21 September 2009
The BRT public transport system is the first of its kind in South Africa, and Johannesburg the first city to implement the system. The system, which commenced operations at the end of August 2009, lent itself to a unique approach in terms of artistic treatment. The artworks programme was commissioned by the Johannesburg Development Agency on behalf of the City of Joburg, and was managed and implemented by a consortium made up of THE TRINITY SESSION, TURKIS and URBAN WORKS.
The BRT system represents a long-overdue and necessary intervention to dignify life for thousands of ordinary Johannesburg citizens. The brief for artists was developed around the need to create a unique experience at each station, while simultaneously aiming for coherence within the context of each station being part of a larger system connecting different parts of Johannesburg. The programme included site-specific research and aimed at empowering local artists.
The individual designs were chosen on the strength of their relevance to the particular station’ context.
The stations are made mostly glass and steel, and this created a great backdrop for the artworks. The glass panels allow an abundance of natural light to flood the station, thereby creating a sense of transparency and connectedness with the environment in which each station is situated. This presented an ideal opportunity for artists to incorporate this sense of locality in their designs. But is also meant that the art works needed to take a form that would integrate into the station, and would not block light or vision. The works also needed to be vandal-proof.
To solve these problems it was decided that each art work would take the form of a sand-blasted image, treated with spot-colours. This allows the works to enhance the natural light and the sense of space. The steel elements, facing directly onto the street, presented the artworks team with the opportunity to create designs that would not only engage the users of the station, but also pedestrians and people who live in the vicinity of these stations. The steel panels were treated with a combination of laser-cutting and painting.
Rehana Moosajee, MMC for Transport, was delighted with the outcome. “The inclusion of these exciting art works contributes to the vision of a public transport system that brings dignity and excitement to the everyday experiences of our passengers.”
Steven Sack, Director: Arts, Culture and Heritage in the City of Johannesburg. “This has been a great opportunity to bring original Johannesburg art to a wider audience” he said. “It has also created opportunities for many artists in the city”.
Lael Bethlehem, CEO of the JDA explained that the art works are part of a wider project of including public art in urban regeneration. “Our experiences over the last four years have shown that art works are a crucial part of the urban regeneration process. It gives people a new way of engaging with the public environment.”
Each artist was asked to comment on their work, and these comments follow:
Artists’ press statements and artwork locations:
1. Johannesburg Art Gallery Station CBD13N
Artists: HOBBS/NEUSTETTER
Statement
Dazzle is an optical play on the idea of building patterns as camouflage. The yellow dot could be the sun rising over the city, or could serve as a simple way-finding device.
Vinyl piece - Using a digital trace of the Google Earth map of this location, the artwork responds to both the position of the JAG and the dislocation in the city grid as evinced in the Twist Street name.
2. Hillbrow Bath House Station CBD25
Artists: ARTIST PROOF STUDIO
Statement
Based on the process to produce the nearby public artwork on Pretoria Street, the artists accumulated various visual references that were then incorporated into a design for the station. Note the silhouettes of people from the site, the rubbish bin and the aesthetic interpretation of the natural landscape (such as the aloes).
3. Doornfontein Campus Station CBD15
Artist: BRENDEN GRAY
Statement
The design for the station was created using fragments of drawings that I have been making over a number of years, in my journals that I keep with me, which reference my experience of Johannesburg. I used familiar and identifiable imagery from the streets of the inner city (ironing boards, street typography, chicken legs, trolleys, etc) and interpreted it in a humorous way, including elements from my own artistic iconography to make unusual juxtapositions and superimpositions. I created a vocabulary of elements to assemble into a convincing design through tracing and overlapping. Much of the imagery I selected was related to the idea of waiting, queuing, walking and carrying so that commuters could relate to it.
4. Old Synagogue Station Eastbound CBD14A
Artist: SHANNIN ANTONOPAULO
Statement
Initially I designed an artwork for a BRT stop in Ellis Park. Having grown up in Bez Valley and studied in Doornfontein, the initial design contained many representations of cultural, religious and social features prevalent in Ellis Park and surrounding areas. The design submitted, intended for the glass sand-blasting process includes major architectural features surrounding Ellis Park for instance, the structure of the stadium and The Holy Angles Church as well as symbols referring to the Portuguese, Chinese, Somalian, Congolese and Angolan communities which are prevalent in these areas today. On later learning that the BRT stop allocated to me was in Doornfontein, the design was further developed for a metal section to include the Cathedral and the Synagogue which are blocks away from one another. Although the Cathedral is still active having mass services at least three times a week and servicing the inner city Catholic Community, the Synagogue no longer functions as a religious centre for Jewish people. In my design I took into account similarities between these architectural religious structures. Both have stained glass windows, arches and domes. The synagogue is essentially a central dome around which smaller domed spaces are built. The Cathedral has a central enclave where the crucifix is placed. The design therefore follows a central circular area and works as a triptych or three circular/semi-circular windows in which patterns are placed. This design intends to integrate these two places while incorporating patterns from other cultures for instance Ethiopia within them. Socially and culturally, the area which was once affluent, now forms a part of the inner city and is home to many refugees from various African cultures.
