installation as interactive performance art

As you know if you have read our "pages" (see the tabs above this post), we use art of most sorts in most aspects of what we do!  If you know us, you will have experienced the irregularity that this causes!  One of the places we are committed to using art is on the street in our "outsiders" ministry. 

Usually this is sub-fusc; Martin sits somewhere drawing, Lesley writes a vignette in the coffee shop.  Sometimes all that 'happens' is that we connect more deeply with the city and its people because we have been listening differently.  Occasionally the art leads to conversation with a passer-by, although we never know what God does with that.

Every now and then, we plan a creative event, bigger and more directed at communicating with the people in the urban hub.  We are planning one for 29 October and there's lots to do before then.

The Pavement and trees!

This is to be and installation in the visual-art-sense, but with a performance twist.
The basis is a 'live' display on chains hung from a rope strung between trees on a pavement. 
This will be a small display to keep down costs and make it easy for few people to manage.  It will not be big enough to be visible for people in passing cars.  We rely on a steady stream of pedestrians, and have tried to choose our 'venue' accordingly!
Chains will carry the words (the letters hung vertically): LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GENTLENESS, FAITHFULNESS, GOODNESS and SELF-CONTROL. 

A poster will declare: 

FREE TO LIVE. 

There will be chains which start off empty, and are gradually filled with interesting things - feathers, corks, beads, bells, and so on - people who come past will be invited to add something.

note: in this concoction chains are not used for metaphorical significance, but because they hang well, are easy to hang things from and look professional

You might have noticed that this all tries to reflect Galatians 5.

Join us if you'd like some fun.  Pray if you remember.

moonlighting with children

I've mentioned before how we sometimes do things we get paid for which contribute to the finances.  We try to make sure these don't divert us from our core business, either by making us unavailable or because they are at odds with the concept of "serving strangers".

Yesterday Martin spent two hours with a Grade 1 class ...

The theme was SPACE:
There is a book specially created for the occasion called "Zooty the Space Girl".
There were hundreds of cut-out bits of corrugated cardboard which assembled themselves into 28 spaceships.  (Yes, don't come to our house today if you have a problem with millions of tiny offcuts of cardboard box!)
There was great excitement about pretending to float, catch a planet and open it to find ... an imaginary smarty inside!

AND much more ...








These occasional stints at school (two or three a year) are enormous fun for Martin, and totally exhausting!  (How do the grade one teachers do it year after year?)  They also often seem to come when we really need the small financial injection: today we'll be able to pay the French teacher and the cell phones!!  We are grateful for the way God keeps us.  We are also grateful for how much fun our work is.

post script

One of our followers (who hasn't quite worked out how to officially follow) complained that I had left the dogs - Braken and Normandy - out of my holiday post.  Well, here I remedy that, and for good measure include all our non-human visitors from Cape Town, just so no one feels left out!

The dogs came on walks too.  

 Two kittens.

 Two young cats and one middle-aged hamster.