AFRIKA BURN + | studio 8FOLD

A dense, measurable reminder of one need in one place, met. We aim to create an temporary oasis in a harsh landscape, a respite from the heat through shade, a sign of life - our tree - and cool air through a mist system overhead. One block of ice illustrates this a visually finite resource. By night a structure to find intimacy in an endless landscape reverberating with light, music and the internal chamber creating an intimacy of twenty people.

The greater installation starts only when we dismantle our - eyethu - and travel back to Cape Town. Our undecorated boards will be donated to the kids living around Eyethu Hout Bay Skate Park. We will run workshops on board painting and be left with a bag of rachets to donate for the erection of canvas shades and mist collecting structures providing water and irrigation to the grounds. We will plant our tree there as a commitment to continuing our relationship in developing the facilities of the park. All small gestures of kindness are returned, the least we can do is pass it on.

We are all the product of a thousand small kindnesses built up day by day. We are committed to building art responsibility. We want to have sight of the long term place our materials and the energies expended in creating our piece will ultimately resonate. Ours is a simple gesture designed to action two aims that are close to our heart - art with purpose and a zero waste mentality.

To that end we sought to fulfil a genuine need in South Africa. Working closely with the Eyethu Hout Bay Skate Park initiative in Cape Town the need identified was simply skateboards, so the children could each enjoy the facilities built for them. We challenged ourselves to view the skateboards as structure; integral to the concept and not just token cladding. In making something new out of an everyday object we are all forced to relook at its potential.

In the Tankwa landscape, our installation rises up from the dust utilising the skateboard as a building board.