....and to end the year on a great note:

Recognised here for their unique creative voice and first class execution, the top three winners:

Grafmom!! (and two others). Have a look at the latest one small seed magazine. Winners of the

"are you the new banksy" competition.

Cinderella

And with the year coming to a close, I just had to ask this question:

What now South Africa

Interactive participation

..... local residents near Flower Crossing becoming "involved".

They told me the very interesting story that that specific pole, which was also the site for Pole-ar, and was erected illegally by the Westcliff residents in protest against a dangerous crossing nearby. The Council tore their danger sign down, and installed a four way stop. They still battle with cars driving to fast and if I look at the condition of the poor flowers.........

why did the flowers cross the road

I replaced the Pole-en sign, which was removed, with this road crossing sign. Painted the miniature crossing lines in the middle of the night.

I then decided to do the rest of the intervention on a Saturday morning - and what fun. So many people stopped to have a chat and comment. I hope you all visited the blog.

A few people thought the pole was actually a road side shrine - I guess it looks a lot like one. But fortunately no one died, and it is all about the joy of spring and tongue in cheek fun.

The interaction that happened with viewers is another aspect of interventionist art: I realise my work means different things to different people but if it manages to create conversation and interaction (and of course pleasure), I have succeeded.

Not acid but pure sewerage

Carlow Road, across from the tennis courts. This was fixed within 18hours after the signs went up.

Some new poles

Cnr Jan Smuts and

For everyone who also

suffers from hay

fever

Hillcrest Road, Westcliff

Interview on 702 Talk Radio

Thanks to 702 and Celia for their discussion about my work. And the guy who phoned in initially. As Celia explained, this is what it is about - for people to notice and become actively involved and even to intervene.

Look out for some new poles - if you dont follow what the poles are about, go to Blog archive, click on May 2010, then Thomasons. It will explain everything!

Interview on 702:

Terry phoned David O’ Sullivan on 702’s Q and A, 2 Sept 2010:

T: I came across this thing and I thought what on earth is this thing….. I wanted to take a picture… .

D: So where abouts was it - in Parktown?

T: In Parktown…, Parktown West ....that sort of area…

D: OK… I love the way…

T: Very weird…

D: This is the reason why the show is called Q and A, cause here anything goes - its real trivia this. It is a fabulous one - I enjoyed that one. Terry, I am going to find out where.. . who had the humour around poles and also….

T: Yeah…There is one final one…I must tell you… in Republic road in Melville.There is a sign for some reason … it’s a warning sign, it says “blind people”. And below that in the same writing as the other poles mmm… they put a note, it says “replace after use”, and then there is a white walking stick…

D: Ok, that is bizarre, its bizarre…

T: Of course there is no blind people – nearby…

D: There use to be …whereabouts in Melville? In the Richmont area? O no.There, a mate of mine lived in a house there that was bought by the Society of the Blind –

T: O well, there we go – some-one had the means of putting up a sign “please replace after use”.

D: Ok. Terry lets see if we can find out where the poles .. uuu .. come from. In Parktown. Somebody with a mad sense of humour.

9 September 2010: Jenny Crwys-Williams on 702’s Q and A show, followed up on the question:

J: OK, well it is not necessarily a mad sense of humour – mm.. we also got an e mail from Ann in Springs, that came in a little bit to late for David to read. And Ann in Springs said:

“I know exactly what those pole interventions are. I am a second year visual arts student at Unisa and students did this as a witty art project. I know the polar bear didn’t last long. Many of the props were stolen very pretty quickly . For more information visit www.grafmom.blogspot.com”.

And I am looking at that, at that very very website, as we’re speaking; and joining us on the line is Celia de Villiers, who is a lecturer for the Department of Art History, Visual Arts and musicology at Unisa. Now Celia, are you going to tell us exactly what the street poles are?..for ?.. in Parktown?

C: Mmm.. Hello Jenny…thank you for the opportunity. I can’t tell you exactly what these street poles are about because it is an art project which is going to remain anonymous; because the site of urban, urban intervention is normally an anonymous thing that people do, and it is actually to create a forum for discussion, exactly what we are doing now.

