Bye Bye Boss

It has been a long while now that I first set foot in South Africa. Sitting on my couch this morning I was thinking that many things have happened since then at work. Yesterday was the last day of our team manager. We were until recently a team of three in close contact all year long.

He left for personal reasons, back to his retired life, the one he had before the company went to fetch him for a heavy cash price (I can only assume). Nevertheless his departure was unexpected: announced three weeks ago he came back ten days to sort things out. And now he’s gone.

Work was difficult at first, for many various reasons, and I don’t think our relation was the best that one could expect. The good thing is that since then things had been going better rand better. These past six months the team was running like a steam engine at it’s best, full throttle – professional interface in your face, yes dear. It is with that feeling that we hadn’t reach our limits, of work in progress that I had to say goodbye to him.

I have also come to realise only recently many things he had said probably unconsciously but that were very true. One of them was « it’s just one big game ». At the time, one big game for me, was only a series of tense meetings with loud disrespectful discussions and cynical dialogs, fed by the numerous vicious letters that were sent around. I just realised what he meant then.

Anyway it’s when things change that you truly understand how they worked before and in these past weeks I have become a little more experienced all of a sudden. The team and the project has lost an important asset, but selfishly thinking : this is a great opportunity for me with more responsibilities and even more exposure to… the game.

Exhibition by Tany – Video

This is a short video made by Tany on his exhibition currently held at the Alliance Francaise of Johannesburg – South Africa, until the 6th of December 2008. Following a successful launch on the 27th of November, the 16 oil paintings can be purchased (the ones still available) by contacting Tany. Price list available on request.

Tany’s Exhibition.

Exhibition details and poster here.
www.dejavu-production.com

It Looks Like I’m Firing You

There is some sort of pressure, when you arrive in Johannesburg, to hire a maid to clean the big house you and your roommate live in. Ok, so be it. The real reason behind this trend is as we spend a lot of time at work (or travelling), we might as well enjoy as much as possible our free time, so if we can get rid if dish washing on Sunday mornings we try to – yes we have a two story house with too many rooms but we have no dishwasher.

So we hire Maria, on advice of the owner, Hi Maria how are you. Good, good. Half a year later we figure out she is only cleaning the sheets, and washing a few plates every week. So we decide to “put an end to her contract”. Fish says, Damien can you please fire the maid. Ok, I’ll put it on my to-do list: between organise my exhibition – www.dejavu-production.com buy my art, many thanks – and find a meaning to life.

(over the phone)

- Hi Maria, how are you?
- Good and you.
- I’m fine. Hm, Maria, I have a sort of bad news. You’ve been very helpful these past months but Fish and I are not going to need your services anymore. It’s complicated… you know… But don’t we’ll pay your next month…
- Ok…
- We’ll need to get the keys back too. I think the easiest for you would be to come by some day, you could give us the keys and we would give you the money we owe you.
- Yes, ok.
- Good, so you don’t have to come tomorrow at the house as we haven’t been there this week. When would be a convenient day for you to meet?
- Tomorrow.
- Ah, yes… ok… as you wish… But you don’t have to come just for that. May be you can come another day, when you are around for some other matter, and we can do the exchange then.
- Yes, ok.
- So when would be a good day?
- Yes, ok. Good day.
- Hm… You know what Maria, may be I’ll send you a text message, you read it and then I call you back so that you tell me what’s best for you.
- Yes, ok.

Sure…

The following week, we put a note on the door of the house asking her to leave the keys and take the money in the envelope. When we arrive back at the house: the note is gone, the money is still there and the keys are missing.

Dejavu Collaboration with the Public – I (eye)

Tany, following up on his collaborations with Minibar, Imaginal Disc, Ali, Olivier Gounot and Violaine Prunet, will experiment collaborating with the public.

The idea is to create one collaborative piece of work. The input from spectators will be collected at several stages of conception of a painting via this website and your comments.

Visit www.dejavu-production.com and the post .

First step:
The public – you – provides input for a painting, under any form: a picture, a song, a name, a word, a story, a concept, a colour…

Second step:
Tany will use this input to start working on a painting. At an early stage (painting started but incomplete) the draft will submitted for review by the public.

