Archive: Issue No. 75, November 2003

Rienke Enghardt's 'Hope Box' at the NSA Gallery is a hive of interactive and collaborative elements. In the 'Weather Report' project, Enghardt has prompted artists from different countries to work with her by sending them a quarter of a drawing and encouraging them to add to it. When the four pieces are returned a new work, or conversation, is formed. These works sit cheek by jowl while the upper walls of the NSA gallery are packed with A4 paper carrying the results of any number of artists and members of the general public engaging with the Surrealists and children's game 'Cadavre Exquis'. Above, the ceiling is festooned with banner-like kites created in children's workshops.

Moving around the country at considerable speed before it takes off for its next destination 'Hope Box' is less a finished product than a process. A metaphorical and conceptual space it is akin to Pandora's Box which, after the sins of the world were let loose from it, had only one thing left to offer and that was Hope, who begged to be let out into the world.

Its function as a healing response to the evils of the planet is reinforced by a quick scan across the list of countries with which 'Hope Box' has engaged. A litany of besieged and war torn landscapes; Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Israel, Kosovo and, of course, South Africa, are evident. Yet Enghardt denies any deliberate attempt at targeting such places. The project's interactive nature has ensured that many of her engagements have arisen through invitation rather than design.

The project's process-orientated emphasis also makes a review fairly redundant as the project's value lies not so much in artefact as in experience. Despite this, however many of the works visually engage and prompt an imaginative space for viewers new to the work. The kites that dominate the main gallery space are particularly provocative in this regard. The largest works on the show, Enghardt uses them in her workshops with children. The kite itself is an aspirational object and a powerful enough one to be banned in some countries such as Afghanistan, where the Taliban forbid the flying of kites, seeing the activity as disturbingly subversive. Kites often function symbolically as carriers of dreams and longing, they are a link between earth and heaven and kite flying is both child's play and, in places like Japan, a serious cultural endeavour.

In the 'Hope Box' exhibition the kites' functions are multiple. They become shelters and workplaces as well as eventually taking to the skies with a newly constructed tail each time put together by the workshop participants in the different locations. Enghardt's kites are based on Japanese designs and are large, dominating the gallery and must be quite a sight in the sky.

In Durban Enghardt has linked up with YAP artist/architect Doung Jahangeer for the children's workshops. They regard their meeting as serendipitous and one gets the feeling that 'Hope Box' runs on many such meetings. Striking up a conversation as they set up their respective shows they ended up collaborating on 'Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe Art Show'. Starring 'Street Lights of Durban' (a group of street children of Durban that Doung has been working with for some time) 'Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe' is an interactive art show performed in the tent of kites. It is an artistic adventure, guided by inspirational sources originating from storytelling (in this case local storyteller Gcina Mhlope), philosophy and art, where children, together with artists, explore ideas of freedom and safety.

Not only do the kids get to benefit from 'Hope Box', but artists do too. Organising Artists' Get-togethers is part of the brief where open sessions for socialising and conversing are created. The whole project in each venue ends with an evening entitled 'Eat, Drink, Art', to which everyone is welcomed to discuss the process.

The project is a long term one, which Enghardt only envisages completing in 2006. During her visit to South Africa she engaged with local artists Ilse Pahl, Usha Seejarim, Mbongeni Buthelezi, Titus Matiyane, Diek Grobler, Langa Magwa and Greg Streak. The results of their contributions are subsumed into the greater dialogue. Playful and engaging, discouraging hierarchy and competition the 'Hope Box' projects draw artists in from a variety of disciplines to contribute to work where no one individual takes prominence over another, unless you count the co-ordinator that is. The desire on her part, however, is to encourage an imaginative participation and an openness of dialogue and certainly her physical presence is vital to this and would, in its enthusiastic generosity of spirit, seem to support her intention.

For more information one can visit the constantly evolving website www.vmcaa.nl/hopebox

October 21 - 31