5. Old Synagogue Station Westbound CBD14B
Artist: MARCO CIANFANELLI
Statement
The designs for sandblasting on glass and laser-cutting on steel were motivated by ideas of transition in the urban environment, taking form through the combination of images of commuters and abstract patterns that were informed by the geometries in the elevations of the BRT station designs. The patterns evoke aspects of the urban environment, but more importantly, the combination of the figures and the abstract patterns suggest a sense of place within transience or a sense of transience within place.
6. Ellis Park North CBD16
Artist: BIE VENTER
Statement
The design was influenced by the view from the rooftop of August House in Doornfontein. The Aloe and barbed wire form part of the view. It talks about the harshness of the city and plants to protect themselves against the environment. The wish is that the city will be overgrown with plants to protect the planet.
7. Ellis Park East CBD17
Artist: ALICE EDY
Statement
My design, entitled "Not Just a Number", hopes to illustrate both the many identities within collectives of people (whatever 'group label' they happen to fall under), whilst simultaneously recognising our common humanity. Stick figures are echoes of children’s simple, unprejudiced drawings (as well as the rock drawings of our cultural 'birth'), providing generalised representations of the abstract notion of people (defining us all under one label, like the flock of birds that is also illustrated).These simplified images begin to diversify - showing the individuality of each person within a group. It is not in spite of our diversity, but rather, because of our diversity, that we are united.
8. Chancellor House Station Eastbound CBD2A
Artist: CONRAD KEMP
Statement
Bubbles’ aims to allow commuters and passers-by to produce their own narratives by allocating speech and thought-bubbles to other commuters and passers-by. In doing this they will also invariably change the sub-texts of the texts according to the changing contexts achieved by allocating the same words to different people. In doing this ‘Bubbles’ hopes to encourage us to think about other people’s realities and what we share with those people; to humanise our fellow humans, to get beyond the simplistic impressions created by ascriptive qualities and appearances. The artwork is also meant to provide a fun interaction for the city’s inhabitants. The work, including the text, is site-specific and intended to encourage thought about the city and those who live or work or play there.
9. Chancellor House Station Westbound CBD2B
Artist: YDA WALT
Statement
I walk around the streets of downtown Johannesburg and am inspired by the colours, the shapes, the textures. By the clothing, the products, the signage. By the dignified form of a man in a herringbone coat and hat. By the eye-blinding pink of the Shangaan woman’s skirt. By the swing of easy movement of the OMO lady’s walk, by the texture of the baskets strung around the basket seller’s body, by the interesting contrasts of colours and shapes in the plates of fruit and vegetables laid out for sale on the pavements.
10. Library Gardens Station Eastbound CBD3A
Artist: ERNEST BELLINGAN
Statement
We are so fortunate to live in a cosmopolitan city like Johannesburg and for generations to come our parks will be used for kids to play soccer in and for friends to sit and relax, perhaps play a game of chess under our century old trees.
Artist: HANS FOSTER
Statement
I thought to use the Old Rissik Street Post Office as the basis for my artwork. Apart from using the actual graphic of the building itself, I also wanted the artwork to visually communicate “post office”. I use of the postmark and the layout is more like a sheet of stamps. What also worked well is that post speaks of places, people, travelling, distance etc, which is strikingly similar to using busses.
11. Library Gardens Station Westbound CBD3B
Artist: RICHARD PENN
Statement
The design uses stark black and white comic graphics, together with dynamic angles and disjointed panels, to evoke a kind of ironic, film noir drama of being late for work. Rea Vaya BRT is playfully set up as the dangerous hero of the narrative with its shark-like fins and halo. It is a controversial hero, one that Johannesburg has been waiting for but one that will have to work hard for acceptance.
Artist: PAUL MOLETE
Statement
The artwork was inspired by a street-kid I met on the streets of Joburg. He came over to me asking for money, but I offered him some biscuits instead. I told him that I didn't want to give him money, as I thought he might go and buy glue with it. "Sniffing glue isn't good for your health," I said. He replied: "I don't care, uncle. Life does not threaten me."
