Paul Senyol’s colourful and whimsical work caught my eye a number of years ago, and it’s really great to see how this artists’ work has matured and that he is starting to get the recognition he deserves. Paul has just spent three months in Finland on a residency program (Pro Artibus) together with friend and fellow artist Wesley van Eeden and will be heading back soon. ILW caught up with him to find out what he has been up to in Finland and what he has missed about home.

What has it been like living in Finland and how has your work been received?

At first it was quite a shift for me. Everything is so different in Finland, from the fact that you can’t speak the language, to the snow covered landscape. Living in Finland has been an amazing experience for me as a person, as well as an artist. It has given me a greater appreciation for what I do, as well as inspired me in so many different ways. Overall, people have been very receptive to my work, the project, as well as the exhibition.

Senyol in his studio in Finland

What is your work currently about?

Mostly my work is informed by colour, shapes, composition, as well as daily life and my interactions with people. I like to view my works as a mouthpiece for hope and encouragement to people, whether they are educated in the arts or not. I hope my work reaches and moves people in a positive way.

The title of our current project is ’6511 MILES’, which is the distance from South Africa to Finland, as the crow flies. 6511 MILES was based on research which I gathered by means of producing a series of 45 notebooks, each with the same set of questions. I distributed and collected these in South Africa and Finland, and then based an artwork on each notebook, which in turn showed a representation of an individual. So you could say they are visual abstract portraits.

Where is your studio and what is it like working there?

I currently work from unit F402 in the Woodstock Industrial Centre. I share the studio with Justin Southey and Bruce Mackay.It is really a great open plan space, with two living areas, a bathroom, kitchen, and a great balcony. Pretty much the ideal space for all of us to work in. I really enjoy the atmosphere whilst working alongside Justin and Bruce, as well as having plenty of time to interact with the other creatives in the building. The Woodstock Industrial Centre is really a melting pot right now, with a cafe, gallery, and so many established and up and coming creative talents working within such close proximity of one another.

Tell us more about your work process.

I Predominantly work on a high quality drawing paper, which is first soaked in water, and then stretched onto a wooden board. This in itself is a labour of love, as the paper can be quite delicate at the best of times. I usually spend a fair amount of time in the library gathering source, typography, imagery, etc. for my artworks. The library is the best place. I spend so much time with old books and the photocopy machine. All the while I have an idea in my head for the artwork; I would usually have a short written piece in a notebook, or some rough composition sketch which I have in mind. Once I have assembled all the pieces, I plot the work out and begin to work on the paper, adding color, and elements as I go along. My work is somewhere between an ordered chaos and a perfect placement of elements which work together to form the final artwork.

What are your favourite Woodstock hangouts?

I quite enjoy taking my bicycle out and just wandering through the streets, getting some fresh air and enjoying old buildings and visiting friends. There are some great views of the ocean and the mountain from Woodstock. I also love our balcony, it has a great view of Table Mountain, out over the harbour and West Coast, and all the way to the Hottentots Holland mountains and Stellenbosch.

When will you get back and what do you miss most about home/Woodstock?

I will be back in sunny Woodstock on the 1 July 2011. I can’t wait; I have achieved everything that Wesley and I originally set out to accomplish here in Finland. I am really happy at the outcome of our project, as well as the possibilities it has opened for us back in South Africa. I miss the smell of the sea, the veg garden on our balcony, the lighthouse, the foghorn, the people, the traffic, and my friends.

What would you miss about Finland?

The endless green forests, Helsinki streets, the archipelago, and of course the good friends I have made here.

Ricky Lee and a local add finishing touches to the mural

Between 10 and 5 and Write on Africa set about a bit of mural painting off Hercules St. in Woodstock on Sunday after paint company Dulux donated 40 litres of paint. The idea behind the event was to involve the local community, both in uplifting the facades of the buildings and in allowing everyone who stays in the street or even just walks by to participate and be creative.

