Before heading to Berlin, Jono set up a project at Teufelsberg Street Art Gallery because it’s been a dream to collaborate in our favourite city.
We planned to paint our “spirit animal” the jackal. We had a title, The Black Back Backpack Jackal, we had the QR code plaque, and we had a tube of trusty “No More Nails” for plaque installation.
We were, for all intents and purposes, “go-busters”.
How silly we were.
I’m not sure where mice come in, but the best laid schemes of mice, men, (and women), “gang aft agley”. Well, that’s what Robbie Burns says. Basically, the best laid plans often go to shit.
To cut a long story short, when we got to Teufelsberg, we felt like one of my students once penned, “completely godsmacked”. After picking our jaws up from the gravel we realised fairly pronto that we needed to do a rethink. Not only were we coming off the euphoric high of the ARYZ exhibition in Prague, but we wanted our piece to emphasise our vision for street art.
We want to be part of the discourse around reframing how people look at street art. A lot of people look at it very quickly, usually with a “That’s so cool!” caveat, and then they post it straight to Instagram for the obligatory likes. Street art is ephemeral by nature, it gets painted over fairly quickly, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist in one’s memory, as opposed to just social media. Street art is so much more than social media fodder. Of course this is tricky, because we also react strongly to the idea that art has to mean something specific and be taken too seriously… Street art is art for everyone, but you need to see it. There’s an opportunity to say more, and to see more.
In the context of Teufelsberg, this seemed extra important. Teufelsberg is like crack for your eyes (that’s not the official tagline, but it should be), so to encourage more seeing and less looking-through-the-eye-of-a-cellphone is a challenge and perhaps idealistic. However, as we always say, space and place influence human behaviour, and art is a catalyst for change. You have to start somewhere.
And speaking of starting somewhere, in order to start, we needed a wall. Cue Peter Lorenz, the manager and curator of Teufelsberg. Peter is a legend in the true sense of the word… He’s generous, energetic, enthusiastic, and a perfectionist. He gave us the perfect wall and sparkly-eyed hints of “You’re going to have to smash this”. And we knew we had to smash it, we were surrounded by big names in the street art world, we were the first South Africans to do something there, and we didn’t want to look like country bumkins or be bumkins for our country.
That’s why, immediately after meeting Peter and securing our big wall, Jono and I went full sheets to the wind in a frenzy of extreme brain-thrashing and “What the hell just happened?!” Even in hindsight, I can’t believe we got to go to Teufelsberg, let alone do a project there. So, once we’d stopped pinching ourselves we started the brain work, which is often like being in a mosh pit. It starts with the groupies– the usual suspects of faint ideas, you know the early birds that corral the better ideas into the frenzy? To date this brain-mosh was one of the best because we were surrounded by Teufelsberg and it’s a space that inspires high-octane creativity. In retrospect we remember feeling absolute euphoria followed by a massive massive excitement hangover.
Through our brain mosh we realised how much we wanted to say with this project. It needed to be distinctly South African… But also global… And also linked to Berlin in some way. It needed to be not just a good story, but a fucking great story. It needed to be engaging. Within 24hrs the concept and design were done. Some of this was a happy accident, some was planned. Creation is magic.
The title? What’s Maid While the Madam is Sleeping.
The next week was spent back and forth from Teufelsberg scraping paint and newspaper paper mache off a wall, braving the Berlin wind and erratic transport (Zelenskyy was in town), and mostly a whole lot of painting. We also discovered the magic elixir of Fritz Rhubarb (which FYI is dazzling with gin).
Jono doesn’t like it when I brag about him, so I won’t, except to say he made it nice.
My role was to bring elements of academic research to life through this audiovisual mural. This is an important facet because academia has a space, but it needs more of a place. Because here’s the deal, a lot of research is interesting. BUT, a lot of how we present it is quite simply not. How we disseminate academic information needs to change. Journal articles are boring, expensive, and self-indulgent. Conference papers exist in an echo chamber of “more of a comment than a question”. And seriously, only a very small handful of people will read your thesis… Unless you’re very special.
Here’s the other deal. Everyone should have access to good research. And it should be presented in a way that’s accessible. And FREE. Spaces should be places for debate. Learning should be where you least expect it… So that you choose it.
Imagine a world where people choose to learn?
So anyway, enough about that, here’s the finished mural.
And now we invite you to engage with the mural through the write-up explaining the concept, design elements, etc.
And then check out the multimedia elements that are accessed via QR codes attached to the mural. We chose these elements because they extend the themes while also celebrating other artists who have inspired us through art, resistance, and storytelling. The song by Johnny Cradle is a particularly special inclusion because they are one of our favourite bands. They are unsung heroes, singing about unsung heroes. If you do one thing today, listen to Johnny Cradle.
“Salut!”