Convivial Conversations

A little about me:

I am an A/R/Tographer who is currently completing my Masters in Artist Teachers and Contemporary Practices at Goldsmiths University.

This blog is part of a research project I am doing around ‘critical pedagogy and contested spaces’.

As South Africa is my home and is often seen as a contested space, I wanted to base my project around being South African. As this can be a contested identity, due to multiple issues South Africa and other countries have with ideas on colour.

I want South Africa to be a free and democratic place, where difficult conversations can be had, so that all of us can move forward into a new place, away from old criteria and labels, where all voices can be heard.

This for me links to teaching and how children are often not giving space to talk within the classroom environment, their voices are not heard.

Within this project I will be holding a series of events with South Africans who live outside of South Africa, as well as events in South Africa when I move back in October.

There is no ‘defined’ plan for these events, but rather they are based around the idea of using food and the act of communal eating as a space where conversations can occur. I hope to act as a catalyst to help enable people to talk about their own perceptions and those of others about what being a South African entails. This again relates to how as a teacher I hope to act as a catalyst that enables my students to be individuals and to engender feelings of community within the classroom.