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Along the busy streets, between the tall buildings, in
the parks and on the pavements, public art of all shapes and sizes adds to
Jozi's beauty.
A MAN gazes at the 11m high sculpture of the Fire
Walker at the foot of Queen Elizabeth Bridge, shakes his head and walks on,
occasionally glancing furtively at the sculpture as he walks towards the Bree
Street Taxi Rank.
The intriguing Firewalker attracts all kinds of attention
The sculpture, by artists William Kentridge and
Gerhard Marx, is a beautiful work of art that attracts all kinds of attention
from residents and visitors alike.
It is unique and perplexes many passers-by. Up close,
this attractive sculpture consists of a jumble of black and white metal plates
welded into position in layers. But from a distance, these layers magically
come together to represent a woman carrying a burning brazier on her head.
The image represents a frequent sight in the city:
women, mostly Shangaan, resplendent in their colourful traditional regalia, walk
around town from place to place, setting up the braziers at street corners to
roast mielies for sale to hungry shoppers.
In his column Citichat column,
urban consultant Neil Fraser says that over the past decade the City has done a
lot to beautify public spaces with art. With input from the private sector, the
Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) has turned the city into an art mecca,
transforming once dilapidated areas into stunning art spaces.
The Fire Walker is but one of numerous sculptures,
statues and other forms of art that one unexpectedly stumbles on in the inner
city, thanks to the hard work of JDA. Visitors to the inner city coming down Jan Smuts Avenue
pass one of the most enchanting works of art in Johannesburg.
Braamfontein
The Eland statue, located on the corner of Ameshoff and Bertha streets in
Braamfontein, is huge - more than 5,5 metres tall and weighing more than 20
tonnes. As drivers crest the Jan Smuts hill at the University of the
Witwatersrand, they are met by the imposing statue, which keeps a close eye on
them all the way to the Nelson
Mandela Bridge
into the CBD.
The imposing Eland keeps a close eye all the way to the Nelson Mandela Bridge
It is one of several pieces of public art placed in
Braamfontein through Trinity Session, a contemporary art production team. Down Bertha Street at
the foot of Mandela
Bridge, three steel
sculptures snuggle together, part of an avenue of steel trees along Juta Street.
The trees are unique in that they are interactive, and
pedestrians along Juta Street
can touch and play with them. They are painted attractive different colours,
some black with a tinge of red and others a suave purple and green.
Still in Braamfontein, up De Korte Street, three figures loom large
against the inner city skyline. The Miners' Monument makes an interesting triangle:
two masculine black miners holding a drill are directed by a white supervisor.
The miners face the tall buildings of Braamfontein and the city centre,
reminders of Johannesburg's
mining past.
Inner city
Across Mandela Bridge at the Bree Street Taxi Rank, commuters are greeted by a
tall statue at the western entrance. The sculpture, oblivious of the din caused
by the honk of taxis and taxi touts, represents a woman commuter holding a bag
of groceries, straight from a shopping spree in town. She is holding a
schoolboy by the hand.
Taxis in Johannesburg
are a popular mode of transport and thousands of people, especially from the
townships, use them to travel to and from work. A stunning mosaic depicting their
destinations and routes decorate the eastern entrance; it is a rare sight indeed
in a taxi rank.
Joburg's cultural precinct, Newtown, is also an art paradise. A walk
through Mary Fitzgerald Square
reveals artworks that boggle the mind, from decorative bollards and graffiti to
statues of popular musicians.
A motherly commuter holds onto a young schoolboy and her bag of groceries
At the Market Theatre complex, a statue of late
musician Kippie Moeketsie holds a vigil at the entrance to Kippies Jazz Club.
Sitting down, the musician is depicted holding his favourite instrument - a
saxophone. Next to him is an empty chair for those people wishing to converse a
while with the jazz maestro.
A bronze statue of yet another late music great,
Brenda Fassie, sits at the entrance to Bassline just across Mary Fitzgerald Square. Ma Brr as she was
popularly known, was a prolific - and controversial but always popular - musician
who topped the charts during the 1980s and 1990s with her township pop music.
She died in 2004.
Gandhi
Square
Also in bronze, Mahatma Gandhi stands benevolently in the
heart of the inner city at Gandhi
Square. The 2,5m high statue stands on a five
metre tall plinth with benches at its base, a popular resting place for weary
shoppers and bus commuters.
Gandhi, a political activist, practised as an attorney
at the Johannesburg Law Courts, which were the city's first law courts, in what
was known as Government Square.
The site is now called Gandhi
Square.
The latest addition to Joburg's public art collection
is a sculpture by Marina Walsh at the intersection of Diagonal, Ntemi Piliso
and Market streets in the CBD. In the concrete work, Albertina and Walter
Sisulu sit and gaze lovingly at each other, eternally holding hands.
For those not in the loop concerning the history of
the couple, four storyboards in a small triangle explain their life together,
as well as a bit of Johannesburg's
history.
Origami, Joburg-style, at Pigeon Square
At the intersection of Main
and Main Reef roads on the western edge of the city centre, three pigeon
sculptures keep hundreds of live pigeons company at Pigeon Square. Constructed from steel,
the three-metre tall pigeons are constructed using the oriental technique of
paper folding known as origami. Pigeon Square is located in a part of town
where the Chinese community once lived and traded.
Cows
Across the city, at the corner of Van Beek and Error streets, one may feel one
has wandered into a farm in the middle of town. At a place known as Transport Square,
several cow statues lie as if chewing the cud after a long graze on the green
vegetation around.
The cows, designed by an artist from Bizana in Eastern Cape, Andile
Mswangelwa, consist of steel frames covered in concrete, and then tiled in
rounded black and white mosaic shapes. They mark what used to be an informal
butchery.
Just across Transport
Square in the Ellis Park precinct stands a spectacular
sculpture called Invented Mythologies. The eye-catching stainless steel
sculpture, a work by Doung Anwar Jahangeer, is of a boy standing on a huge
sphere flying a kite. It marks the northern entrance to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™
venue, Ellis Park Stadium - and will most certainly be a stunning attraction
for a photo shoot for many football fans during the tournament.
These are just a few of the many great works of art in
Johannesburg. There
are many other stunning works of art just waiting to be discovered around the
inner city, such as mosaic works under the Joe Slovo flyover along Charlton
Road and at the Yeoville Swimming Pool, and many other forms of art at the
city's several inner city parks.
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