Cape Town - A five-day performance art project at the V&A Waterfront, dealing with the “caged reality of the modern human condition”, officially ends today.
Three actors embarked on a five-day performance art project - “What Do You Have In Common With 15 Hours in a Box?” - which started last Thursday, in which they have been spending 15 hours a day in perspex boxes.
Today is the last leg in Cape Town of the project, which has been taking place simultaneously in Johannesburg.
For the Johannesburg part of the art performance, the perspex cage has been placed at Sandton City and Mall of Africa.
Chilling, minding your business and drinking water 😹#FreeRangeHumans https://t.co/a2clOk1cST
— Reamogetswe (@Shasha_Retha) April 15, 2021
“Even before lockdown, on average, we spend 90% of our time indoors and now – with remote working from home – we’re even more so online and far from nature,” the creators of the project said.
“As such, the social experiment is intended to encourage onlookers and passers-by to question their very way of life: Is this the way we want to live; how important is it to break free and let nature be part of our well-being?”
In an interview with the Plainsman, performer Clifford Young said the experience inside the box has been enlightening. Young, who grew up in Strandfontein, has been trapped in the perspex box at the Waterfront every day from 6am to 9pm.
“My anxiety about being watched has completely dissipated.”
He said the experience has given him an appreciation for “just how blessed we are to be given freedom and environments that we are allowed to thrive in – especially in Cape Town”.
He said in preparation for the project, he spent lots of time outdoors rather than indoors, because he felt that there was a light at the end of the tunnel after the project.
Really odd to see a WFH setting outside #FreeRangeHumans 😅 pic.twitter.com/8YpXpsNNSN
— AJ Burger 🍔 (@AJohannesburger) April 16, 2021
If by any chance you were given a cage like this as your office, would you take it?#FreeRangeHumans pic.twitter.com/ytkfnsXW39
— AstocreaTeev (@Tshepoasto897) April 15, 2021
Cape Argus