A local lady adds her mark on the wall

This participation is very important to organiser Ricky Lee Gordon, himself a mural artist who works under the name Freddy Sam and who runs the Word of Art exhibition space in the Woodstock Industrial Centre around the corner. Ricky Lee has organised a couple of community mural events in the same area already in conjunction with Adidas and under the name I Art Woodstock. This event was different as it was more of a free-for-all, with no pre-planned art or celebrity mural artists, just tins of paint and the community.

Ricky Lee writes the words “WE LOVE WOODSTOCK” over the finished mural

While writing a final message in big white letters on top of the now very colourful wall, Ricky Lee spoke passionately about the power of art to transform both an individual and a community. This isn’t just something he wants to talk about, he wants to prove it.

“This community is really special” says Ricky Lee. “They have been staying here a  few generations, they all know each other, the children play in the street. There are many temptations out here on the street…. drugs, gangsterism. It’s important that they experience that there are alternative ways in which you can both express yourself and in which you can make a living. And even if you just have some fun with color it’s a positive experience. I handed one kid a paintbrush and he said to me ‘I don’t know how to paint’ and I said to him ‘close your eyes and just make a mess… just go for it!”

By now the Congolese church music from the nearby Kampanganist Church is making itself heard, while more kids show up and ask if they can still contribute. True to the Woodstock street experience I become distracted and  take a short stroll around the few blocks where the I Art murals took place. They really are amazing… turning the little houses into an unexpected street exhibition.

One of the murals previously completed as part of the I Art Woodstock and Adidas project

One of Freddy Sam’s murals as part of the I Art Woodstock and Adidas project

Detail from one of the murals. The t-shirt says it all!

The birth of Woodstock

The history of Woodstock began with the hamlet of Papendorp, a small cluster of thatched buildings, fishermen’s houses and farm cottages, which was situated about two kilometres east of Cape Town, on what became Albert Road. It derived its original name from a local property owner – Pieter van Papendorp, who settled in the area during the mid-eighteenth century. His house, La Belle Alliance, was situated close to Woodstock beach. Gradually other people and their families settled in the surrounding area and by the early 1800s, this collection of buildings had become known as Papendorp. With the increasing English influence after the British Occupation of the Cape, the name was changed to the more Anglicised New Brighton before finally becoming Woodstock.

Farms and estates

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, when land surveyor and architect Louis Michel Thibault (1750 – 1815) mapped all the properties along the Cape Town to Simon’s Town road (now Main Road), numerous farms and estates had sprung up. On the slopes of Devil’s Peak, overlooking Table Bay, was Zonnebloem (now Zonnebloem College); travelling further into Woodstock, also on the mountain slopes, was Leliebloem on the right (also known as Leliefontein – there was a mountain spring on the estate – hence the name meaning ‘Lily fountain/spring’). Both Leliebloem and neighbouring Roodebloem were granted as freehold farms in 1692. The Roodebloem farmhouse later became home to the well-known Ruth Prowse School of Art (ruthprowse.co.za) in 1970, named after the famous artist (1883 – 1967) who lived there in an outbuilding called The Retreat, which she bequeathed as an art centre.

Ruth Prowse

The Treaty tree

The Treaty Tree

On the sea side of Albert road was Pieter van Papendorp’s homestead, later becoming known as the Treaty House, as the capitulation of the Dutch was signed there under an old milkwood tree on the property. This gnarled tree survives to this day, almost forgotten in a small park on the corner of Spring and Treaty Roads, two small side streets off Albert road. In 1806, when the English sent a fleet of ships to occupy the Cape, after handing it back to the Netherlands in 1803, they reclaimed possession of the province after the Battle of Blaauwberg, where they defeated the Governor, General Janssens. The capitulation of the Dutch was reputedly signed under the Treaty Tree, which was declared a National Monument in 1966. During the dark days of slavery (1658 – 1834), slaves were sold under the tree, while both convicts and slaves were occasionally hanged here too. The historic Treaty House was demolished in the early 20^th century to make way for a factory.

