BY DAN WYLIE
Makhanda – advertises itself as the “Creative City” – and no one who attends Acoustic Cafe, or Reddits poetry, or the craft fairs, will deny that our little town is crammed with extraordinary talent: musicians, poets, painters, ceramicists, quilters… Wonderful stuff.
What might be ‘seen’ but overlooked is some of its street art. There’s not a lot of it, perhaps, and it varies from the mediocre and opportunistic to the really rather good. Some of it is merely decorative, some partakes of the historically subversive nature of Banksy-like “tagging”, propounding political and economic views normally suppressed or ignored by the ‘establishments’. Other examples carry much-needed positive messages – the need and desire for education, for example.
At any rate, here are just some samples from around town. Mostly, the artists are unknown: if anyone knows who they are, and they’d like their names to be included here, do let me know – and let me know of other artistic examples. Maybe someone can organise a competition in suitable spaces: I think of those huge blank wall-panels behind Shoprite, for example…
Electrical substations attract artists’ attentions, as in the first couple, from the Somerset St-Beaufort St junction.
*This article was originally published by Dan Wylie in his blog, https://danwyliecriticaldiaries.blogspot.com and is been re-published with his permission.
