ReFormation: Pain to Bliss
by Cannon Hersey

*note: to view images or read it's details, please click on the image or respective figure listing with in the text*

Fig. 1 ReFormation Drawing, Charcoal on Paper. 2000 © Gerard Pas

As Africa taught me, Johannesburg taught Gerard Pas about momentary bliss in relation to pain. Sharing a box of orange ice pops, or a cool rain in 105-degree heat. Believing in equality and peace in the face of so much history and anger. Creating ReFormation, which in Gerard's own words "conveys my deep sense that from the discarded can be found a cornerstone of wonder, that what was marginalized and considered to have no importance turns out to be a treasure."

For Gerard Pas, the CrossOvers workshop opened his eyes to the pain that the press portrays as Africa. The pain that is death, disease and greed. The pain that is hatred and racism. The pain that the western world forgets is in all of our communities and that must be understood for all of us. The pain that Gerard Pas explores in his work and transcends in his creation.

Fig. 2 Kliptown, Sowetto, South Africa. 2001 © Gerard Pas

Pain for Pain: this was written on Gerard's face the day he visited Kliptown (fig.2). He couldn't forget the image of children playing soccer in an uneven street flanked by refuse heaps with an outhouse at midfield. He remembered his son in full uniform on a beautiful grass field in Canada and felt the pain of inequality. He came back to the studio that day and finished the wheel of the wheelchair--ReForm-ed with a Kliptown point of view.

Fig. 3 - Ira Cohen

Gerard and I have always shared honesty and friendship in creation: from the instant we meet at Ira Cohen's (fig. 3) place on Duke Ellington Boulevard to the hectic hanging session for CrossPathCulture's Lineage exhibition at the d.u.m.b.o. art center (dac). The pain on his face that day was more heartfelt and brought me closer to him than any other moment we have shared. It reminded me of my realization of bliss in the face of pain while hitchhiking for two months through South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana…

Pain: for me, standing at a gas station along the Caprivi Strip of Namibia, on the Angolan border, waiting for a ride from 9 pm till 2 am. There were twenty children with the tears of hunger bleeding down their faces and thirty adult males in the madness of poverty wearing sneers as they eyed my two bags- behind me- against the wall.

Joy: when I left Victoria Falls, I was worn thin financially, physically and emotionally. I and a driver arranged a car to travel twenty people from Livingston to Sesheke, Zambia. During this twenty-hour ride into Sesheke, I played peek-a-boo with the young children and watched the cool African night descend with the rising of the full moon. The only man who could speak English was an old priest who got off halfway through the ride. But there was laughter, communication and bliss the whole way. There was nothing that wasn't for everyone: there was joy despite adversity.

It's that moment of drive that pushes you past anguish. That moment when salvation hits, and the real work begins. For me, I became a photographer in Africa: for Gerard…

Fig. 4 Reformation - From Sandton to Kliptown, 2001. Found and discarded objects from Jo'Burg. Johannesburg, SA © Gerard Pas CrossPathCulture, Centre. Newtown.

Joy for Pain: within Johannesburg, Gerard found and created a new home for himself. In his work, he paid tribute to the lives of his audience. When viewing his installation on the opening night, one South African viewer from Kliptown said, "This reminds me of home." Gerard's face lit up. His work had become the streets of Johannesburg and the shacks of Kliptown.

Fig. 5 ReFormation Sculpture, 2001

ReFormation (fig. 4) was constructed from found materials off the streets of Johannesburg and constructed like impoverished homes in the townships. Gerard Pas "walked through the streets, digging through the refuse" to find the material to build his piece.
Thanks to the help of his eight (fig. 5) assistants, who worked through CPC's Art Assist Program; to the urgency of the Jo'burg streets, which often reminds one of New York in earlier times; to the celebrity recognition he received in the haunts of Newtown and Hillbrow, Gerard came to a realization that it was "time for me to change my name from Pain to Pleasure (fig. 6)." And through his individual interpretation, Gerard Pas' ReFormation opens the viewer's heart to the bliss of Africa not void of the pain of the African condition.

ReFormation was created during CrossPathCulture's Cross Overs, an inner city workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa from December 18th, 2000 - January 14th, 2001 and was exhibited at the CPC SA Center in Newtown, the cultural precinct of Johannesburg, from January 13th - February 17th, 2001. The piece was exhibited in a 12,000 square foot space along with 150 preliminary drawings and etchings created at his home/studio in Canada.

Fig. 6 ReFormation Sculpture Detail © Gerard Pas 2001

Cannon Hersey CrossPathCulture New York Office © Gerard Pas 2001

Cannon Hersey
Executive Director
CrossPathCulture
New York, USA
E-mail: crosspathculture@crosspathculture.org