Photos by: Sheldon Windrim
"Walking past a design agency in Morningside we found a heap of unwanted rubbish. There were 6 small plastic blocks with a wooden texture. We thought it would be a cool idea to draw and display the artwork outdoors approaching people unconventionally. So we asked people to get involved. There were a few so I had to organize more blocks. We knocked on the same design agency's door to ask for more rubbish. We saw a plank of wood and our eyes lit up. The idea was to have all the artworks a universal size. So we went on a mission to find a saw to cut the wood. Then we found a saw, paint, markers and adhesive, took it to The Pub at about 21:00 and started cutting pieces for people to do art on. After much effort cutting a wobbly blank outside the pub we finally mounted a collection of blank wooden canvas's. Everyone congregated around a table drawing at the Winston and pretty soon we had 25 finished canvas's.
Later that evening we arrived at our outdoor exhibition destination and started sticking the artwork on a wall. A cop van pulled up very ninja like. Three guys gout out saying "Whats going on?" They immediately asked us who did this(pointing to a tag)? We explained what we were doing assuring them that it was legal and we had gotten permission from the venue, it was also in the eye of CCTV camera and this was a project that the newspapers were covering to promote art in the city. Of course this was a lie to get us out of this situation. They bought it and we continued the installation.
Most of the recognized areas designated for street art in Durban weren’t really designated but rather concurred in a guerrilla art tactics fashion, although authorities claim to have given these public spaces to the public to express themselves it is interesting that at the same time they are trying to expel this art form. It seems we are left by the wayside and left to own proverbial ‘wayward’ devices? It is the Duty of an artist to put out a message whether it is good or bad, behind the scenes or in your face in an effort to spread color and ideas. Truth is we hold the power and we can do whatever we put our minds to with enough persistence, it only takes the doing! Get involved!
-Anonymous