12. Carlton Station Eastbound CBD4A
Artist: GEORGIA WALSH
Statement
The influence behind my design was to bring forward the patterns, shapes and organic forms found in South African textiles. One would find the fashion district in Joburg CBD rich in textiles such as "Three Cats", "Three Leopards" and "Toto 6" that have had a far-reaching influence on design, fashion and art. Some of these textiles are internationally recognized contemporary South African prints, and have been popular on our shores since the 18th century. As well as being a textile that brings forward elements of African jewellery design to indigenous plants to South African iconic imagery, it certainly is a milestone in South African fashion and worth representing Johannesburg CBD, Fashion District.
Artist: QUINTEN WILLIAMS
Statement
Both the glass and steel panel designs are created around the ideas of motion, trade and business. The designs are intended to represent an experience of moving through the area of Market Street by Troye Street and the diversity of people who are present and goods that are offered. On the glass panel, the wide variety of fashion items and accessories are arranged in such a way that it allows the eye to dance over the composition. On the metal panels three identical aerial views of the street is presented and the hustle and bustle of the area is represented by the constantly moving cars, people, and the changing colours of fashion items. In both designs the connection with the BRT is established by the inclusion of a bus.
13. Carlton Station Westbound CBD4B
Artist: ALEXANDER HORSLER / STACEY VORSTER / MOLEMO MOILOA
Statement
Wayfinders is an extension of the Wayfinders tiles made for the HBY I project in 2008. For this project, the student team conceptualised a way of bringing the characters into a new dimension. The team, made up of Alexander Horsler, Molemo Moiloa and Stacey Vorster, not only allowed the characters to grow in size, but also brought them up to eye level in a map-like space.
Artist: HANNELIE COETZEE
Statement
My work "Abba" is about the first mode of transport an African baby experiences. The sequential image of Thandi Nkosi “abba-ing” her baby Nompilo Nkosi was shot on an ordinary day in the Johannesburg CBD near the corner of Commissioner and Troye streets where the work will go up. The new BRT public transport system will create a different world for little Nompilo as she grows up.
14. Fashion Square Station Northbound CBD27A
Artists: PRINS DESIGN
Statement
The artwork we have submitted for selection utilises the built environment; vividly expressing the dynamic, bustling and cosmopolitan city that is Johannesburg. Given the context within which these artworks will be seen, we conveyed a feeling of travelling through the city by employing abstract and fragmented city shapes, depicting the way in which the eye identifies objects, lines and textures en route to a destination. Through the use of black and white photography of the surrounding area and abstractified silhouettes of buildings and structures, the works showcase brief, yet impactful, glimpses of the city, reiterating the context within which the artworks live. Given the immense number of building sites and ongoing construction within the city landscape, we wanted the works to have a ‘constructive’ feeling to them and created this effect through combining photo realistic imagery and bold vector shapes. The works communicate the key elements we felt represented the city best, whilst also leaving room for individual interpretation. Given the bold and graphic nature of the layouts these works will not only be relevant to there here and now, but also have the potential to live on and become regional icons, signifying the success and personality of this great African city - Johannesburg.
Artist: STACEY VORSTER
Statement
I manipulated two enamel paintings to conceptualise these designs. The paintings themselves were based on textile and fabric designs and I attempted to explore them by rendering them with a fluid medium. What resulted were a number of black, slightly off, but still repetitive, paintings that resembled Rorschach tests. In digitising the photographs of these, I came full circle in the process - redistributing and cleaning up the shapes. I hope that people viewing the designs will find them stimulating - each person seems to read different images within the random marks but the process is intended to be cathartic whatever the discovery.
15. Fashion Square Station Southbound CBD27B
Artist: RICHARD FORBES
Statement
Touch, smell, feel, see, hear, think! Engage all these senses at once; focus the full attention of a group or individual. This is my endeavour. I want you to experience the art in such a way that you know it. When I enter a museum and walk over to the nearest sculpture, I am immediately aware of the rules and regulations within the hallowed venue and the museum guard in the corner. When you encounter one of my works or events the requirement is to touch, to be a part of the life of the work. Once you have engaged with the work it then becomes sacred to you; it is precious on a wider platform than my meagre facilitation. I shall keep evolving my process with each new project.
Artist: DOROTHEE KREUTZFELD
Statement
The design for the BRT station on Mooi corner Kerk was based on shop signage and fabrics sold in the area - a mixed residential/small business/retail environment that has been identified as the 'Fashion District'. Many activities concentrate around fabric trade, clothing production and sale. The collage takes its images from fabric motives and signage details that exist in the neighbourhood.
