Michaelis 3rd Year Environmental Elective, 2024
In September and October Michaelis students, led by Associate Professor Fritha Langerman, worked with the Two Oceans Aquarium on installations that drew attention to some of the key environmental issues that our oceans face. Their projects were installed in October at the aquarium and within the city, and engaged the public in thinking about complicity, care and the impact of our everyday actions on the surrounding coastline. The project was run as an elective at the Michaelis School of Fine Art and was supported by UCT Khusela Ikamva funding.
Kelp Out the Sea
Gaby Tobler, Yusra Fakier, Gihansa Galhenage, Mars Hesseling, Lia Makkhurane
This Intervention aimed to influence and encourage actions of care towards our sea through the simple tasks of collecting and crafting kelp into woven baskets and blankets. The use of kelp not only brought attention to the sea forests but created a work that was completely environmentally friendly and sustainable. In addition to the baskets, we made small coral forms out of calcium carbonate, drawing attention to coral bleaching and the loss of this compound in the sea. The public were encouraged to take these back to the sea as gifts or acts of care. During our intervention at the Two Oceans Aquarium the public were invited to interact with kelp and learn to weave baskets. Through these actions we aimed to draw attention to the importance of both kelp and coral within our two oceans.
Plastic Pals
Neve Campbell, Rachel von Albach, Ariyana Bosch, Ashleigh Cooper & Siphenathi Mneno
In 2035, it is predicted that the Cape Penguin will be functionally extinct. This alarming possibility was of deep concern to our group. Our campaign aimed to raise local awareness about this crisis. We made 50 plastic penguins from bread bags, recycled disposable materials, and tape. These were distributed throughout the city to highlight the penguins’ looming disappearance. In using valueless materials to make the quirky and inventive form of these ‘plastic pals’ , we wanted to communicate that anyone is able to make small, creative actions to help protect them. Accompanying our “plastic pals” is a QR code that links to NOOW Penguin Watch website (https://www.africanpenguinnotonourwatch.org/) and our social media, where the public can learn more and get involved. @plasticpalsza
Intruders
Pavi Mestry, Frances Black, Ylara Esau-Salie, Otashia Reddy, Bronwyn Matthews
This project is concerned with the politics and dynamics of space, focusing on the roles of observers and the implications of human presence as an invasive species. We intended to foster a deeper understanding of the critical impact humans have on marine life and inspire a sense of agency in addressing these pressing ecological issues. Using recycled red plastic, we produced a beaded curtain, that referred to red as a SASSI indicator as well as to red bycatch prevention nets. The net formed a barrier of bloodied droplets, interrupting visual access to the kelp tank, and resulting in viewer entanglement with the strands. This drew attention in an associative way to human complicity within ecological disturbance and the urgent need for conservation and collective responsibility.
Ghosts
Cat Brown, Shae Behari-Leak, Lisakhanya Ngqoba, Robyn Norval
The ocean is a vast realm of both life and death; and for some it is a spiritual place. The ocean’s resources have been exploited resulting in a quiet extinction. We imagined an environment positioned between the death of old species and the birth of imagined new ones – a graveyard of ghostly, haunting creatures reincarnated from the depths. We produced a series of cyanotypes of hybrid sea creatures and set this in juxtaposition to a hanging installation of morphed plastic sea creatures that, while resembling known forms like jellyfish, are imagined species from the future.
MICHAELIS 3RD YEAR ENVIRONMENTAL ELECTIVE, 2022
In May 2022, a third year ‘environmental elective’ teaching module, led by Associate Professor Virginia Mackenny, focussed on the UCT campus as a site of concern. Four groups of students produced interventions and installations on Hiddingh and Upper Campus that drew attention to issues of waste, recycling and the campus’s carbon footprint. One group, Kayleigh Cornish, Shahir Singh and Daniella du Plooy, produced a 90 metre ‘intestine’ of university waste that wound down the plaza stairs. It was featured on UCT news: https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2022-05-13-giant-fabric-intestine-promotes-culture-of-recycling-on-campus
Erin Grice, Jo Truscott, Kayla Howie and Megan Mills formed the art collective “Waste of Space” and their project aimed to foster awareness of individual plastic consumption and waste plastic waste in students’ immediate environment. Recyclable plastic waste was collected from 15 students in residence over the course of a month, and was entwined with meters of plastic braids made from plastic shopping bags. The braiding was an analogy for the entanglement of plastic pollution with the earth’s geology, and to engender care, the audience was encouraged to spend time braiding as they considered their own complicity in plastic pollution.
Kyle Strydom, Zainab Davids and Katherine Joubert created a public intervention titled. An object reminiscent of an enlarged vase of flowers with suggested ‘paper ears’ posed the question “IF THIS WAS THE LAST WATER ON EARTH, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO IT?”. Viewers were invited to respond to the personified jug of water, and in so doing, they hoped to encourage empathy and sensitivity to the weight of human actions.
Georgina Clark, Mitchell Engel and Helen Engelke’s “Two Trees” installation on Hiddingh Campus invited viewers to sit at a desk and read a book imagined through the voice of two trees of the area. They were interested in the complexities of settlement and indigeneity in relation to local trees and codexes of colony. Indigenous seeds were offered as souvenirs of the engagement.
