UNUSUAL BONES. COLLECTIVE
reach
Cape Town City, South Africa
reach, conceptualized by Kanya Viljoen, explores the connections created on online communication platforms like Zoom, which have become essential during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Moments of language and film in and of themselves are experienced by all, and formed a key role in the way in which we have attempted to reach one another as a community, sharing existence. reach functions as a video installation, projected in Cape Town.
The video features groups of people trying to communicate with one another across age, race, ethnicity, and gender groups, all having what seems to be mundane conversations about their daily lives. These conversations seem fleeting, almost nonsensical, and fragmented. Yet the edit is poetic in nature, allowing the constant search for human connection to serve as the unifying element of the piece.
Depending on the installation, each audience member’s engagement with reach differs, sparking a social dialogue about remaining connected across physical boundaries. This is specifically relevant in South Africa, where a lack of resources is a catalyst for community-building as individuals across various sectors come together to support one another.
Unusual Bones. is a collective of creatives in Cape Town that seeks to explore alternative and interdisciplinary ways of creating projects through a collaborative framework. The collective was founded by Kanya Viljoen and Emilie Badenhorst and focuses on creating arts projects that seek to question and explore the human spirit in South Africa. The ethos of Unusual Bones. is to create a creative company that allows for alternative methods of working, of collaborating, where each individual’s views, opinions, and values are respected and considered. It is about creating a safe space that works on a horizontal basis in industries that are often ruled by vertical hierarchies and “set methods.”