TEAM MOYS
Anthea Moys vs The City of Grahamstown
Part of the Main Festival at the National Arts Festival 2013
3 month residency, 6 contests and 1 closing ceremony
In 2013 I won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Performance Art (inaugral). For this award I initiated
the project ‘Anthea Moys vs The City of Grahamstown’ which was a cycle of six performances that were staged as part of the Main Festival at the 2013 National Arts Festival. After living in Grahamstown for 3 months learning all the skills I needed, I competed against local sports teams and associations in 6 contests: vs SABRE (South African Battle Re Enactments) vs DanceSport and Ta Mtshizz Dance Club, vs Pro Carmine and Victoria Girls Choir, vs Rhodes Chess Club, vs MARU Football Club and finally vs East Cape Shotokan Karate. I had never engaged with any of these activities before.
Please see the rest of the challenges as separate projects under 'WORK'.
Each contest was staged specific to its discipline. Each contest had judges or referees and the points were tallied at the end of each contest. The final score was 6/68 to Grahamstown.
These contests were an attempt to bring performance art to the general public, and also to find ways to include and honour the actual residents of Grahamstown in the festival. They were simple, accessible and staged in the spirit of fun, but they also represented a development of my own conceptual engagement with ideas of play, passion and failure.
Crucial to all of the performances was the Master of Ceremonies: Gerard Bester. For each performance he guided the audience through each contest; introducing the different groups and the esteemed judges, letting everyone know how the event would unfold and how the points would be allocated.
There are three aspects to my work, each of which carries equal weight. The first is the preparation, which in this case spanned three months of intensive training, in Grahamstown, with the teams I would be competing against. The second is the actual performances, which in this case took the form of six contests staged in various venues, with referees, judges, and an MC. And finally, there is the documentation of the performance.
Both my preparations for the events and the performances themselves were extensively documented on video and in stills photographs, as well as through multiple other objects and artifacts that were accumulated during the course of the contests. So to extend the project, there was a growing exhibition where people could access videos of the training and learning process as well as, eventually, the final performances.
Some participants responses to the project:
“Most sporting events are set up around the idea of winners and losers, and I think Anthea's performance complicates that binary. It shows us that it’s not so straightforward. Walking away a loser is not as simple as being the one who scored the least points. I think she has gained immeasurably from it, but so have we! So in a sense we've all won.”
Maureen de Jager
East Cape Shotokan Ryu Karate
“You know here in Grahamstown we only watch things that are happening in the festival. We are not part of it. When Anthea approached us and told us that this would be part of the festival, meaning that it will be part of the history, it will stay there, it will be in one of the books of festival. We wanted to be a part of that, instead of just watching every year... this is the first time, for all of us.”
Wandile Duruwe
Founder of MARU Football Club
THANK YOU:
I’d like to extend a special thanks to Standard Bank for recognizing performance art for the first time in 2013, and for the daunting honour of choosing me as the inaugural recipient of the award. There are many talented young performance artists in South Africa, and I hope that the award for Performance Art becomes a regular feature of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards.
I have been overwhelmed by the assistance and encouragement I have received from Tony Lancaster, Ismail Mohammed and everyone at the National Arts Festival. I would like to especially recognise the extraordinary kindness and support I’ve received from Nicci Spalding. Many thanks also go to Ryan Burton, Jayne Claire Burden, Kate Axe Davies and Luke Clayton.
Another special mention to everyone at Famous Idea, for all their assistance with publicity and press relations.
Thank you to Brett Bailey for being a sound and inspirational mentor throughout this process.
I would also like to thank Rhodes University Journalism Department for their assistance, and especially my tireless photographers Paul Greenway and Nadine Hutton, and the brilliant young videographers Minette van der Walt and Raphaela Linders, who have documented this journey.
A very big thank you to my truly extraordinary stage manager Matthieu Dasnois, who has gone beyond the call of duty in making the impossible possible, and my multi-talented production team of Lisa Frangs and Dee Ellis, and stage hands Mbulelo Ncolosi and Mari Schultz.
