Play in Matabeleland
Our pre-development projects have focused on the use of interactive objects to spark curiosity, and act as prompts for expression, using the elements of sound, space and iconography amongst children:
On Canvas
Cyrene Missionary School, Matopos
We created an installation of sculptures, entitled “The Transfiguration of the Commonplace“ inspired by the schools history of Christian iconography.
A canvas for the children to paint upon – a clean slate for them to express their interpretations and bring them to life. In essence a tabula rasa.
Through the Lens
Ethandweni Orphanage, Matopos
Obambalo used the form of a crater as a res extensa of the irregular rock formations in the Matobo Hills – a reclining couch to encourage a gaze upwards into the sky at night from the orphanage garden.
By Instrument
King George School VI for Disabled Children, Bulawayo
An ergonomically designed musical xylophone for children to make music without prior know-how, while taking ownership over the entire creative process. An impromptu encounter where melodies emerge.
Future Projects
2025
Plato described astronomy and music as “twinned” studies of sensual recognition: astronomy for the eyes, music for the ears. By way of counterpoint, Obambalo aims to direct our energies toward two climacteric facets of the human condition – A Becoming and Overcoming
Euclids Elements
The Observatory – Sethule Orphans Trust
Timaeus imagines the cosmos as a theatrical device: the place of seeing and being seen, of contemplation and the originary emergence of images.
Music, Madness and Metaphysics
The Percussion Garden – Ingutsheni Hospital
Our cosmological predecessors describe Apollo’s four-string lyre as resounding the order of the seasons which itself is imitated in the healthy balance of the soul.