On rubbish and other cool things

My interest and street art has increased considerably lately. I've been noticing the coolest graffiti, murals, stencil art, sticker art and poster art all over Cape Town for quite some time now.




Probably the most conceptual in their thinking, are the guys from The CirusnNinja Collective. HERE and HERE. (You might remember seeing their yellow and black stickers plastered on stop signs, lamp posts, rubbish bins, cars and a lot more over the past few years.) The recent Red & Yellow Advertising School graduates have done themselves proud. At 105 Harrington Street, on the block squeezed between Fruit & Veg and Buitenkant Street (East City), is The Bin - Their Bin. (Situated in the newly dubbed “E-City”, the new zone in town beholding to musicians, artists, bergies and bars, a place buzzing with life and opportunity. The strategic positioning of the store is indicative of co-owners Blaise Janichon and Warren Lewis’ modus operandi – abandon the trendy, create a new category and shuffle the creative deck before anyone can work out just what makes it so appealing.) It's a delightful one-room shop (and gallery at times) aptly advertised by a row of garbage bins above the entrance marked with the letters T-H-E B-I-N. The store (there's also an online shop) stocks merchandise by local artists, musicians, fashion designers. (VOX, Dalley Muller's MEU, Fokofpolisiekar...) What's really great, though, is their unconventional approach to gallery administration. The 12th of November (11:00 - 16:00) sees the 2nd annual 100 Rand show. It runs until the 2nd of December. "ALL WORKS WILL BE GIVEN TO BUYER ON DAY OF PURCHASE." (They're donating R5 from each purchase to the Nazereth House.)

The Show provides a platform for new, up-and-coming and established graphic designers; graffiti and street artists, illustrators and fine artists to work within the limitations of producing work of a high quality yet knowingly retail it for a minimal amount.

The One Hundred rand concept aims at introducing and building the culture of collecting and buying artworks amongst the young art market, which is traditionally overlooked by regular gallery structures.

The Bin-sters, perhaps not so surprisingly, also use unique ways of advertising. Wooden blocks with bright graphics - pairs connected to each other by pieces of string - have been seen dangling from power lines around the city bowl. These suspended pairs are called chucks and make up a new street art collective World War Won (WWWon) between Senyol and Lewis. Some extracts from an online (on pun intended) article:

They’ve been contemplating evolving the chuck concept since New York street artist collective When Dogs Fly toured the globe with the purpose of documenting the suspension of as many pieces of wood, cut and painted to resemble Converse sneakers, as possible. Both collectives started their chucking careers uniting worn-out sneakers or takkies in holey matrimony by tying their shoelaces together and gleefully donating them to the sky, the intention being to loop the pairs of shoes around any high structure from which they could eternally dangle.

WWWon are setting out to redefine the urban skyline while stimulating the curiosity of the person in the street. They believe chucking “aesthetically enhances the environment” and sets the example that public spaces are there to be creatively enjoyed, considered from different angles and taken ownership of by the people they’re intended for.

Flickr pages and iconic websites, such as woostercollective, - very cool - Ed. are the means by which street artists connect. The sites also allow millions of people international access to artworks that may have had a limited lifespan in their hometown. - This gets me so excited: How we are now moving away from an information age and progressing towards an interactive age. Everyone now gets a fair chance to be seen and heard. Like I read somewhere earlier: The Internet is the first truly democratic medium -Ed.

WWWon have no qualms about using street art for commercial gain. “Ultimately, our campaigns will make street art more accessible,” says Lewis.

“Ad agencies will pay us to do what we love, and with big budgets we can take it to a new level,” adds Senyol.

Some flickr photos HERE.

WHAT IF THE WORLD... is an equally exciting venture and consists of two exhibition spaces:

where? 11 hope street (east city) cape town, 8001 RSA
hours? Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-2pm (or by appointment)
tel: +27 21 461 2573
cel: justin rhodes +27 84 414 4554
mail: info@whatiftheworld.com

and

where? E102 @ 'The Old Biscuit Mill' woodstock, cape town, 8000 RSA
hours? Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm, Sat 9am-4pm (or by appointment)
tel: +27 21 448 1438
cel: justin rhodes +27 84 414 4554
mail: info@whatiftheworld.com

Mission: the whatiftheworld philosophy is centered around supporting and growing communities by adding visual and creative value to the environment.

*HOPE ST - is more of a project room focused on providing a platform and creative community for emerging contemporary artists + designers.
*THE OLD BISCUIT MILL - is a larger exhibition space intended as a step-up for the artists that start with us at Hope St. here we show mostly solo exhibitions by members of our creative community that we represent.

Read more at whatiftheworld.

The Paris Salon on at the moment at the Hope Street gallery comes highly recommended.

And FINALLY: Acclaimed South African photographer, David Goldblatt is showing at the Michael Stevenson in Greenpoint again. This time his earlier pictures from the 1960's and early 1970's are being displayed. It's entitled Some Afrikaners Revisited. 24 October - 25 November 2006.