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We were very happy when the world renown, Cardiff-based NoFitState Circus invited us to be reportage illustrators for Drum Up a Circus, a collaboration between Ingoma Nshya of Rwanda and Circus Zambia of, well, that’s self explanatory.

Our initial engagement saw our creative director, Ian Cooke-Tapia spend a week in the highland town of Huye, in Rwanda, where we bore witness to some of the most amazing women we have ever seen learning to combine juggling with their unique take on traditional drumming. Our job at the time was to document the events, and capture those intimate, serendipitous moments that happen in the in-between, those valuable conversations that could lead to ideas never before imagined.

Originally we were meant to return to Rwanda and further document a live performance to take place in Kigali. But, alas, the pandemic happened and we had to shift plans. This started a long process of international, digital collaboration between Cardiff, Huye and Lusaka. 

Cooked Illustrations helped to ensure that ideas were being clearly communicated where language and cultural differences may be barriers, on top of the usual differences in vision that happens when different creative workers collaborate on a project. However, we soon realised that the approach was also helping communication when digital poverty would rear its ugly head - weak signal, crackling audio, a storm making internet access spotty both in Rwanda and Wales, among other occurrences.

We were all equally trusted into a digital-first world; in a world where equality of access isn’t a thing.

Since we soon decided that the project would become a film, Cooked Illustrations first operated as storyboard artists, trying to translate the vision of the team into something filmmakers could make use of. We experimented with developing specific scenes, but that line of thinking soon gave way to a more organic approach: each performer group coming up with their own ideas, which they would film, and then be reviewed over Zoom and email at weekly meetings. If new ideas would appear during those meetings, we would then be asked to sketch them out or reimagine.

In the end, our involvement became less about creating a finished illustration - even though we really wanted to - but about our ability to communicate between cultures. We were a small part of a bigger team that came together through adversity to create something wonderful.

Here’s to hoping we get to see the performance that should have been soon.