Finally, I would like to thank all the people of the City of Grahamstown who have welcomed me into their halls, their fields, their homes and their lives. It has been a great privilege to learn from them, and get to know them through their passions. I am truly humbled by their generosity and kindness.
I cannot thank all those in Grahamstown who have helped with the staging of this performance, but there are a few names I would like to make special mention of.
Basil and Debbie Mills from SABRE
Chris Terry, my bagpipe instructor
Sibusiso Mkhize, my voice coach
Chris Rafael and Candice Ryan, my ballroom dancing coaches
Andrew Martin and Alisa Lochner, me chess coaches
Jeff Budaza and Siyabonga Dumiso, my soccer coaches
Tanya Poole, Elvis Sinam and Gary Grapentin, my karate coaches
And lastly, to my creative partners Gerard Bester and Gwydion Beynon. They have been my co-conspirators on this mad journey!
Gerard Bester
Anthea Moys vs The City of Grahamstown, Image credit: Mikhael Subotzky
“Most sporting events are set up around the idea of winners and losers, and I think Anthea's performance complicates that binary. It shows us that it’s not so straightforward. Walking away a loser is not as simple as being the one who scored the least points. I think she has gained immeasurably from it, but so have we! So in a sense we've all won.”
Maureen de Jager
East Cape Shotokan Ryu Karate
Maureen de Jager
East Cape Shotokan Ryu Karate
“You know here in Grahamstown we only watch things that are happening in the festival. We are not part of it. When Anthea approached us and told us that this would be part of the festival, meaning that it will be part of the history, it will stay there, it will be in one of the books of festival. We wanted to be a part of that, instead of just watching every year... this is the first time, for all of us.”
Wandile Duruwe
Founder of MARU Football Club
Below please see images of the exhibition that ran during the day at Thomas Pringle as well as our promotional material. The exhibition included six plasma screens screening short videos of my 3 month training process for each of the skills that I engaged with.
THANK YOU:
I’d like to extend a special thanks to Standard Bank for recognizing performance art for the first time in 2013, and for the daunting honour of choosing me as the inaugural recipient of the award. There are many talented young performance artists in South Africa, and I hope that the award for Performance Art becomes a regular feature of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards.
I have been overwhelmed by the assistance and encouragement I have received from Tony Lancaster, Ismail Mohammed and everyone at the National Arts Festival. I would like to especially recognise the extraordinary kindness and support I’ve received from Nicci Spalding. Many thanks also go to Ryan Burton, Jayne Claire Burden, Kate Axe Davies and Luke Clayton.
Another special mention to everyone at Famous Idea, for all their assistance with publicity and press relations.
Thank you to Brett Bailey for being a sound and inspirational mentor throughout this process.
I would also like to thank Rhodes University Journalism Department for their assistance, and especially my tireless photographers Paul Greenway and Nadine Hutton, and the brilliant young videographers Minette van der Walt and Raphaela Linders, who have documented this journey.
A very big thank you to my truly extraordinary stage manager Matthieu Dasnois, who has gone beyond the call of duty in making the impossible possible, and my multi-talented production team of Lisa Frangs and Dee Ellis, and stage hands Mbulelo Ncolosi and Mari Schultz.
Finally, I would like to thank all the people of the City of Grahamstown who have welcomed me into their halls, their fields, their homes and their lives. It has been a great privilege to learn from them, and get to know them through their passions. I am truly humbled by their generosity and kindness.
I cannot thank all those in Grahamstown who have helped with the staging of this performance, but there are a few names I would like to make special mention of.
Basil and Debbie Mills from SABRE
Chris Terry, my bagpipe instructor
Sibusiso Mkhize, my voice coach
Chris Rafael and Candice Ryan, my ballroom dancing coaches
Andrew Martin and Alisa Lochner, me chess coaches
Jeff Budaza and Siyabonga Dumiso, my soccer coaches
Tanya Poole, Elvis Sinam and Gary Grapentin, my karate coaches
And lastly, to my creative partners Gerard Bester and Gwydion Beynon. They have been my co-conspirators on this mad journey!
