Art and culture in TPF Academy

Inside the TPF academy. [PHOTOS: FELIX KAVII/STANDARD]

By LYDIA LIMBE

 — [email protected]

Lights, camera, lights, action! This is the super-star treatment of the current Tusker Project Fame (TPF) participants for the next few weeks. These contestants from East Africa get pampered on fully paid shopping trips; limousine rides complete with bodyguards and escort. Home and Away got a peek of their home for the period of the competition — The TPF Academy.

The first thing you see when you get into the academy is what looks like a studio. The walls are painted yellow-orange. Instead of the usual ceiling, shiny white umbrellas, akin to the ones used by photographers, hang from the roof open. On the walls designating the studio space are LPs — records used during the gramophone era.

Around the studio are green and wine-red couches. The ambience of the whole place is warm and inviting — warm colours are blended with earthly tones. Glazed mazeras tiles make the floor finishing. The tiles complement the overall feel of the house since it stays warm at night.

Artwork

On the walls are different pieces and sizes of artwork like in an art gallery, complete with down lighters on each of them.

The lounge or sitting room, if you like, is a mix of old and new styled furniture. The throw cushions are of different colours, sizes, and fabric.

White fabric is the choice ceiling treatment. This has been used to diffuse the glare from the overhead studio lights used, as well as for aesthetic value.

The window curtains create an illusion of real windows. Only that the glasses behind the curtains are tinted, allowing vision from the back into the lounge.

But this partitioning has been lined with brick-looking wallpaper, and the tinted windows dressed in cream curtains, adding to the homely feel of the academy.

The American-styled kitchen is a mix of plum red, black and silver hues. No cooking takes place in this kitchen as the participants are served by a caterer.

To make up for this, the contestants have their meals out in the garden — styled to give an outdoor feel as well as a relaxed, free-style kibanda sitting.

A huge elephant painting adorns the wall, with iconic buildings from all the participating countries at the back. White painted garden seats, covered with African-style fabric, are scattered around the open space. The designated dining table, with different coloured dining chairs, is on the shaded end of the garden near the kitchen. Its most outstanding feature is the chandeliers made of brown tusker bottles.

On the far end of the garden, the white wall is lined by a frame, draped in flags of the different countries the contestants are from.