16. Mine View Station SA005
Artist: ILSE PAHL
Statement
The linear elements in the design are symbolic of movement and travelling. The flow and direction of the typographical contour lines connect and intersect with the portraits of commuters linking the landscape, places and the people on route to their destination. The people and landscape merge. The minimal use of colour and transparency of the design is superimposed on to the immediate landscape Orlando and the real physical landscape becomes part of the portraits and typographical elements. I feel the design reflects the important function of the BRT as public transport.
Artist: LEHLOGONOLO MASHABA
Statement
My artwork is a male figure graphically repeated in different shades and tones. The images are superimposed on one another to make up a queue. Each has a unique pattern to symbolise the dynamics of human urban culture. Some images are disintegrating into pixels, text and blocks - making them look like robots, as a play on the role that technology and pace plays in our lives.
17. Noordgesig Station SA006
Artists: 2610 SOUTH ARCHITECTS
Statement
The artwork is based on a series of photographs and tracings of signage ‘sculptures’ advertising informal exhaust pipe repair workshops dotted throughout Johannesburg. Made of recycled parts the structures signify the service on offer without relying on more literal forms of text or graphics. Due to their informal and ostensibly ‘illegal’ nature the businesses remain transient and temporal and the signs are re-built every day, often in different configurations and designs. Abstracted as silhouettes, the signs conjure up mythical creatures from the pavements of our city.
Artist: PHUMZILE BUTHELEZI
I have been working under the umbrella theme 'AFFECTED' for the past three
years. This theme investigates how we are affected by our daily circumstances
and situations. Emotions such as pain, heartache and anger are the responses to the situations we
find ourselves in but there is always that one element that keeps us moving.
This year I am asking these questions: What keeps you going and what keeps
you from going? My fascination with the movement and its origin led me to the bicycle cog.
I was inspired by the information of how the cog was discovered, what its purpose
is, its roles in the industrial world and how it has led it to this present century
of technology. The cog then became the metaphor of the human spirit which transfers motion.
My focus is at what spins the wheel and through my research I discovered that it is
also the non-tangible elements that spin the human wheel of perseverance, for
example hope and faith.
The print was inspired by how music has kept me sane and encouraged me to keep moving.
The guitar is a symbol for music and in the artwork it spins the wheel of pattern.
The wheel of pattern is the symbol for the habits and the routines in our daily lives.
It was also influenced by the childhood songs and plays. The title was taken from
the songs {masidonse kanye kanye and morabaraba kofi} we used to sing while
holding hands . It is about the energies that we use to pull or push each other.
The background is the silhouette of the cogs and the human figures are
drawn in dots to simulate the chains that spin the bicycle cog.
18. Westgate Station SA001
Artist: ANTHEA MOYS
Statement
The works reflect small moments that I have witnessed in the city and connect it with a broader 'skyline' view of Johannesburg. The girl swinging between Ponte and the tower speaks of a sense of play, whilst the man pulling the whole of Johannesburg on his trolley demonstrates a sense of 'the everyday work' which takes place in the city.
Artist: DINGAAN SHOAI
Statement
The artist chose a "fantastical tricycle" as the main focus of his design. The tricycle is an object that is common to most townships around Joburg, but the artists' interpretation is an imagined version of an everyday object that allows whoever rides it to "go places". Thus it becomes a tribute to and a symbol of the aspirations and dreams of the people of Joburg.
Artist: MOLEFE THWALA
Statement
The work was both inspired by the formal built environment of Johannesburg as well as the informal (and illegal) practice of "challenging" these structures by means of graffiti. This kind of intervention creates layers of commentary that constantly shape and reshape the way we look at the city.
19. Orlando Stadium Station SC002
Artist: DAVE ROSSOUW
Statement
Transport has always been one of my passions. The fact that all the basic principles always apply, and that many of the early machines still work today is truly inspirational. The romance and beauty of the historic landmarks in transport should be remembered, and therefore depicted.
Artist: ROBYN PENN
Statement
The concept for the tree people came from a desire to soften the hard industrial nature of the Rea Vaya bus stops in their city backdrop. Using a human element and nature introduces irony and although the people/legs are rushing for the bus, to/from work, the trees bring a sense of calm and constancy. I love the juxtaposition of nature and man made objects/ the organic and regular forms.
