Play Jump Eat

“Kelly Wainwright’s delightful Cape Town series, PlayJumpEat. See The Arch jumping! Good medicine on a sunny day.”

– Vanessa Raphaely, Ex-Content Director of CosmopolitanSA, MarieClaireSA, House&LeisureSA, & GoodHouseSA

Kelly didn’t want to limit herself to 30 people bouncing on the end of a pier with panoramic views of SF (as she had been with her Messy Monkey events).  She rather wanted 30,000 people to bounce on balls on the interstate; but how to begin?  Amidst brainstorming with some friends, it occurred to her that she could just have 6 friends bounce across Market St. (main vein in SF), where she could photograph it & BAM!  Somehow this worked for her:  live installation meets “flash mob” meets photography.  Somehow it worked.  But, she didn’t Just want them bouncing on balls, rather skipping rope & jumping on beds as well, for example.  Of all her “6 ideas”, she felt bed-jumping was the most classic & universal, originating in palaces & shantytowns worldwide.  We were all born babies who turned into kids who jumped on beds, who randomly (or not?) ended up suburban mothers, business men, the Amish, & Madonna.  The concept was to capture all the humans in all their different walks of life back in these same origins:  the Chinese ladies in Chinatown, the Oakland Raider football players, & the taco-truck workers, to name a few; all with that same primal & divine bed-jumping expression on their faces.

Kelly ended up taking this project to Cape Town, South Africa, where it ‘exploded’.  You can read more about the BED JUMP & CAPE COUTURE project here.  *Note that Cape Couture had the same principles behind it, as Kelly had many more images calling to be birthed.  With “play, joy, beauty, & abundance” being the common denominator to both projects,  she pulled both projects together with the umbrella title:  “Play Jump Eat”.

The project was to have culminated with a large auction at Groot Constantia, Cape Town’s oldest winery, with 300 participants already having purchased their tickets.  There were to be dancers, live bed-jumpers, 6 screens, a dj, a dinner, a runway ramp to re-create every image, re-dressed trees, ETC.  However, due to extraneous circumstances, the event had to be delayed, & due to more extraneous circumstances, Kelly unfortunately had to leave S. Africa back to SF.

NOW Kelly is hoping to take these images, which are still full of life, & post them dinosour-scale on the sides of buildings in downtown Cape Town & beyond as they are calling to be seen & shared in this way on this level.  Kelly doesn’t want them privately viewed in a ‘precious’ way; limited to a gallery or living room.  Rather, they are to be shared for ALL to see.