Joburg Graffiti

graffiti by Lord Byron on the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion

Graffiti is almost as old as the hills they were first scratched on. Seriously, we saw ancient Crusader graffiti at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and some on the ancient temples of Greece. We even saw evidence of pre-volcanic eruption graffiti in Pompeii!

Kilroy was at the Washington Monument in DC

With World War II came what was probably the first viral American graffiti, "Kilroy was here," a favorite of my father's and Vince's. And speaking of Vince, we even have examples of Berlin Wall graffiti at home. Vince happened to be working in Berlin just as the wall was coming down between east and west. We dashed over with a hammer and chisel and joined the throngs who were slowly dismantling the graffiti-covered wall - on the west side anyway. Vince chipped away about a dozen pieces to bring home as souvenirs and as gifts for our WWII veteran relatives. Our son Alex even brought a piece to school that year for show and tell. He thought Vince has single-handedly brought the wall down and told his classmates so!

Most people once equated graffiti with vandalism on subways and derelict buildings and graffiti's association with the hip hop and skateboarding cultures of the inner cities. Or the political underground posted handbills espousing revolution and counter-culture messages. Défense d'afficher (Post No Bills).

Banksy in London

But somewhere, sometime pre-Banksy, graffiti became elevated to art. You can probably thank Keith Haring, and Basquiat for that. And you better thank Andy Warhol too.













See?

As you can imagine, with the derelict buildings of post-apartheid Johannesburg and a police force that has more important things to worry about downtown, graffiti took a foothold on the CBD. And out of  the ordinary defacing and messages of unrest have emerged a rich graffiti art culture and movement. Really sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between legal and illegal graffiti in Joburg, between the unsanctioned street and the commissioned public art like Freddie Sam's mural of the Boxing Mandela.

graffiti skateboard park

According to Bias, our graffiti-artist-turned-tour-guide for our Past Experiences Graffiti Tour, there are about 30 very active and recognizable graffiti artists in Joburg's overall estimated graffiti community of about 200. And that doesn't even  include the ones that fly in from Europe and Australia to participate in graffiti events such as the annual Return to the City night in Newtown. The more established artists usually belong to a crew and there are about 4 or 5 well-established and recognized crews in Joburg. Bias himself belongs to the OWN crew. (That's a crew, not a gang for all you SNL aficionados!)

tags by Mars, one of Joburg's more famous graffiti artists

We concentrated our walking tour in Newtown, the epicenter of the graffiti art scene in the Joburg CBD.

a piece by Bias

Bias "reading" the graffiti piece for us. That's a B

"Graffiti"is a pretty broad term that incorporates many materials and methods. Most of the time when we think of graffiti, we think of spray paint and markers. But there is so much more ...

stencil graffiti

wheatpasting by Madhatter

stencil by Fin

graffiti window

Some of the artists even incorporate the architecture of the buildings into their art.

Diaz's graffiti door

Back to the City graffiti on support pillars in Newtown

the WOW crew with tour guides Bias and Bones

on to a graffiti workshop @ Two by Two

Jonnie made these great garbage bag smocks for us. Thanks Mom!

first we drew our tag and bubble

We started small. Very small.

Juliet (aka FIN) demonstrates some spray paint techniques

and we throw it up! (not my terminology)

my crew tag

an ol' lady trying to look "street." so sad!

our WOW crew piece photographed by Cathy Barcroft

D-squared was here