And it opens new possibilities for people to have new opinions on certain issues. And mmm.. this pseudonym of grafmom, it is actually a student – and our students are of varying ages, we don’t have just young students at Unisa in the Art Department, but she is a mother already so the word grafmom means graffiti, graf for graffiti and a mom; and it stands for somebody who wants to fix or repair, and play the role of a mother in certain circumstances. So it is a kind of anonymous gift, that it is about a kind of communitas which has risen to relatedness. It relates to the interface between personal politics, contemporary culture and change. And also to give people a voice or a kind of identity or belonging, because she is actually working in the area that is her neighbourhood.

Her first intervention was to actually surround a pothole in the road with mmm… some bollards that should draw attention to the pothole and within a day that pothole was repaired and then there was even a comic done with Madam and Eve, about the pothole, within that very same week. So she’s created a forum for discussion about certain sort of political or personal and mm.. public political issues.

J: So what would be a political issue about the pole bear…a … you know about the polar bear ..

C: That is just a little bit of humour but also that there are some many poles that are actually standing around just doing nothing or being nothing or for no reason. Poles it become it mmm…. not necessary to be there but it is not being removed by mmm… the City Council.

J: Alright. So…very fascinating. Is she going to remain anonymous Celia?

C: Yes, yes.

J: Even after… even after all is revealed?

C: That’s right, this is the trend. We actually have an artist called Banksy in… in London, who nobody knows who he really is. But his pseudonym is Bansky and he puts up graffiti because it is a form of graffiti, but also a form of social commentary. Mmm… and they always say political art tends to be socially concerned but activist art of this nature is actually socially involved. So, these type of artists become involved and it is an authentic type of communication and it is also to a certain extend mmm… trespassing and graffiti, and for that reason some of them remain anonymous.

J: So so how, how is it going to be revealed? Is there going to be a great big denuma or, or will it just peter out?

C: No, this artist is actually documenting her process because this type of art lives on in its documentation afterwards. So she is busy documenting and she might end up doing a book or mmm… or just having photographic images with some video footage, and that also extends the art and becomes part of the artwork.

J: Alright, so we’re just going to have to wait and… and see. And we need to look around because obviously the’re going to be other comments.

C: That’s right.

The navigation of this type of project actually involves a lot of self control .. it involves a form of manipulation ..it is about adapting to the space… and the time and the timing should be crucial, because this grafmom actually went to the graffiti wall on the cnr of Jan Smuts Ave opposite… diagonally opposite Wits, and she made a whole big mural of gumboots, because Trevor Manuel said that this thing about the mine mmm.. spillage of water and the acid drainage is being exaggerated and we are not all going to rush out and buy gumboots. So she made a huge mural of gumboots.

J: Well it sounds fantastic and I want to say thank you very much indeed Celia de Villiers, just explaining the whole thing, aaa.. you know, to us, so look out not just for street poles in the Parktown area but, but it is in the area, but for other interventions as well.

I needed a crowd : GO WITH THE FLOW

Walk the Talk: 25 July 2010. What a vibe!!!!

I used the event in a symbolic way to create awareness for the acid water crises.

I distributed blue and red ribbons and instructions to the enthusiastic walkers, before they walked underneath blue prayer flags I strung across the road. The prayer flag tradition is from Tibet and date back thousands of years. The blue colour correspond to the elements, including water. The flags symbolise silent prayers for healing, blessing and preventing disasters, carried on the natural energy of the wind.

The walkers could tie their ribbon on a tree near the end of the walk on Orange Road, creating a Clootie Well.

A Clootie Well is a place of pilgrimage, usually trees, associated with an ancient water source, near a hill. A well known ritual also executed at a Clootie Well is a circular walk.

Famous Clootie Wells are found at Wicklow, Carlow, Wexford, Galway and Killarney - names we know well.

As acidic as lemon juice - only fit for dead fish

Graffiti wall: Cnr Jan Smuts and Empire.

MP's were told in a briefing that millions of litres of higly acidic mine water is rising up under J'burg and if left unchecked could spill into its streets about 18 months from now. The Star: 23 July 2010.

In the same news report Mariette Liefferink (google her research, SCARY) : "rising mine water has the same acidity as vinegar or lemon juice, a legacy of 120 years of gold mining". She has been warning about this since before 2008, but was mostly ignored.

Trevor Manuel: " The idea that there will be acid mine drainage running through the streets of J'burg next week and that we should all walk around in gumboots, is completely ridiculous". The Star: 11 August 2010.