Near the Treaty House was another cluster of buildings, part of the farm Altona. The main farmhouse was an attractive gabled homestead that faced the sea. Today, the Altona Hotel, recently converted into a furniture shop, serves as the only reminder of the farm. Moving closer to the Salt River estuary (also reclaimed in the 1950s), the traveller would have encountered the Eberstedt and Haas-en-Koester farms, which became well-known landmarks because of their windmills, both of which have since been demolished.

Woodstock Beach 1940's

Woodstock beach

Woodstock beach once stretched along the front part of Woodstock, to the north of the Castle of Good Hope. It was the scene of many shipwrecks during the sailing era, when ships would be blown onto the sand by Cape Town’s notorious gales. One such gale in 1822, called the Great Storm, was commemorated in a detailed (uncredited) watercolour. The scene of devastation on Woodstock beach is impressive, showing numerous wrecked ships and debris scattered all along the beach.

A familiar landmark on Woodstock beach was Fort Knokke, part of a line of defence erected to defend the Cape from attack. A later landmark was the Castle Brewery and the Woodstock pavilion, built for bathers when Woodstock became a popular seaside village in the late nineteenth century. During the massive land reclamation of part of Table Bay to create the Cape Town foreshore in the early 1950s, Woodstock beach was unfortunately destroyed, one of Cape Town’s saddest losses. Beach Road, just in front of the Castle Brewery, and on either side of Lower Church Street, survives as a reminder of where the shoreline was once situated.

Woodstock develops

By the middle of the nineteenth century, the growing suburb of Woodstock had its own Anglican church and a school, and by the 1860s it was known as a fashionable seaside suburb, especially after the  new railway line (the first in South Africa) from Cape Town extended there in 1862. The old farms were rapidly subdivided for low-cost housing and the Woodstock suburb began to grow rapidly. During the 1870s its beach front was a favourite bathing spot for Cape Town residents. In 1881, Woodstock, together with the neighbouring village of Salt River became a separate municipality that by 1884 was the third largest ‘town’ in the colony and was completely self-supporting. In 1904 Woodstock was home to almost 30 000 residents, there was also an increase in industrial activity in the area, permanently changing the character of the suburb. During the apartheid era Woodstock managed to stay integrated, with a mix of classes and races living in the same suburb – though neighbouring District Six was demolished and the residents forcibly relocated.

Woodstock and the Springbok

Few people know that German-born artist and lithographer Heinrich Egersdarfer lived for many years in Woodstock, and it was here in the early part of the twentieth century that he designed what was to become the iconic Springbok emblem.

Urban renewal

With the loss of Woodstock beach and the increasingly industrial nature of the suburb, Woodstock lost much of its status and by the late 20^th century, many of its lower parts had become run down, with crime and drugs becoming an increasingly serious issue. Slowly though, various media businesses moved into the outskirts of Woodstock, on the Cape Town side. Sir Lowry Road, particularly, was the scene of a lot of urban renewal and clever revamping of old buildings, like the old Castle Brewery for example, to house new offices, shops and furniture showrooms. The redevelopment of the Old Biscuit Mill www.theoldbiscuitmill.co.za (the site of one of the old nineteenth century windmills) for the Neighbourgoods Market recently brought more shops and businesses to the Salt River side of Woodstock, and the revitalisation of Roodebloem Road has led to it becoming a small restaurant area, so, certain pockets of the suburb had become fashionable again. Today, Woodstock’s urban renewal continues, with a variety of new developments taking place and an increase in trendy restaurants and shops moving into the area. Property prices have increased and apartment blocks are springing up. Woodstock, it seems, is back on the map…

Selected sources:

Gabriel and Louise Athiros, The best of Cape Odyssey Volume 1 (Historical Media cc, 2007)

Hans Fransen, The Old Buildings of the Cape (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2004), C.Pama, Bowler’s Cape Town: Life at the Cape in Early Victorian Times 1834-1868 (Tafelberg Publishers, 1977),Woodstock –- A Selection of articles from The Woodstock Whisperer 2003-2007 Edited by Gabriel and Louise Athiros

Selected web references: www.oldcastlebrewery.co.za, www.travel.igotafrica.com,www.theoldbiscuitmill.co.za

Jim Hislop is the current Senior Copy Editor and Wine Writer for Pick n Pay’s Fresh Living magazine.