Third Step:
The public will comment and provide additional suggestions and ideas.

Fourth Step:
Tany will finalize the painting.

This is the first step. Please provide your suggestions by commenting .

Input already gathered: Japanese kanji for “silent execution” ; irony ; cycle within the painting.

I Miss Childhood

I have just released a new painting on the theme of clash between childhood and adulthood, it is entitled ” I Miss Childhood”. It is an oil on canvas work, with very faint colors of green and crème contrasting with gold and black. The set up of the composition was inspired by Klimt.

For your eyes only: “I Miss Childhood”

More paintings of Tany @ www.dejavu-production.com

Carjacking, You Can’t Get me I’m a CIA Agent

Last Monday morning, I stared apprehensively at my screen for a moment. I had just received an email requesting my attendance to the Urban Survival Experience. We need to follow a training course to prepare us to carjacking attempts. Ouch! A thorn in my side. I don’t want to go.

It is just another bad news, something you are reminded of, that you have been trying to forget even though you knew you shouldn’t have.

The training is cut up in three parts spread over fours, by groups of eight people.

The Theory:

• Origins of violence, the economy behind carjacking, statistics and background on carjacking.
• How to detect, prevent or escape carjacking and grab and smash situations.

The Practice:

• Real life carjacking exercise. Cold sweat.

The Lesson:

• Drive around with a chauffeur showing you how to drive (CIA method as I call it) and what to look for. Essentially illustrating what has been said in theory.

So what’s my opinion? Hum. Mitigated.

On one hand I have learned or realised interesting things, such as:

• Carjacking is only a mean to get money in order to buy drugs, i.e. the drug cartels are behind the much organised large scale carjacking industry.
• Carjackers operate in groups (four usually).
• Various means and techniques to carjack a car (e.g. fake road block that enables them to carjack 10 to 15 cars at a time).
• How to act in the case of an unfortunate event.
• Carjackers get high on drugs to commit the crime, hence the violence. Sometimes they also use traditional healers to protect them (bullet-proof or invisibility) hence their sometimes illogical behaviour.
• Carjacking is a hunt and all you can do is to make yourself less of an easy prey than you neighbour.
• Most carjackers have been doing that for many years and they are way better and cleverer than you on these few seconds. Once they have decided to hit they is nothing you can do.

On the other hand the trainers also said a few things that made me wonder if they were not just self-proclaimed specialists:

• “Men are fortunate. They never get lost. Women, they always get lost. Always. They say it’s because they have a lot of stuff going on in their mind.”
• They want us to drive ludicrously (CIA way): at all time look for eventual escape routes and adjust your position on the road accordingly; drive while looking at all bushes and blurry areas where threats could be hiding; anticipate obstacles (behind sharp turns, pot holes, rocks) while continuously analysing what’s happening in your rear mirror (how long has the car been behind me, how many people in the car…); Keep your distance and monitor what is happening way in front (6 or 7 cars ahead) while observing traffic lights in order to adjust the speed of your vehicle in order to – ideally – never stop. (But if you stop it is fine as you always have your escape route to go by). Easy peazy.
• Absolute truths about corruption, Africa, South Africans that are – to me – a little doubtful.
• A priori on road rage and violence in other countries (usually wrong as far as I have seen).

Tips on how to avoid carjacking and “smash and grabs”

• Be aware. The idea is always to look for suspicious things happening and in case of doubt, flee.
• Always have yourself an escape route, and at least never get yourself in a situation where you can be cornered (keep you distance, don’t turn in a drive way until you can get in all the way, don’t escape into a house or a private property but look for public places with armed guards if possible.
• Be suspicious of anything out of the ordinary.
• For Smash and grabs, at intersections, look out for pedestrians. If they are not selling things and looking to be waiting for something while not crossing, be careful. Same for people crossing the road in a slow manner and meandering between cars. Always make eye contact with vendors or anyone approaching you vehicle and keep an eye until they are gone. Don’t get fooled by obvious distractions.

