that why I turn food in to an art work as art materials. With using brown/black and white food items I also like to point towards the strange processes in making some food items look and smell different (more attractive, nicer smell, etc. (all to sell more). For example purification for making white items extra white (sugar, salt, rice, flour, etc. not necessarily making it more healthy) and adding additives in a lot of food items not necessarily making them more healthy to eat, only longer lasting and tasting better and sometimes more addictive (sugar, fat, regulators, stabilizers, colours, flavours, preservatives, etc.).
For viewing the performance film, klick on this "picture and text" page and you will find the link to You Tube.
If (by clicking) you came on that "enlarged picture page" please scroll down on this window to find the film.
BROTHERS' PLAY. Disappearance.
2017
Video still 08:
The sea gives, the sea takes.
Before the sea takes the installation away and wipes it out, the water comes up slowly and that is where an important and interesting process is going on which deals with mixing, stirring, dissolving, diluting and insolubility. Processes which are more interesting than “black and white” thinking. After that, the mixter is taken in to the sea together, where it will be positive food for thoughts.
For viewing the performance film, klick on this "picture and text" page and you will find the link to You Tube.
If (by clicking) you came on that "enlarged picture page" please scroll down on this window to find the film.
BROTHER'S PLAY performance imprints
2019BROTHER'S PLAY performance imprints (life size / real huma size) where shown in solo exhibition M'MBUYO TSOPANO TSOGOLO MPHATSO (May 2019). Performace was performed December 2016, Zanzibar, BROTHER'S PLAY. We played in the sand as brothers, made our body imprints, filled it with colours of the other brother, laid in it, printed the remains on the canvas, laid in the brothers imprint, and printed that on the same print. . . Later I coloured in the backgrounds from where we came, how the outsiders seeing us and/or filling in what is or should be our culture, or stuff that differentiates us, but we still can play as brothers. . Worked on the backgrounds for 2 years, mixed media on canvas (different food powders). The pink stuff discolours because of air, but that we call process.