Marius Keet, Department of Water Affairs (Rapport, 5 September 2010): "Binne 'n jaar sal rooi die rooi, suur mynwater regoor die Oos-Rand by fonteine uitborrel. Vleigebiede en riviere sal in giftige moerasse verander, drinkwater besoedel en sinkgate veroorsaak.

Prof McCarthy from Wits also warned about the threats to Standard Bank head office and Gold Reef City, both built on old mines.

The Star, 6 September 2010: Minister Buyelwa Sonjica acknowledged a deficit for funding to built the necessary emergency pump station and pipeline to avert a major environmental crisis. She announced a team of experts who will asses the situation and report back within six weeks.

A homeless guy looked at the image: " Why are these people running away?".

We don't need boots, not yet.

Post exhilaration - syndrome

Well, they are gone (the soccer crowds I mean), and what an amazing experience that was! But what now?

Zenophobia? No, that didn't happen.

Strikes? Yes, what chaos.

And rumours about acid mine water rising under us.

These photographs shows acid mine water near Krugersdorp, running into their Nature Reserve, with a PH of 2 (very, very acidic) and almost no dissolved oxygen.

The Nature Reserve's Water is already poisoned ( Marius Keet, Depart Water Affairs)

Photo's: Alistair Clacherty, Environmental Scientist

a sense of place

"John" has appropriated Pole- ka as you can see. He has been running his tiny spaza for Wits Ed students here for 2 weeks now. Didn't want to tell me his real name and was not happy about me taking a photograph.

"Are you here to clean up?" he asked.

My kids bought handfuls of Chappies.

fix it, they're here!

Intersection: Rustenburg, CarlowRds and 9th Ave, Melville

The guys from Joburg water have been driving everyone in the area crazy with this work on the intersection at Bamboo, by the Service Station Restaurant. I just couldn't resist.

The "fix it, they're here" obviously plays on the silly message on the radio stations: "feel it, its here".

Everything for the taking

Polar bear was stolen. Within 36 hours of being put up. It was meant for EVERYONE. Not only you.

AYOBA!

Why the bear? For the entertainment of the many kids in that area, especially the Krynauws.

Isn't he gorgeous? Yes, I can sew.

Hillcrest Rd near Westcliff Drive.

And for the little girl who also put up some posters - I hope you found your dog!

"Pole sitter for Heath" as promised : cnr Jan Smuts and Loch Ave.

The seat is a sample of the ones that were eventually used at Soccer City. Thank you Boogertman and Partners and worker bees. Nisha, I still owe you one.

Very corny, I know, but I had to also show my patriotism!

Rock Ridge Rd:

At this crossing, cnr Victoria and Albany Rds, there are at least 5 empty poles.

Installed this weekend: Cnr Empire and Claredon Place, Hillbrow:

"Can that thing really shoot?"

"Of course."

"When is it going to shoot?"

"See, 11 Aug."

"How far can it go?"

"As far as the eye can see."

"NEXT BLAST"


Carse O'Gowrie Rd, by Sunnyside Hotel. This pole is brand new, recently installed, empty. I reckon we have to make use of it seeing that we paid for it:

Cnr Carse O'Gowrie Rd/York St, near Roedean:

"POLONY" - on the corner where the kneeling beggar lives.

:

Barry Hertzog

Here is the whole thing:

on my soap box

..........and so I went ahead and did one. And I think I'm hooked. I did not have the same experience making the graffiti that the literature ascribe to graffiti artists. The one that you do it for yourself and making a subversive statement. Of course it was/is all there but I definitely experienced feelings of exhibitionism and felt as if was addressing the whole city - of course delusional.

There are strong similarities between writing on a blog and spray painting on a wall - of which the most obvious is that one aims to communicate with the widest audience as possible.

Interesting comments while I was working on the wall:

A guy peeping over the top: "I can smell you but I can't see you".

A beggar guy:" Why are you painting the wall?"

"I want to make it look nice again".

"O, you bought the place."

A blond, 30-something guy with a cool swagger: " I can't believe you are painting the wall white. People have done art here (he was wrong, there were only ads on the wall).

Your types (older, bottle blond, resident association members, secure ???)

are so uncreative and have no idea what art is, and what graffiti is about!!"

I managed to not go into lecture mode with him, and he then swaggered away.

Young guy in his blue church outfit: " I'm a painter man, I can do this job for you. R 120 a day only".

controlling mom mode

If you do not understand what on earth this blog is about, click on Tomasons, the initial posting -its all there.

My IT challenged friends: you have to open an account to be able to make a comment. Click on "Profile", and then open a Google account - it takes a couple of minutes and costs nothing!

the streets are saying things

The visuality of our culture, because of mediums such as the internet, has posed some interesting situations regarding illegal, yet controversial expression such as graffiti.

Of course most of the arguments against graffiti have merit, especially regarding senseless "markings" (tagging) on private and public property. Hardly more than relieving yourself against a pole or a wall.

Artists who compose real graffiti - graffiti that actually have something to say - are doing so because they need to express their view or communicate a message they believe would otherwise not be heard. It is therefore a line of communication. If graffiti is regarded as illegal, and is regulated, shouldn't we also regulate the huge advertising boards and their immense visual impact, even visual pollution? I know the answer - they pay to be there.

Graffiti art meets you on the street where you live and move. Depending on its content it is designed to elicit shock, anger, amusement or even introspection. It is by nature illicit and although its styles and techniques can be exported to the gallery, civic murals and even the artist's canvas, its charm remains the guilt by association.

Graffiti is a protest against everything the ad agency (and their advertising boards), stands for; the commodification of public space, standardisation of the built environment and permission based, central control of communication in the form of visual display, which dystopians and town planners agree is the most powerful way to communicate with large groups of people who are busy doing something else - the definition of a modern city.

The political nature of the act itself and the accusation implicit in the act, influence the aesthetic of the resulting image, so that it is often purely ornamental.

The name originates from an Italian term, graffito, which means little writing or little scratching. The term was used to describe the graffiti art that emerged during the Pop Art era in American cities - interestingly enough together with the new consumerism, accompanied advertising and of course billboards of that era.

Graffiti constitutes a major strand of street art, and although graffiti writers as a rule did not really write for the public as an audience (I. Scheepers) , there exists a major strand of modern graffiti artists who attempts to communicate with its local community about issues of concern using a wide range of techniques and different levels of meaning.

Comments not to be found on the blog site

While I install the "poles" I receive a lot of comments from bystanders or they ignore me completely as if I am invisible (or crazy?)

With poles apart, a "high" street child, or rather young man, followed me around with his black bag, asking for me to put some refuse in his bag. A familiar sight. I said I had only my stuff and then he asked me what I was doing - I explained. He tried to help a bit but was too unsteady on his feet.

When I was done he squinted at the end product and announced drunkenly:

"We must all work together to make our city nice and clean for the soccer."

In the land of the blind.........

On the corner of and is currently the BAMBOO centre, with the popular Service Station restaurant. The building used to be just that - a petrol/service station. When that moved across the road, the workshops were used by the Blind Association to teach and produce cane work. From there the name Bamboo. Their work was quite popular - they made great baskets and even furniture - until current imports "stole" their market.

This of course explains the two Tomasons of poles with Blind People Crossing. On both Carlow and Rustenburg Roads. Very few people still notice these - so I did a little intervention.

Response from a guy working at the petrol station:

"What are you doing?"

"This is the art I do."

"Why?"

"I want people to remember about the blind people."

"Blind people must stay home. The family must look after them. They must not walk in the street. "

Interfering with the intervention

Poles apart has been removed, all of it, completely. I still saw it yesterday afternoon, so it happened last night. Wonder if it was the municipality (I doubt it) and if not, what does the remover want to do with it - can't wear it. Maybe sew it all into a blanket?

Footprints

Willem Boshoff wrote recently:

" We often find ourselves going in all directions at once, our points of departure being everywhere and our destination nowhere. Life has become a mad rush to get away from things and a desperate attempt to stop in time.

We cut corners and take shortcuts and the imprint of our day-to-day travelling is one of skidmarks and oil slicks. "

My worked-on-poles now mark some of my routes -at least a bit more than some oil on the tar. Maybe a type of footprint, a reminder that I passed there.

Look out for Poles apart cnr of Joe Slovo and Carse O'Gowrie;
Pole-ka on Victoria Ave;
Pole-lution on cnr Victoria and Albany Rd and
Pole-len on Loch Ave.

Boys eat like worms

This one is a stripey, hairy one - a real polypod. You will find him right at the main entrance to the school on St John Rd.

