May Johannesburg Bless You.
Now in its 2nd year, May Johannesburg Bless You brings together young creatives
each year in May to document the state of the city of Johannesburg as they see it.
The collaborating team is hand picked based on pro-active work done by young people in Journalism, Creative Writing, Photography and young entrepreneurs who offer services that contribute to the production of each series. It is a series of “unspoken known truths”.
Rising young Photographers Simphiwe “Vice” Nene and Sherilea Gaspar of GASphotography captured the 10 piece 2013 series. It maintains its challenge for the public to imagine itself as the protagonists in the everyday stories told by the unsightly vagabonds in South Africa’s traffic intersections. The idea twists and exchanges roles removing the hobo and replacing it with you! The “normal” citizen who supposedly contends with “less” problem.
With only 20 seconds a traffic light, a homeless person wielding a piece of cardboard laden with carefully planned writing regardless of the shattered grammar tells you their whole life story and can have you wretched with guilt for driving that car or even having clothes with no holes in them. The stories they write always have a secret weapon or a trump card. The words “May God Bless You”, these words are as good to a homeless person as a bank guaranteed check. The series then asks is it really the case? Do “normal” and “comfortable” citizens live with “less tragic” problems? Are they worthy of donations monetary or otherwise from strangers? But who is there to help you with your supposedly “easy” problems? Consider anaccountant who is ravaged by debt yet lives in a mansion and drives a posh car?
Who is there to help him with change? Is there help for a father who continuously rapes his daughter and wants change? The silver spoon raised educated black diamond who concludes that poverty is a choice and society must change. The series supposes that in all our differences each and every one of us has a prayer to be fulfilled- a prayer for a successful day in Joburg. The images drive forward society’s personal stories and also mimics society in judging and asking how did one get to be the way they are. Couldn’t they see it coming? May Johannesburg Bless You suggests that we are all the same but in different circumstances.
More than a social commentary and activist series, May Johannesburg Bless You is a skills transfer initiative for young creatives and entrepreneurs. Understanding the costs of tertiary education in commercial creative fields Founder and Creative Directors Banele Rewo and Art Director Ntsako Mitenda established I Create We Create as mechanism to discover and introduce unheard voices from young South African creatives who maybe otherwise blocked by the lack of funds to study in formal specialised tertiary institutions. May Johannesburg Bless You is a product of the creative hub organisation I Create We Create.
Creative Director: Banele Rewo
Photographers Simphiwe “vice” Nene, Sherilea Gaspar
Art Director: Ntsako Mitenda
Gallery: Kalashnikov Gallery, Braamfontein
Opening 30 August 2013 18:00 CAT
Contact: Banele 0737468704
