Small Victories

Small Victories (2007-2009) is centered on notions of respect and memory. I asked my fellow Capetonians to jot down their minor achievements in return for a drinking mug ‘trophy’. With its simple premise, Small Victories worked against the grain of ostentatious consumerism, to encourage a positive framing of everyday events. I engaged with the wider public in a site-specific intervention in this ameliorative, participatory work. The work was featured on Cape09 (the now defunct Biennale of Contemporary African Art) and in Jozi and the (M)other city, curated by Carine Zaayman (catalogued).  Two limited edition artist books provide a collated collection of participants’ contributions.

For more on Small Victories see my chapter Participatory Art and the everyday: A South African perspective in Interactive contemporary art: participation in practice (2014), edited by Kathryn Brown, published by IB Tauris and available in hardback and paperback.

Read Sean O’Toole’s review of Cape 09 in Frieze magazine.