#i

# i PROJECT DESCRIPTION 090718 8mb

# i JODI BIEBER 18mb

# i focuses on the youth of Johannesburg, aged 15 to 23: a generation that did not grow up under apartheid, and who have the ability to access and communicate using technologies that integrate them within a larger global community. Having different historical experiences than those of their parents, they have their own visions and expectations of themselves and of South Africa.

In this campaign, I collaborated over a period of three years, starting in 2016, with a wide range of 45 young people from Johannesburg – from different cultures, income groups and areas – to produce a portraiture project that expresses young people’s visions of themselves and their country. These visions are expressed in the words of the young people, their own photographs from their phones, and the portraits I photographed of each individual.

I have taken on this project because I believe that young people can lead our future with new, fresh narratives. For example, the older generation’s lived experience is during apartheid in South Africa and – through extensive interviews with the young people on this project – the words echoed were for fresh new conversations, new ways of being, of living their lives and creating their own stories.

With the forthcoming national election in 2019, this exhibition is a portrait of a generation that will play leading roles in a pivotal moment in South African

history. The public poster exhibition of the work – where members of the public can take a poster away with them – creates a future life of the artwork.

Its first showing will be during Basha Uhuru, a creative youth festival supported by Nando’s, during June 2018 at the Women’s Prison, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg.

Another aspect to the project is that it is collaborative on many levels. I connected one participant to an editor at Caxton Newspapers for an internship in Eldorado Park. In exchange for looking for participants, I gave a talk and slideshow at Rosebank College in Braamfontein to journalism and media study students regarding my career and projects. A student from Rosebank College will complete her internship with me during June, the month the project launches.

I have kept all the participants informed of developments throughout the two years via WhatsApp. They will all receive a poster of themselves and an artist proof print of their artwork.

I am working with designer Brenton Maart, who has designed each poster to combine all the creative elements together to communicate as a whole.

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