Urban Fabric Melville

This intervention forms part of the Melville Poetry Festival, 2012 on the intersection of 4th Ave and & 7th Str, Melville.

It is a comment on the state of our roads. I inserted some words to resonate with the festival title "More than just Words". I used left- over pieces of fabric donated by various people to literally weave into the fabric of the city - almost as if I am trying to mend the roads myself. With the left-over pieces of fabric I aim to address Johannesburg inhabitants who often feel powerless to do anything about the neglected state of our city - even the smallest action makes a difference and has the potential to become something more.

Melville Poetry Festival

I have been very busy with various art projects recently, but when the organisers of Melville Poetry Festival approached me to help promote the festival, I saw it as a good opportunity for grafmom to comment on the city of Johannesburg.

New readers of my blog should go back to my my initial posts to understand what street art is all about and what my personal aims are. My street art interventions (to recap) are about interaction, debate, fun and even irritation on the streets of Johannesburg in an effort to comment on the city, its workings and its people.

Currently I find Johannesburg a dirty, neglected, almost abandoned city mainly due to poor services and management. I drive past the chaos that the Rea Vaya transport project (BRT) has become on Empire Rd daily and am constantly disturbed by the way in which the yellow barriers seem to migrate over the streets and pavements. I decided to relocate some barriers in a quick street art project to create awareness and promote the festival simultaneously.

The coloured pipes spouting from the tops of the barriers in a festival manner were made from off cut pipes left behind by Neotel after ripping up our pavements and leaving a general mess behind.

As always I shall clean up after myself.

Self portrait: imbrication: the bluest eye

(Found wall with graffiti posters, spray paint, pastel pencil using collage)

on being grafmom

.....consciously playing a role, acknowledging the relativity of my reality or the fictional character of my reality.

Learn the text expected of me, wear the suitable costume. Get my body in the shape considered pleasant and find a mask that would not show too much of my individuality. I am a spectator of myself, constantly judging and adjusting my performance.

I believe if I can achieve this and live with it I shall find my own reality and true identity.

"Women invented a reality they could keep under control, a consciously subjective reality: they became artists."

wiry

Another madonna - the barbed wire a metaphor for the barriers she faces in her complicated life.

inspired: Ernest Pignon Ernest

Wall of JCE, St Andrew's Rd, Parktown:

Deborah, meaning honey bee, is known for her flaming hair. After being abused by her first husband, she became an alcoholic and ended up on the streets. Fourteen years ago she fell pregnant and turned to the Anglican Church. She was rehabilitated and has been running an Anglican Nursery School for the children of abused women for ten years.

The dual nature of the bee symbolises the material and the spiritual aspects of life, as well as the creative feminine aspects of in all people . The image further plays on her nourishing and sustaining work in her community,

inspired by Swoon

Corner Jan Smuts and Bolton Ave, Parktown North: