Graffiti in Braamfontein

CAN-DO ARTITUDE

BRAAMFONTEIN AND OTHER SUBURBS THAT TOUCH SIDES WITH WITS UNIVERSITY HAVE LONG BEEN KNOWN FOR GRAFFITI AND STREET ART

By Ufrieda Ho / Images: KOKO

The elephants arrived in the first weekend of October last year – some on buildings headed towards the train tracks, a pair down an alleyway, others on a rooftop. By the Monday, Braamfontein had its graffiti herd.

In the early 2000s urban revival and investment in public art by the Johannesburg Development Agency meant Braamfontein welcomed a 20-storey building on the corner of Melle and Jorissen Streets (see Wits Review October 2018). In the same year the South African Music Rights Organisation building, visible from the M1 motorway, got a bright yellow mural makeover courtesy of artist Breeze Yoko.

The pachyderms of whimsy were imagined from spray cans and the hand of graffiti artist Falko1 in spring last year as part of the City of Gold Urban Art Festival. The street art festival has been running for six years in Johannesburg and attracts local and international street artists, sponsors and visitors.

Falko1’s ellies were newcomers to the neighbourhood, but Braamfontein and other suburbs that touch sides with Wits University have long been known for graffiti and street art.

Years back The Star established a graffiti wall at the intersection of Jan Smuts Avenue and Empire Road. It was one of the first blank city canvases to be sanctioned for scrawls of public sentiment. Sometimes there were clever slogans, sometimes posters for events, occasionally an artistic gem. Everything lasted only until a new coat of paint returned the wall to white, ready for whoever got to the wall next.

These are commissioned projects with big budgets, crews and funding and they don’t stir controversy. They’re the opposite of commentary such as Greenpeace’s stencilled works about water as a human right. These stencils have found their way under the M1 flyover where many homeless people are forced to take shelter at night. Just outside Wits’ gates are stencilled slogans like “A luta continua” and “Hobos can’t eat bicycle lanes” – they’re meant to make the wait at the traffic lights a little uncomfortable.

Graffiti, tagging (a simple artist signature), throw-ups (stylised artist signatures) and street art, public art and murals are discrete categories but they share the characteristic of being ephemeral, communicating in a public space as visual expression or commentary.

Dr Alexandra Parker (BAS 2005, BAS Hons 2008, MArch 2009, PhD 2014), a senior researcher at Gauteng City-Region Observatory, and her colleagues Samkelisiwe Khanyile (BA 2014, BSc Hons 2015, MSc 2016) and Kate Joseph (BA Hons 2010, MA 2012), have been researching graffiti in the city for some time.

For more, see Wits Review October 2019