INTERVIEW: Ralph Ziman’s The Casspir Project Is at The Rendon Gallery Through March 7, 2019

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Ralph Ziman in front of Spoek 1, part of The Casspir Project. Photo: Josh Spencer
Ralph Ziman in front of SPOEK 1, part of The Casspir Project. Photo: Josh Spencer

Artist Ralph Ziman’s first solo show, “The Casspir Project,” opened February 7 at The Rendon Gallery’s offsite location, 1242 Palmetto Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Ziman was born in South Africa and grew up under Apartheid. A Casspir is a South African armored military vehicle that became a symbol of oppression during Apartheid. Ziman’s Casspir, SPOEK 1, has been transformed and “Africanized” with colorful panels created from 70 million glass beads. The Casspir and other collaborative pieces in the show created income for African craftspeople, while helping to call attention to oppressive governments and police militarization around the world. Ziman used the beaded Casspir to recreate photos published in the South African media of Apartheid-era conflicts, and the resulting works are included in the exhibit.

Ziman says the reaction to The Casspir Project has been overwhelmingly positive. “I think a lot of people have been very moved by it. I think people get what I’m trying to say.”

Detail of Ralph Ziman's Spoek 1, part of The Casspir Project. Photo: Josh Spencer
Detail of Ralph Ziman’s SPOEK 1, part of The Casspir Project. Photo: Josh Spencer

Ziman is also a filmmaker, and a documentary screening in the exhibit features footage from Apartheid South Africa and interviews with South African people about their experiences under Apartheid. He says, “I wanted to go into the township and interview the people who were old enough to remember it and get their stories. My story was, I was a white kid on the school bus going to school, having a proper education at the same time that these people of similar ages to mine were being shot at and run over and getting the crap beaten out of them. It was like our joint history, and I wanted to be there because I feel some sense of guilt and shame even though I was too young to do anything about it.  I was born into a country that gave me everything and gave the indigenous population nothing.”

When people sit down in the small screening room at The Rendon Gallery and watch Ziman’s film, they understand what The Casspir Project is all about—and how much work went into it. He says, “It’s not just taking a piece of military equipment and repurposing it. You know, this to me, is like the ghost of Apartheid. When Apartheid died, and the system that created this vehicle of mass oppression died, it was a boon for the arms industry. Suddenly, the military boycott was lifted, and it was like, ‘Wow, we can sell this Casspir to whoever will pay the highest price.’” That included foreign governments, as well as police forces here in the United States.

Ralph Ziman's The Casspir Project at The Rendon Gallery. Photo: Josh Spencer
Ralph Ziman’s The Casspir Project at The Rendon Gallery. Photo: Josh Spencer

He was inspired to create the beaded Casspir after seeing video of Casspirs at Black Lives Matters protests. He says, “I was thinking, ‘Hang on a second, that is the Apartheid war machine.’ As the one guy in the film says, ‘It’s public enemy number one.’ I thought there was this tremendous irony that wasn’t necessarily being picked up, and I wanted to make sure people knew. I was 19 when I left South Africa. I was looking at a stint in the military, and I didn’t believe in it. I didn’t want to do it, so I left the country. The Casspir was the pride and joy of the South African police military establishment, and so the idea that we could fuck with one—bead it, Africanize it, change its context completely… I always wanted to do that, and I always wanted to recreate these photographs.”

The project ended up being even more meaningful than he expected. He says, “For me, doing a project that was that long and that time-consuming, with 70 million glass beads, it kind of was like therapy. It was kind of coming to terms with our pasts. Now, we’ve got a Casspir that was built by white Afrikaners and now it’s been adorned in beads by black Africans. It’s a way of sort of combining our history. I think a lot of white people who did serve in the military or are high up in South Africa realize that all that killing and all the people who died was a waste of time. It was for nothing. The system was unsustainable, so we developed war machines and we taught young men to kill and fight—but what was it for? Because in the end, everything crumbled.”

Ralph Ziman's The Casspir Project at The Rendon Gallery. Photo: Fred Hoerr
Ralph Ziman’s The Casspir Project at The Rendon Gallery. Photo: Fred Hoerr

The Casspir Project is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, but the gallery is busy earlier in the week, too—Ziman has been bringing in groups of children from local schools for creative educational workshops. He tells Cartwheel, “It’s important for a few reasons. Being that they’re inner city schools and mostly kids of color, I wanted to talk to them a little about what it was like growing up under Apartheid. But also, what brought down Apartheid in South Africa was schoolchildren—kids their age—protesting about the lack of education and getting into demonstrations. Kids their age can change the world.”

The Casspir Project will be on display at The Rendon Gallery through March 7, 2019. After that, Ziman hopes the exhibit will continue to travel. He says, “I want to take the Casspir around America. I want to show it to people. I want to tell the story of the Casspir, the story of Apartheid. I want to talk about how it relates to Black Lives Matter and talk about how militarization of the police forces in the rest of the world looks like Apartheid South Africa. That’s the way they used to police—with Casspirs and guns and armor. We’ve shown it in New York. We’ve shown it in L.A. I want to take it to Ferguson, Missouri. I want to take it to Houston. I want to take it and park it outside the United Nations. It’s important to me that we tell this story and that we keep telling the story.” 

Ralph Ziman: The Casspir Project

This short documentary by Eric Minh Swenson offers a look inside the exhibit as well as more information on Ziman’s work:

Exhibition: 
February 7 – March 7, 2019
Wednesday – Sunday (12 – 6 pm) and by appointment

Special Programming

Saturday, February 23 and Sunday, February 24, 12 – 6 pm
Live Painting – Ralph Ziman x Moncho 1929

Saturday, February 23, 7:15 – 9pm
Panel Discussion: From Oppression to Expression: Speaking Out Against a History of Violence
Moderator: Alberto Retana, President & CEO of Community Coalition. Panelists: Ralph Ziman, South African Artist & Filmmaker; Suzanne Verge, President, Los Angeles Chapter Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; Ron Finley, a.k.a. “The Gangsta Gardener,” Founder of The Ron Finley Project; and Mark-Anthony Clayton-Johnson, Founder, Frontline Wellness Network.  RSVP HERE

Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3, 12 – 6 pm
Live Painting – Ralph Ziman x Maria Greenshields-Ziman

Address:
The Rendon Gallery (Off-Site)
1242 Palmetto Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Ralph Ziman's The Casspir Project at The Rendon Gallery. Photo: Fred Hoerr
Ralph Ziman’s The Casspir Project at The Rendon Gallery. Photo: Fred Hoerr
Ralph Ziman's The Casspir Project at The Rendon Gallery. Photo: Fred Hoerr
Ralph Ziman’s The Casspir Project at The Rendon Gallery. Photo: Fred Hoerr

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