I installed him Sunday afternoon just before Evensong - so no one would see me. My stealthy manner drove the guards crazy - they demanded to know what I was putting on the pole and prohibited me from taking photographs of the gate and area. It was hilarious. I must have taken hundreds of photos of the school - from the inside, even wearing a hoody.

Then I told them I am a LEC mom, ex-tuckshop lady and I mentioned Mr Cameron's name. They offered to hold the ladder for me.

Monday morning I sat in my car, as we taxi-moms often do, and observed the parents and kids arriving at the school. I am convinced NOBODY saw the worm, although they have to wait at the gate in the mornings to get in.

Our cars have become a bubble, like our homes - warm, safe and isolated from what we prefer not to see. We have to ignore so many things - an overload of information, directions, zonked out street children and road-salesmen with their amazing wares. We don't even notice the smash-and-grabber's approach.

At least the worm is wearing a helmet in case he falls.

This pole intervention is on the corner of Sabie and Barry Hertzog, Emmarentia.

The story goes that Paul Kruger despised Johannesburg, and when he had to visit the city, he refused to enter. He camped with his entourage on the hill across from this pole, today part of the Melville Koppies. There he received his visitors (the English) and conducted the necessary negotiations. This specific koppie is still known today amongst the older residents as "Oom Paul se Kop." The name can be seen on the stone on Rustenburg Road.

So many poles

The routes I travel along suffer from pole-lution. Unused poles can be found everywhere and have become my favourite tomason. I have a collection of over forty of them. They stand forlornly by the sides of the city's roads and highways, some bent and rusting away. What happened to their boards, their instructions, their directions? They remind me of the lost and lonely street children who so often use them as an urinal.

I am using these poles as example of a tomason for my next art project. The poles are in a liminal space in the city and my aim is to intervene with these poles in a playful,even absurd way to give them some usefulness or meaning again.

This blog is an opportunity for the viewer of these interventions to comment. It is an attempt to get a conversation going or even an academic discourse.

Jhb Tomasons

Everyday I find more of these tomasons on the routes I travel. I am collecting them now - its like an obsession.

.......the tomason of access.

One can't really see them when driving - so I started walking. I became aware of the apathy with which we interact with the city - there is so much that we miss out on. We remain isolated in our cars, believed to be safe, travelling at high speeds from destination to destination. In the quiet and safety of our homes we criticize pedestrians, taxis, services, potholes, rubble, construction projects and beggars on the street corners. But they are the elements of the city as much anything else.

Most of us - I in fact- have been dealing with only a very small aspect of the city. We have created gated, walled, electrified havens for ourselves, where we believe we are safe and protected.

Alex van Tonder ( One Small Seed; issue 13, 34) says: ' City living gets a lot of negative press, but the truth is that it has its own natural beauty that for me takes the form of an ongoing converation with itself. A city lives and breathes; discovering, erasing and editing its opinions as its inhabitants discover, erase and edit their own."

I remember going to clubs, shopping and visiting friends in Hillbrow; going to movies, ice skating and shows in the city centre; eating at Park Station and Mama's in Yeoville and commuting fearlessly with busses since I was 12.

I want to be part of the city I live in again.

Tomasons

I discovered tomasons when I read the book portrait with keys by Ivan Vladislavic. Everybody who lives in Johannesburg, or has lived here, should read this book.

"Johannesburg is a frontier city, a place with contested boundaries. Territories must be secured and defended or it will be lost. Today the contest is fierce and so the defences multiply. Walls replace fences, high walls replace low ones, even the the highest walls acquire electrified wire and spikes.

The tomason of access is our speciality. There are vanished gateways everywhere"(Vladislavic 2006, 185).

The term "tomason" originates from an art and architecture collective formed in 1986, called Rojo Kamatsu or translated, "roadside observation". It was recognised as part of the New Dada Movement and founded by Akasegawa Genpei.

Tomasons are the flashings and detritus of the incessant churn of buildings; of the destruction and redevelopment that characterizes all cities. Cities are no longer clean slates.

Tomasons are the useless, abandoned leftovers of the city. Stairs to nowhere, bricked-up windows and doorways, empty poles.

Genpei regards tomasons as elements attached to real estate, preserved in a way as to become useless objects. He views such objects as entirely passive, "eye-of-the-beholder" art; or meta-art. It is art created by the city, unintentionally.

I see tomasons as ultra-art: it observes the urban landscape and calls attention to to extraordinary aspects of ordinary objects. It creates disturbances between perspectives and reality.