A long-time resident of Observatory, he is also a member of the Vernacular Society and is currently researching the history of the old farms of the Observatory and Woodstock area.

Woodstockers seem to be religiously religious, judging by the churches, mosques and the old Jewish cemetery, all supplemented by spiritual offerings – tarot cards float about, mphephu is burnt, committed vegans flaunt their tofu offerings and bookshops have no shortage of Eastern-inspired books on the matter. With the influx of foreigners from African countries, pastors have followed their flocks from Nigeria, the DRC and Zimbabwe, to create spaces where music and expatriate support remind new Woodstockers of old homes.

My mission starts up in Walmer Estate, where the Worcester Road Gospel Hall dates from 1932. Close by, the historic Azzavia Mosque was built in 1920 when a river still bubbled beside it – now restricted to an underwater storm water pipe that occasionally spouts winter waters over the road. On Eastern Boulevard’s seaside a friendly woman tells me about the religious offerings there – and gives me a coconut-flavoured cake. We’re in the aptly named Chapel Street, where St. Philip’s Church and Rectory (Anglican) also hosts a trauma centre and a few graves. Not much further the Theatre in the District has taken possession of old sandstone church for a different kind of religious experience. AD 1885, states a cornerstone, but the history-plaque has been replaced by a security company’s sign-of-the-times-board. Another gracious local, with beard and fez, tells me about the mosques in the area… and his fruit-selling business.

The road continues to Woodstock Industrial Centre, encircled by churches and a mosque. Action Chapel (Home of Sign[s] & Wonders) is between Withit Industries and Rainbow Family Church (Rising Sun Ministries). Diagonally across the road is The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church of Southern Africa Diocese of Cape Town, with its Said Mass once and Sung Mass twice a week. Behind the centre is the face brick Sulaimania Mosque (Opened 30min before waqt and close 30min after for security reasons), which was completed in 1954. There’s no rest for the wicked, because another 200m leads one to the Lower Church Street sign, framed by the Family Worship Centre (Greater Life Ministries) as well as the House of Glory Ministries (Services, Counsel[l]ing, Bookshop and Resource Centre). Behind me the forlorn Jewish graves of the Cape Town Hebrew Congregation (Old Albert Road Cemetery 1848-1887) is visible through the cracks of wooden swing doors.

I head towards Devil’s Peak, and the offerings per square kilometre only increase. The Lord’s Chosen (Charismatic Revival Ministries, Headquarters in Lagos by Ijesha Bus-Stop)’s tagline is “Heaven at Last”. Excitedly I run up the industrial staircase, but graffiti and an old bullet-like hole only lead to a closed security gate, behind which a soulless room with chairs await the next service. Revival music drifts around and a television screen in the corner shows a charismatic preacher spearheading the wordless action. In Victoria Road the Bible Life Ministries (Door and Free Parking at the Back) is tucked in between Woodstock Gold (Ca$h for Gold) and Patrice’s Unisex Salon (Shaving, Barber, Trimming, Dreadlocks). Nearby Cash Crusaders fights its own battle, while Hoosain’s Moslem Butchery awaits its Halaal meat delivery.

Heading back to Albert Road, is a church with no name (the cornerstone says Rt. Hon. C.J. Rhodes P.C.: D.C.L.: M.L.A. July 1899 was here), but an old age home is attached to it. According to a staff member, who only notices the lack of signage for the first time, it’s “The Presbyterian Church of Woodstock”. But one block further a staff member of another church, the Woodstock Baptist Church (offers a morning service, followed by Lunch in the Park), says the Fountain of Joy rents the aforementioned church building from the Presbyterians, who now go elsewhere. The Baptist Church, where a white swan pot plant keeps vigil, was itself formerly the Woodstock Dutch Reformed Church (the cornerstone reads in Dutch “Deze Steen Werd Gelegd 1 Mei 1897. Door Den Hoog-Eerw. Professor Hofmeyr”), and happens to be the place where my great-grandfather was a dominee. Surely a Huguenot’s heart swells with pride when hearing that the church now offers services in French due to new immigrants? And, says the lady, had I seen the New Apostolic Church? I retrace my steps to see this one (Visitors Are Heartily Welcome), and come across more, like the House of Kings Jeremiah Training Centre (A Ministry Training School, Next Class Starts Friday) and, at the Church Square development, a classic 1898 offering that now houses Haldane Martin furniture creators (“offers a sense of belonging to our world and the spirit of the times”). A block away is the palace-sized St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church, with its primary school and monument dedicated to its men that fell in The Great Wars.

