What is the project about?
This project is about recycling and giving visibility to a less advantaged community in Johannesburg, by raising up a massive tower in which everyone participates.
The project will realise in the "iThemba Tower", a 20 meter-high permanent art installation made with over 7,000 recycled plastic bottles on a redundant communication tower. The bottles are collected by a team of informal waste collectors. The project will involve City Kidz School through a recycling awareness workshop and collecting the bottles and filling each one with a "message in a bottle".
'iThemba' means trust, hope. "iThemba Tower", a public art monument, a symbolic communication tower around which a diversity of people can share their collective hopes through the messages. This project will strengthen the community of downtown Johannesburg, support the livelihood of informal waste collectors and raise general awareness about recycling. The 20 meter-high installation will become a landmark and symbol of inspiration.
The entire process will be documented into a short film, showing not only the ‘making-of’ but also the lives and aspirations of Johannesburg’s youth (City Kidz), the informal waste collectors’ and the impact of their participation in this project. The film will be showcased at the school when the project is completed.
What are the objectives with workshops?
- The teachers are kindly requested to ask the kids in advance to collect plastic bottles that will form part of a recycling workshop. The bottles will be part of a temporary art installation that will be installed around a central tree on the school grounds. The teachers can collect the bottles from the kids during the week in black bags to be stored until the workshop commence.
- PLEASE NOTE: Can the teachers please be notified that we are only collecting 500ml Coco Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Lemon Twist, Cream Soda or Stoney bottles. As seen here:
- Workshop date: Thursday morning 12 May in the school hall.
- 3 Separate workshops of an hour long will commence throughout the day.
- The workshops will include a short presentation about the importance of recycling and the creative use of plastic; with visual presentation and a small video.
- We will then talk about the ‘iThemba Tower’ art project and the symbolic message and impact of community work.
- Two of our team of waste collectors will have a short presentation and talk about their daily routines and why they do recycling.
- The kids will then be asked to each write a ‘message of hope’ on a small bit of paper; each message will then be rolled up and placed within the bottle that they have collected.
- With the help of our team of waste collectors, the kids will assemble the bottles into a wired mesh that we will have at the school hall. (We will bring 1000 additional plastic bottles to the school to be added to the installation so we can wrap the entire tree)
- At the end of the 3 workshop we will wrap the tree with the sheets of bottles that was assembled by the kids.
- The temporary installation will be dismantled after 1 week. The bottle-sheets will then be taken to the tower at the Spaza garden and be used as part of our 20 meter high bottle installation.
- The 2nd of July is the launch event of the iThemba Tower. The event will be open to the public and the school are welcome to join us on this joyous day.
