Girls & Boys Ysterplaat: Slumber Yard, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 60.5 x 91.5 cm GBP00116A R5,000
Girls & Boys Platform 1, Observatory, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 88.5 x 121.5 cm GBP00316A R10,000
Girls & Boys Nostalgia Near Stellenbosch, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 71.5 x 71.5 cm GBP00416A R5,000
Girls & Boys Waiting at Observatory, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 100 x 100 cm GBP00516A R8,500
Girls & Boys Sunday in Harrington Street, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 120 x 100 cm GBP00616A R11,000
Girls & Boys Inside, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 76 x 91 cm GBP00716A R6,000
Girls & Boys No End, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 71.5 x 71.5 cm GBP00816A R5,000
Girls & Boys Golden Arrow, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 101 x 126.5 cm GBP00916A R11,000
Girls & Boys Salt River: The Blue Lady, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 101 x 127 cm GBP01016A R11,000
Girls & Boys Subway, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 100 x 100 cm GBP01116A R8,500
’Commute’ offers an exploration of the passage of time and its impact on our frequented physical spaces. By combining fine & street art, Girls & Boys attempt to capture and bring to life the character of certain urban spaces before they fade in reality. The collaborative is essentially concerned with the transience and eventual decay of our physical surroundings, while also pointing toward a deeper appreciation for the strange beauty and historical value of places along paths we travel almost daily.
Based in Cape Town and inspired by local architecture, commuter routes and angles across the city, Girls & Boys was founded in 2015 as a collaboration between a fine artist and graffiti artists. ’Commute’ is their first exhibition.
Through their art they aim to capture places and scenes which are often commonplace and overlooked, yet which are richly inhabited on a daily basis by a great number of people. A sense of emptiness within the body of work gives pause for reflection on our own individual lived experiences within the city we share. These places therefore offer a wealth of history, personal as well as national. By painting scenes of lonely
Metrorail train carriages, railway tracks hidden away by lush foliage, or a quiet corner café, the artists depict places as they are before the onset of natural decay, before degradation outstrips their usefulness or notability to local society. The spaces shown in the artworks are given a certain permanence on canvas, almost counteracting the inevitable ruin waiting in time ahead.
The artists create architecturally inspired and graffiti encrypted paintings of the otherwise unseen and lonely moments of the daily commute. The canvases, which are experimentally layered in paint, graffiti and glaze, are also bleached, scrubbed and reworked to add elements of surprise, symbolising the everchanging nature of our urban landscape. Graffiti, which is by nature impermanent, is added above and below the surface of paint. We are then encouraged to have a closer look at the subject matter, allowing us for a moment to consider the effects of urban transience.