I enjoyed my Infecting the City experience, although there was only one artwork that I would say "Infected" me. I loved the photographs of the Matric students proudly standing in front of their homes. The only reason why I loved this piece so much is because I had knowledge of it previously and had seen the entire production via an email. The photographer said that for a lot of the women it was a heartbreaking and yet soul building experience. They were ashamed of where they came from, their homes and their situation and yet you saw them standing in front of them proudly and confidently in their stunning Matric dresses. I also really enjoy opposites and the unexpected. And this is exactly what this piece was about. Had these photographs been taken anywhere else, one would NEVER guess that they come from poor communities. I walked past the photographs numerous times and each time I did I loved the art piece more.
However, that being said, there was absolutely no blurb about the project anywhere. Had I not had the previous knowledge I would have had far less appreciation for it. I can guarantee that I would have merely walked past the photographs commenting on the dresses. A far more shallow and materialistic approach.
As a whole, I wasn't overly impressed with the exhibition. I felt that it was quite high school art... I would have wanted something more engaging, actually making you think and evoking emotions. The rubbish collected from 40 homes had so much more potential than just becoming part of a stage and then lying in mounds on the floor. Seeing the rubbish becoming something else like being made into homes would have been far more emotive. Show the possibility and value that the trash actually has.
The exhibition left me unaffected which is not how you want or should leave an exhibition like Infecting the City.
If I had to take part of Infecting the City as a jeweller I would want the jewellery to be able to pass off as high end fashion. Take things a step further and think out the box... Melt cans and make jewellery out of tin, use glass as faceted stones, incorporate random little pieces of trash (I saw a keyboard in the rubbish - use the keys), use circuit boards. But whatever I would make, I would see it as imperative that when you look at the jewellery, you would never guess that its actually just trash. It would be amazing to sell the jewellery at an exorbitant fee as people would pay for it, which is ironic, because they are technically throwing away the raw materials of what they just bought...
