WRITE ON AFRICA

Whilst much has been written recently on the Wide Open Walls project in the Gambia we thought our readers would be interested to hear about the following ongoing project. Whilst WoW is without doubt loaded with well intentions, I must say we're still a little ambivalent about what "exporting" this culture to far off places means. It's a sensitive area and one that Write On Africa seems to have handled really well.

WRITE ON AFRICA

In 2008 five artists set out on a 9 day road trip to the Transkei stopping off in communities along the way and painting art for the unsuspecting public.

Medium : “street art”.
6 communities in nine days. Huts, shacks, abandoned buildings, shabbeen walls and nursery schools.

Ricky Lee Gordon from Write on Africa, and Cal Burns from Matchboxology, the creative activists behind this initiative, are both passionate about this project growing and reaching more people,
Ricky wants to continue to travel and paint for the unsuspecting communities taking new artists along for the experience everyone time as he believes it is possible to paint sensitive social but positive messages to even those who are in remote places.

“As an artist it just makes so much sense to me to interact with an audience. I care about the issues we face here in Africa and there is a lot of work to be done. Next year we are planning to travel and paint for unsuspecting communities with new artists coming along for the ride at different parts of the trip.
Our journey was an incredible experience for us as people and impact-full on each of us as artists not to mention the many communities we left with color.
This trip wasn’t a crusade to change the world but rather a cultural experiment. We engaged with people we wouldn’t usually interact with,and our art allowed us to do this,our motivation was also art for arts sake,as we left with some amassing documentation of our work on these new landscapes.”


Artists
Freddy Sam, Faith47, Hac one, Rowan Pybus (film/photography), Jessie Doucha (Driver friend/chef/photography /happy thoughts).

More on the project here


Supported by:
The Scrutinize HIV campaign
http://www.scrutinize.org.za
Scrutinize is a national campaign being undertaken by USAID/Johns Hopkins University/JHU Program in South Africa in partnership with the popular youth brand Levis, other South African partners with creative incubation by Matchboxology.
Many experts have joined in providing Victor with the ammunition to give to you so that we can eliminate the element of the HIV surprise.

Mat©hboxology
http://www.matchboxology.com
Mat©hboxology guides senior management to see social needs as market needs - aligning organisational growth and social growth as intertwined. The revolution of Marketing 2.0 is embracing that consumers and communities want to change the world for the better with their favourite brands and organizations.

Word Of Art -Creative Art Agency.
http://www.word-of-art.co.za
Word Of Art is a stronghold of creative talent that creates opportunities, provides insight, and represents artists in many sectors of the creative industry.
As agents, curators, managers and producers of art, we offer tailored services and implement a range of beneficial pioneer projects for our clients, from concept to fruition.
Through our not for profit writeonafrica initiative we continue to try add to the creative growth of South Africa.