CHRISANTHA CHETTY

Build Your Own World

In his book Mythologies Roland Barthes discusses the benefits of building blocks as toys. He explains that wooden blocks are great toys as they promote creative thinking and the building of one’s world without any imposed ideas, such as gender/race/class constructs. I agree with Barthes that building blocks may be one of the most beneficial toys in that it opens up possibilities without shaping one’s mind. In this project I worked with different companies, community and youth-groups to up-cycle and recycle wooden waste in to safe building blocks that were then taken home by participants or donated to a charity of their choice.

Public Art Tours

I created Public Art Tours (PAT) as a tool to invite people on a journey through spaces and times. Important to this is PAT’s research on creative and playful ways of learning and doing. PAT wants you to experience the ephemeral city in new and alternative ways, open your mind to possibilities you might have otherwise (dis)missed and challenge your perception of art, space and place. PAT travels to cities around the world documenting existing public art and offering conceptual tours. This involves looking at what is there, (re)presenting this by applying different theoretical frameworks, provoking questions and exploring the complexities of art in public space. The project documentation for this research has resulted in guided tours of two areas: Chippis, Switzerland and Johannesburg, South Africa. The project and tours use evolving pedagogical practices to explore the value of ephemeral processes as opposed to physical interventions in urban public spaces.

Artists under the sun and in the park

A collaborative spatial intervention at Zoo Lake park with artists:
Niki Rayner, Tabita Rezaire, Gina Kraft, Claire Rousell, Temba Middelmann, Sandile Radebe, Serge Basila and Yoliswa Dlamini. My role was that of an initiator and coordinator of this guerrilla art fair.

Be Feel Do

An entrepreneurial venture founded by Temba Middelmann and myself. We have stalls at festivals, markets and art events where we sell various items including: clothes that I make and art that we make. The stall works as a platform, providing a critical and intellectual space for conversations to start around our work. It aids us in funding our exhibitions and art practices as well as being great for networking and exposure. We have also used this platform to create pop-up art workshops where people freely come together to use the materials we provide and create artworks collaboratively.

Displaced Performances

A performative intervention in the public spaces of Maboneng, Johannesburg, where I set up a clothes donkey to dry my wet laundry. This performance was used as a research method to trace the boundaries of the newly gentrified area. What I quickly learned was that I was allowed to dry my clothes across the street from Maboneng but not in the precinct itself- I kept getting asked to leave by private security and other stakeholders such as the main developer and their staff.

Be Cool Birthday Parties

Born out of a necessity to perform in public spaces that were increasingly more policed and exclusive, Be Cool Birthday Parties involved throwing birthday parties on the roof of my car whilst parked in public parking spaces of Maboneng. It allowed me to interact with passers by and continue my research with out getting kicked out of the area by security. I started many conversations with people using the spaces in the area and was able to gather useful information regarding their experiences of the changes happening in those areas.

fair Chrisantha

A 60 day lived performance where I painted myself a lighter skin tone and went about my daily routines as per usual. The performance was an investigation into racism, specifically colourism and peoples’ perceptions and experiences of such. The performance travelled to different parts of South Africa and to Strasbourg in France. fair Chrisantha performed in public and private spaces, presented at talks and festivals as well as created other artworks through documentation and more staged performances including videos and installations.