What to do in case of carjacking

• You should always drive with windows up and doors looked, that will greatly help when the worse happens.
• Surrender everything that is in the car (bags, wallets keys etc…) without a hesitation. They are worthless.
• As soon as the gun is on you, put your hands where they can be seen; with your left hand only, put the car to neutral, lock the hand break and unbuckle your seatbelt, open the door and come out both feet at the same time. Don’t look at them in the eye, and walk away towards the back of the car. Done. Gone.
• If you have a baby in the back, grab it with your left hand while still being seated (and door locked).
• If you have one or several passengers, they must all exit the vehicle from the same side as the driver does (the man in charge will be on that side, with more experience; the ones on the other side can be potentially crazy weirdoes with sensitive triggers).

My personal advice not mentioned in the course

As they are taking your car typically for resell, they need it ready to sell or to chop (for parts) and so spotless. I say, drive a wreck. Even carjackers looking for a ride to flee form a crime scene will think twice before hopping in a rusty ride with a dodgy look.

Drive safely and… be aware.

Brush Strokes and Afterlife – or – The Cruelty of Age Discrimination

“Art is a jealous mistress and if a man has a genius for painting […] he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.” R. W. Emerson

Afterlife, after here. My next life, my next job. Where do we go from here? If I continue down the path I have been taking, at the end of this mission I will end up asking myself the same questions I couldn’t answer four months ago.

Today I contemplated a first option: the most unlikely and of course the most attractive. It’s been sitting in the back of my mind for some years now, but I never considered it seriously. Now, for some reason, it doesn’t seem as utopian as it did. May be I got accustomed to the implications, may be I lost track of what people are expected to achieve, may be I can’t remember as clearly as before what I want to become and why. Besides, I just started to understand and admit that I will not win the rat race, I have become to fat. Rack-a-tack-tack.

Go back to school and get a degree in fine arts. No, become a full time creator. Live solely on my imagination and my skills. No, earn a living by being fully dependent on other’s will to waste money on superficial and expensive things.

America. Study in the School of Art of a top University, may be in New York –to add fun to the fun – and get a bachelor’s degree in two years. I am a man with a plan. $60,000 to $80,000 for the degree. I am a bamboozled man.

Back to basics. Paris, France, my home town, my shelter. “Les Beaux Arts” one of the most prestigious Art School in the world. The admission tests seem very tough but I can cope with that. And then shock! Get out. Students must be at most 26 years old on the day of admission. All my hopes suddenly crumble down.

I’ll be starting to save – or rather find – money. Approximately 100$ a day as of today.

Another One Bites The Dust

I understand when people tell me they hate their job, and really wish they had a better position, but when you receive company emails like these, it really makes you realise privileged we are.

I was shocked when I read that, and people have been staring at the printed sheet in the walkway for long minutes. You do have to like your job as it is your life you are spending at it.

 

Birthday Boy

Last week was my birthday.

Last year, my colleagues had forgotten to wish me a happy one. I had reminded them numerous times how unfriendly they were of not having given me a birthday card.

That’s what I got this year.

Note that Michael sent this to me, he is 26 and in theory mentally fully functional.

Hot Wheels

I have been here less than a week and it seems like a month. Not that I do a lot of things, but the rhythm of life is quite intense and I am not used to it. I wake up at 6:30am, at my desk before 8, I leave after 6:30pm. Go home, rest for half an hour, have diner at 8pm, then hang around for an hour or two, and back to bed.
It seems a little strict, but this is mainly because Nancy, the B&B host cooks for us at 8:00 every day. When we have our house, thing will be easier.

Fun facts about South Africa and my first week:

• Sun is up at 4:30 and sets at 18:30 in summer.
• Food is good and very similar to Europe – although maybe it’s only Nancy’s food
• Somebody in the office is watching websites with porn adds at lunch break and after 17:00, but the fun thing is that he is sitting with his screen facing the only entrance to the entire floor!
• We got a new car (to share for two) and it is massive. The footstep is knee high!
• The girlfriend of another VIE said I looked like Ben Affleck.
• I went to a first diner party, to celebrate one of the managers’ birthday yesterday. Fine but fun.
• I took R2500 ( 250€ ) and it gave me only R100 and R50 bills, so I had a 3cm thick pile of bleu and red bills.