”artists working with communities for environmental awareness”
Insaka 2007, a two-week International Artists workshop held in Siavonga, Zambia and sponsored by the Triangle Art Trust. In the middle of the African bush, 20 artists from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, USA, India and Scotland!, came together to exchange ideas and cultures under the banner of ”artists working with communities for environmental awareness”. Many of the artistic disciplines were represented: painting, sculpture, illustration, video and photography.
The African bush provided an intense and at times, dangerous environment in which we worked alongside each other, the local tribal communities and reptiles of all shapes and sizes. The local tribes welcomed us openly, allowing us to observe their daily lives and learn more about their basic, self-sustaining and vibrant cultures.
At the end of the two weeks we held an open day on site. I exhibited a video documenting our experiences with the local tribes people. These short documents focused particularly on the female population of the tribes, who appeared to do everything: farming, teaching, cooking, and raising families. Many of the older women (understandably) complained that they suffered from back pains, and so the video opens with an amusing, yet informative lesson in several yoga stretches as taught by Aditi, our Indian artist on a hot, and slightly surreal morning in the middle of the village. The video then switches to the regular evening dancing and singing round the bonfire and the daily chore of grinding finger millet, which is then boiled to a solid substance called nshima, the staple food of Zambia.
Insaka video stills.