An independent platform for creative expression.

Art, in any form, is the most selfish human act there is. Even the most euphoric fan can never experience that true feeling of creation, that moment when you realise that you have willed into existence something unique, something special. It is this feeling that has been a driving force in my life. The thirst for it grew into MEANWHILE, a platform for creative expression.

From the first time I started developing the idea of MEANWHILE, the aim was to create a platform where I could push myself to be creative without any constraints and without any monetary obligations. This was going to be the place where I established my name in the history books. This was how I was going to change the world.

Nature by Cecelia Ferreira

 I tried to involve as many people as possible and give everyone this freedom that I so craved. Not everyone desires this freedom as I soon came to realise, but with each edition I found individuals who would walk this path with me, the “I” was to become a “WE”. I tried quitting more than once, but was convinced by MEANWHILE believers to do just one more edition. “Let’s just try one more time,” they would say. So we would develop a new theme and build an edition around that. We finally published a total of eight MEANWHILE editions. The first two were self-funded printed copies, but we wanted to reach more people, so we went online. As from edition number three I built a basic html website and even tried to push the boundaries of this format, with my limited coding knowledge.

 We tried to do something different with each edition, starting off with the printed magazine format that was converted into an online version for editions 3, 4 and 5. That evolved into an exploration of new themes that also pushed the medium and the user experience. The last edition was in a blog format with daily posts of artists’ submissions.

MEANWHILE built up quite a following, taking into account that we weren’t really on social media. This was before Twitter and Tik Tok and Instagram was a thing and a place where everyone converged and shared ideas. We had actual parties and launches and meetings and spoke to people about our ideas. It felt like we were in Paris in 1900, it really meant something.

I enjoyed the freedom this platform gave me: sometimes as a journalist writing an article about dirt track racing in the platteland, sometimes as a photographer on a mission, sometimes as a coder, sometimes as a poet, sometimes as a critic, sometimes as a publication owner opening the door for other artists, sometimes as a fellow artist free to explore any direction, any style, any medium. MEANWHILE for me was happiness, freedom, love, success, hate, regret, disappointment, failure … MEANWHILE was my life.

It’s been thirteen years since the last edition was released and I realise that my dream to change the world might well have passed, but that is why I am writing this article. To reminisce of a time when everything was simpler for me. It was either pushing the boundaries, or staying in bed. Now everything is a lot greyer, more cynical, more monetary driven. But hope lies in the fact that I am reliving these memories. Remembering what it was like to be driven towards that pure moment of inception and reviving some of that freedom by creating again. Even if it might get lost in the social media galaxy.

MEANWHILE was a platform for creative expression that existed from 2003 to 2010, eight editions of drawing, painting, sculpture, illustration, photography, design, writing, poetry, music, video, film, inventions, adventures …. creativity.

Vat my Hand by Henk Esterhuizen

Contributors to the MEANWHILE project were:

Olaf Bishoff, Black Koki, 351073, loveANDhate Studios, Ruan Kemp, Gerhard Marx, Gert Naude, Aryan Kaganof, Francois Breytenbach Blom, Sjaka S September, Elizabeth Coco, Michael Saal, Cobus Nienaber, Jacques Fueller, Jason Finlay, Cecilia Ferreira, Jane Henderson, Wilna Brits, Thomas W. Poole, Louis de Villiers, Losef, Sven Ousman, Johan Schoeman, Oliver Schildt, Albert Smit, Some Grow Young, Stefanie Schoeman, Lampi Verwoed, Werner von Couses, Melodie Boyer, Michelle Beukes, Nelisa Ngqulana, Ruan Cremer, Floris Coetzee, Die Verneuker, Lloyd Rossouw, Jaco le Roux, René Esterhuizen, Jess Jorgenson, Barbara Joubert, Thomas Dannhauser, Spies Moss, Imari, John Parker, Carel Hoffman, Marna Marx, Danny Brooke, Dirk Erasmus, Riehna Kruger, Henry James Fisher, Kelly Gough, Leon Prinsloo, Elsabé van der Walt, Andrie Pretorius, Flaming Rabbit Dog Press, Nick Kleinhans, Wilhelm Kuys, Estie Rossouw, Yvette de Beer, Essie Esterhuizen, Willie Knoetze, Louise van Aswegen, Marna van Schalkwyk, Elsa Kotzé, Charles Maré, Mia de Jager, Izak Steyn, Theo Robbertze and Henk Esterhuizen.

Please let me know if I failed to include your name.
henkesterhuizen@gmail.com