Broadcasts at the KZNSA Gallery in Durban considers society’s obsession with images and how things are presented from the outside.
Designer, illustrator and artist Wesley van Eeden initiated the exhibition upon his return from a residency in Finland. Broadcasts is the result of “interviews” Van Eeden did with people around the world, asking them questions about what they hope for, what their dreams are, what makes them happy and what they would like to change in their town. The answers to these questions were then depicted in a “visual mouthpiece”, which led the Hope Project.
Van Eeden says: “It aims to encourage dialogue between different people and cultures and to give the person on the street the chance to tell the world how they feel about the fundamental issues of life.”
The exhibition runs until 23 October 2011.
We asked Van Eeden a couple of questions.
What inspired the Broadcasts exhibition?
I once heard someone say once that one of the things we all yearn for in life is a connection with something. I think that’s why certain bands get so popular and I wanted to involve people with the work that I was producing.
Tell us about the process of capturing people's opinions for the Hope Project?
I wanted to involve people as much as possible for the exhibition and came up with the idea of recording the conversations with the people I interviewed. Once I interviewed people I would upload it on my blog www.hopeproject.co.za every Friday. It became knows as Radio Fridays! I would also photograph the person I interviewed and then listen to the interview and make key points about what I feel could lead to interesting compositions. I am also an illustrator so it has been a fun exercise to experiment with new ways of communicating ideas in a visual way.
What are the challenges you faced in putting this exhibition together?
The biggest challenge was to try and make the time to work on the exhibition pieces in between work on illustration and design projects for various clients. The only other challenge was to find people that were interested and willing to be interviewed for the project which would also be listened to people online! Not everyone likes their opinions shared with the world!
Here's a short video about Van Eeden's residency in Finland.
