greg streak

composter (2004)

Project: Hiv(e)
Curator: Greg Streak / PULSE
Place: Gozololo - children’s centre - Kwa mashu, Durban, South Africa
Work: composter (2004)

Hiv(e) was the critically acclaimed project orchestrated by Greg Streak of PULSE. Artists were to respond to the functional needs of Gozololo (a center for children with AIDS or orphaned as a result of their parents having died of the pandemic). The brief was to make a functional contribution whilst still retaining artistic integrity and poetry.

composter (2004)

“Acknowledging that Gozololo was previously a rubbish disposal site, I was intrigued by the inherent metaphor and metamorphosis. That this centre of care giving was built on the rotting discard throwaways of society. Taking this metaphor further, I decided to produce a composter; an object that processes organic waste, and in the decomposition produces a mulch that when churned back into the soil, injects it with the nutrients it requires to sustain a healthy vegetable crop. I used a plastic industrial drum and devised a series of galvanised steel attachments that were mounted to the varying surfaces of the composter. I removed a section of fence and rearticulated a new section, which was made to support and contain the composter in such a way that it bisected the composter exactly in half. The two access doors for depositing organic waste are accessible from both the inside and the outside of Gozololo. An articulated path invites people on the street to deposit their organic waste into the composter and thereby contribute to the well being of the internal space. The underneath of the composter is mounted with a drainage pipe that allows all excess liquid that accumulates at the bottom of the composter to be siphoned out
under ground and into the vegetable garden beds. The composter sits in a part of the perimeter fence that is in direct proximity to Jena McCarthy’s garden, and the symbiosis between the two is self-explanatory.’ - Greg Streak

“Suitably wry, a dotted blue plastic compost bin is inserted into the perimeter fence of ‘Gozololo’. The white dots puncture the surface of the bin and thus aerate the collected waste and detritus of the site, processing it into compost. The piece is both conceptually rich as well as literally enriching. Streak’s piece has dots that mark the spot, a spot that sits not on the fence but in it, a funky visual/verbal pun that allows access from both sides – it links both the inside and outside of ‘Gozololo’.” - Virginia Mackenny