20. Boomtown SC005
Artist: BRONWYN LACE
Statement
“There is geometry in the humming of the strings… there is music in the spacing of the spheres” - Pythagoras. Two old and broken bicyclespokes’ spiral into divine proportions, and randomly extended threads allow a human to see a spider’s first composition. This artwork is an attempt at finding balance, perfection and harmony, which exists so silently and effortlessly in nature.
Artist: CHARLES KHOLOBENG
Statement
I chose as the focal point of my design a view from a moving train passing through the landscape. This speaks of time lapsing through movement, through watching the world pass by.
21. Orlando Police Station SC003/004
Artist: PROPHET JD
Statement
The artwork is called "Tadpole Fever". It is inspired by the artistic recreation of Self, as manifested in the transformation from poet to artist. This artwork is a visualisation of the artist’s prayer, which is an expression of hope that that conflict between the BRT and taxi industries would be resolved through an awareness of the confluence of space, time and energy.
Artist: SIPHO GWALA
Statement
The artist lives in Alexandra, Johannesburg. He chose as his subject photos taken by students from the University of Johannesburg who visited the township on a field-trip. The artist, in grappling with what it means for people to go into Alexandra purely to photograph the locals and the scenery, took as his cue the perception that the subject of a photograph is sometimes victimised and objectified by the detached view of the camera. The artist, through his design, suggests that people should make the effort to get to know the subjects of their photographs. He interpreted this by cropping the images to create a close-up frame of the faces of people that were photographed, thereby creating an almost uncomfortable closeness between the subject and photographer (and, in the context of the BRT station, also the viewers of the final work).
22. Mavumbi Station SA002
Artist: GERHARD MARX
Statement
Weed Map - The city scape is one that speaks of human control and the manner in which the social shapes the natural. The city often harbours within it spaces in which a lapse of that control occurs - overlooked, neglected and often luminal spaces, which carries with it associations and stereotypes associated with the darker social realities of the city. The growth of weeds, particularly that of the ‘Black Jack’ or ‘Kakiebos’, is synonymous which these spaces in Johannesburg. The weed in this sense is the antithesis of the garden; the garden being the epitome of human control and aesthetic-ideological ideals. This work manipulates the physical structure of weeds (harvested from neglected spaces within Johannesburg) to create a structure associated with both the scientific diagram and the route maps found in subways and on trains. In this way the work speaks of pruning, of cultivating, of the need to understand what has been neglected, and to manipulate and re-route the logic of the city.
Artist: SHIME SENETLA
Statement
In translating my Marley-tile designs, I took a drawing of the road and created patterns relating to the landscape around the station.
23. Emfuleni Station SC007
Artist: MBONGENI BUTHELEZI
Statement
The work is made up of plastic on plastic. It was done in 2005. Johannesburg is like a melting pot of cultures and it is also a vibrant space to be in. This work therefore intends to capture that vibrancy and the atmosphere that one finds in an everyday life in the streets of this city.
Artist: PHILIP TSHABALALA
Statement
The artist wanted to capture the “inverted” reality of Joburg as found in industries such as mining. The city is built from the inside out, as the industries on the surface were all established as a result of the early mining industry. This artwork serves as a tribute to miners in particular.
24. Regina Mundi SC008
Artist: WAYNE REDDIAR
Statement
The design was inspired by the daily routes that form a part of everyone’s life. I also attempted to portray how these routes are both shared and form a communal experience.
Artist: TITUS MATEYANE
Statement
This artist is well-known for his large-scale, hand-drawn aerial maps of big cities around the world. This design shows close-up details of key elements of a map of the Greater Johannesburg, focusing on the geographical relationship between Soweto and Johannesburg and how these two areas are now formally connected by a public transport system for the first time.
25. Thokoza Park Station SC009
Artist: MALAKIA MOTHAPO
Statement
This is a celebration of farming and mining, and a celebration of the energy of work – and particularly the opportunity to work in these two industries, which are often overlooked.
Artist: STEPHAN ERASMUS
Statement
The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in the 1880s lead to the mass migration of people into the area, which lead to the creation of Johannesburg as an economic hub and later in 1948 Soweto (South West Township) was established to house Black workers. It is because of the great influence that the mining of gold had on Johannesburg and the influx of people, their development and growth that it is important to keep reminding ourselves of its origin. The Johannesburg landscape during the 1980s and 90s was marked by mine dumps, now disappearing. These modifications to the landscape served as a reminder of the origins of Johannesburg in the mid-1880s as a town and later city developing from the gold rush, as well as the establishment of Soweto (South West Township) to house the mass migration of Black workers and their families in search for fortune.
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