Now I aim at the railway line, where an old church (1893) today hosts the vamp furniture shop. A Dutch inscription reads “Samuel, Van Den Heere Gebeden, Ook Den Heere Overgeven” (“Asked of the Lord and Given Over to the Lord”), but St. Mary’s School is inscribed on the building next door. What does it al mean?! Roodeblloem Road, where the bars and churches are cheek by jowl, each offering its own spirits, beckons. The All Saints Church Roodebloem (Anglican Church of Southern Africa) is active and has a monument to all Woodstock residents that fought in the World War II. But diagonally across an unmarked church (cornerstones laid in 1904, plaque illegible) hosts a photographic studio where chic youngsters parade around.

I’m about to call it a day when…Hell, I forgot the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St George in Mountain Road! There the icon is slaying the dragon, and I can finally say I’ve seen enough, even though I’ve definitely not seen it all… So when you hear the muezzin call, or the church bell toll, or the sound system blasting – in architectural beauties, in dilapidated industrial concrete blocks, in homes and on street – appreciate the fact that religious tolerance (and freedom from religion) is truly practised in our neighbourhood. Heavenly, isn’t it?

I Love Woodstock Interview with Bulelani Ncaphayi from Nkumbi, Eastern Cape

ILW met up with entrepreneur and bookseller Bulelani Ncaphayi. Some of you may have seen Bulelani selling books outside the Shoprite on Main, Rd. Woodstock, a location usually reserved for sellers of fruit & vegetables, sweets etc. We asked him how he came to be here and what made him choose a life surrounded by books.

Why did you choose Woodstock?

I started in Plumstead with the books. I was near the station but it was too slow. Sometimes, I only got one client a day. So I thought that people were not interested in reading there. Then while I was passing by Woodstock, I saw that the Shoprite was busy. I saw a lot of people coming out of the shop and I thought if I could come here, it would do better.

How long have you been set up here in Woodstock? And what is a typical day for you?

This is my 3rd month now. I come in from Capricorn (a township outside Muizenberg – ed). I rent a small storage space here in woodstock and set up in the morning. If it’s a good day especially in summer I will stay until 5.30 but if it’s cold and windy and it’s a quiet day I might leave at 4.

Do you have regularly customers yet?

Yes I do, three or four of them. But most of them are new customers. I’ve got a good relationship with my clients. The only problem I have is that if someone asks me for a particular book they will go to another bookshop to get it as I can only have so many books. I do write down the books that people are looking for so I can try and find them, but that’s not always possible as I get them from charity shops and they rely on donations.

Why or what made you chose to get involved with books?

I chose books because I want people, especially black people to read. I want people to get back to their roots instead of only going forward with technology, especially those who are in schools. Reading, I think, is the best way for people to change. But when I read books, the way I grew up, I forget about the things that are around me. When you read books, even the paper, you can think positive thoughts and not just focus on the bad things. Also I thought that there are many people who are selling chips, oranges and clothes but there are not many people who are selling books.

When you were growing up in the Eastern Cape where did you get books from?

There were no libraries there because it was a rural area. That was a challenge. I grew up liking reading, any story I could find, short stories, novels. There were very very few people in my village who had books apart from dictionaries and bibles, so you had to get them from the school libraries. Though that is changing now, there are more books now because of the government, not only just those books such as statistics that you read because you have to read them, but you can go to the library and get something you like.

What did you read when you were growing up?

While I was growing up I only had access to isiXhosa books, and only when I went to High School from Standard 8 did I start reading English books. I like some non-fictions but I really like fiction. Stories meant a lot to me. For example, in Grade 7 we acted the “The Merchant of Venice” by Shakespeare. But basically, I would read any stories I could find.

What are your plans for the future?

My plan is to own a bookstore. That will be better than standing here. It’s a good thing to stand here and I know you have to start somewhere, but I am dependant on sunny days, because in winter, like when it rains or it’s very windy I can’t always open. I don’t have any backup, because I live off what I sell.

That’s why I studied Commerce at school. So I can become a successful entrepreneur. Those that know me, they say, the way you grew up it looked like you’ll become something. I was that kind of person who is not shy and who would stand up for himself. I liked to be that kind of guy who did sport, who read, to not be included in any kind of wrong stuff.

And my wish was to write a book. Which I did. Now, I really want to publish it.

Tell me about the book, this is a book that you wrote?

Yes. It is called “Ukuba NdandiPhuphulle” which means “I wish I had listened to my parents”. The only thing that I am short of is a publisher. And information on how I can publish my book. I wrote it in isiXhosa not in English. It’s a book which I believe will change many young people’s perceptions, the way they think. It starts in my rural area, and it gives you that idea that if you grow up in place, in a family like mine, that is so poor, you mustn’t limit your chances, you must go forward and think what is best for you instead of going to just rob.

Also in my book, there is a character, a lady, who falls pregnant while she was at school and her friends when they pass her on the street, they become thieves. If you notice, according to us Africans black and white, most of the people who dump school or do drugs, most of them fell pregnant at school. And now they have something to look after instead of focusing fully and they can’t reach their goals in life.

I Love Woodstock wishes Bulelani well. Visit him next time you are near the Shoprite on Main Road!

7 years ago the building was derelict and empty, with no plumbing or electricity, and although its proximity to the city couldn’t be faulted, none of the bigger letting agents were interested in developing it. Today it’s a thriving creative hub, with a trendy coffee shop, an independent bookstore, an events venue and all the studios fully let with 70 tenants and an equal amount on the waiting list. For the last 3 years the developers have only been taking in creative tenants, so they have a coffee roastery, some designers, and lots and lots of artists, including big names like Faith47, Kathryn Smith and Andrew Gibson, and up and coming artists like Senyol and Love and Hate.

The Woodstock Industrial Centre is in some ways a typical of the improvements we have seen in Woodstock in the later years. But what many people don’t know is that the owners have been instrumental in the development of Woodstock, and admit that the rate of improvement has surprised even them.

Part owner and manager of the building, Elad Kirshenbaum, is also the chairman of the Woodstock improvement district, and so has a vested interest in the improvement of the area. After initially taking on mostly manufacturing tenants, they soon had enquiries from some pioneering artists and realized that creatives were the ideal tenants. They were quiet and clean (well paint stains versus oil and grease) and it was on trend with other developments in the area. So over a number of years they made the conversion to creative tenants, and have built up a like-minded community of creatives. Elad also has a noticeable interest in the artists and the creative events they play host to in the building such as A Word of Art, so it wasn’t purely a business decision.  Says Elad: “The added value of the artists’ creativity to the building if by far greater than the price we get per square meter. You can not put a price on inspiration.”

The building itself has lots of beautiful natural light so its easy to see why it is popular with artists. The oldest part of the building dates from 1900 and the newer part from the 1960’s. Walking through the building it has a great industrial vibe and with the patina of old paint, it feels a bit like an art school. The landlords have also been very flexible and keen to keep their tenants happy, like allowing them to use the walls of the common areas as a canvas for their expression.
There is also an indoor skateboard ramp on the first floor for the exclusive use of tenants. Some tenants have even converted their studios into beautiful loft apartments/studios.

Elad subscribes the success of the venture to charging reasonable rates and  allowing for flexibility and creative expression.

Sadly the building is going on auction on 28 June, and if it does sell there is no telling what might happen to the building in its current incarnation. Elad says that the project has proven itself, and if it does sell he will replicate it elsewhere. In Woodstock of course. Watch this space!