If you pass the Raglan Road Multi-Purpose Centre in Fingo Village you’ll see an unusual piece of playground equipment amid the mostly dry and barren yard. Around two o’clock most days, children swarm over a colourful bakkie made from recycled cans, clambering inside on the animal-skin seats, opening its hinged doors and squirming in anticipation of their turn as driver.
If you pass the Raglan Road Multi-Purpose Centre in Fingo Village you’ll see an unusual piece of playground equipment amid the mostly dry and barren yard. Around two o’clock most days, children swarm over a colourful bakkie made from recycled cans, clambering inside on the animal-skin seats, opening its hinged doors and squirming in anticipation of their turn as driver.
“They are thinking they own the car — that car is such a creative car for them,” said Thembakazi Seyisi, project manager at the community centre. Seyisi, who oversees the centre’s multiple activities — the after-school programmes, the preschool, the HIV/Aids and an aged people's groups — believes the car does much more than provide entertainment.
“I’m so glad this car is on our site. This car reduced the number of street kids. It’s useful because instead of kids going to town and begging or thieving, they come here and play,” she said.
Although the car has found a grateful home at the Raglan Road centre, the car's creators hadn't intended this to be parked here. That is another story.
The project began as an initiative of local arts-based NGO, Arkwork Collective, funded primary by Artists Project Earth and supported through the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University. Straddling the borders between social upliftment, environmental activism and art, the project enlisted four local car-washers to create a car from recycled cans. It encouraged the young men to use their imagination and, with the materials readily available to them, transform junk into an artistic statement.
The National Arts Festival (NAF) was the intended platform to showcase this statement because, last year, it had provided space and funding for Arkwork’s first development-art initiative. The NGO hoped the Festival would support them in a similar way this year, and that the car would act as a prop in a Festival drama which would tell the story of its creators’ daily lives, hustling on the streets of Grahamstown.
But art is a subjective matter, and after many attempts to secure funding for the second phase — the drama — the project ended prematurely.
“I battled to make people see the value in it,” said Injairu Kulundu, creative strategist for the Arkwork Collective who specialises in integrating development work and art.
Ismail Mohammad, National Arts Festival Director, commented, “The Festival values its partnership with Arkwork’s project, but we regret that with constrained resources and a broader programming vision, we cannot extend ourselves to materialising all their aspirations.”
In the months leading up to the Festival, the car received some local publicity. Wonder-struck visitors admired it as an ingenious tool for social empowerment and a cool piece of art-junk.
However, the interest and encouragement of passersby wasn’t enough for the project to culminate in a Festival performance.
The creators went back to hustling on the streets full-time and the car, which had been outfitted with wheels and could actually be moved, sat on the outskirts of the centre's courtyard.
Life went on for the NGO and their hope of using their creation to engage the public nearly dissolved.
Then, half way through the main Festival, the Fingo Festival emerged. As the first of its kind, its intentions as an offshoot festival were described by Nomalanga Mkhize, one of its creators: “[It is] a space to bring the festival vibe into the township – as Fest seems to be retreating further into the direction of Rhodes and the 1820 Monument.”
So the car was placed in the amphitheatre on Raglan Road, where it drew the interest of locals. After the three days of the Fingo Fest, the car was moved to the community centre at Raglan Road.
Looking at the car today, one could hardly conceive there ever was an unfortunate chapter in its life. It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate home for it than a playground. This artistic expression was never meant to be stored in a museum quartered off by "Do not touch" signs, and here it is admired up-close as a treasured instrument for a child’s imagination.
“This is a context in which its value is seen,” said Kulundu. Here, the statement the car makes means more than it would elsewhere.
“It’s an invitation for people to get creative with what they have,” said Kulundu, “I believe the metaphor of transforming junk into something worthy and appreciated has come back to life again.”
To commission the craftsmen or to support arts-based development, please contact the Arkwork Collective at 076 128 0193.
* Hailey Gaunt is a freelance journalist and also works part-time as a research assistant at Rhodes University's Environmental Learning Research Centre.
