Content uploaded by Alexandra Parker
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Alexandra Parker on Apr 05, 2019
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
BookPDF Available
Where do we draw the line? Graffiti in Maboneng, Johannesburg
Abstract and Figures
Graffiti is a controversial subject and fraught with ambiguities and contradictions. However, the recent global success of artists such as Banksy, Melbourne’s booming graffiti tourism, and the rise of the ‘creative city’ discourse, have blurred the lines between what some regard as vandalism and some as public art. As such, graffiti has increasingly become part of mainstream culture and in some countries has been promoted as a contributor to the urban environment. Thus, as practices and perceptions of graffiti shift, so does our need to better understand the role of graffiti in our urban environments. Through a case study of the Maboneng precinct, this GCRO Occasional Paper investigates the contribution made by graffiti to tourism and public and private investment in the inner-city of Johannesburg.
The paper uses visual and spatial analyses of graffiti in Maboneng’s development. The research shows the extent to which the Maboneng precinct is branded through urban aesthetics, including graffiti, and demonstrates that graffiti contributes to placemaking by creating meaningful or identifiable spaces. The analysis reveals graffiti’s aesthetic value in the urban environment: it signifies the redevelopment of Maboneng, distinguishes the area at a local level from surrounding spaces, and also projects a global aesthetic. Using this case study of Maboneng we hope to show how graffiti is leveraged in nurturing urban development, creative economies and tourism in the inner-city.
The Occasional Paper is comprised of two parts. The first half of the paper aims to understand the role of graffiti in its urban context. A first section examines the history of graffiti, considering centuries-old traditions of markings on walls, the intersection of graffiti with the birth of hip hop culture and, in the South African context, the role of graffiti in anti-apartheid protest politics. A further section explores the spectrum of graffiti aesthetics, from text-based expressions to the murals of street art. A third section traces graffiti’s complicated relationship to the urban environment, with changing perceptions of graffiti: as vandalism, or a mode of urban dialogue, or a form of outdoor gallery. The sections in this first half of the paper explore the transitions graffiti has made over time and highlight the fluid nature of graffiti, both in space and in the way that it is conceived. They illustrate how graffiti, once perceived as synonymous with urban blight and decay, vandalism and crime, has over time gained a more legitimate social status, for example through commissioned murals or the work of famed international artists, in the process raising the question of who decides the aesthetic of the urban environment and who has a right to participate in the production of urban space.
In the second half of the paper, we focus on a case study of Maboneng, in the City of Johannesburg. Maboneng is an area of redevelopment in Johannesburg’s inner city, established in 2009. The neighbourhood has transformed through investment in the public environment and the upgrading of dozens of buildings with a focus on the creative economy. Graffiti and street art are prevalent in the area and have contributed to the branding of the area as a creative space. Through a photographic essay and mapping, we analyse the spatial and visual elements of graffiti in Maboneng, exploring its various contradictions, themes, surfaces, and the media used to create it. The detailed mapping examines different types of graffiti, and their locality, density, scale and visibility. The case study shows, in detail, the relationship between graffiti and the local urban environment, but also how graffiti relates to larger processes of urban and economic development in the city.
Figures - uploaded by Alexandra Parker
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Alexandra Parker
Content may be subject to copyright.
... Although it was influenced by the rising hip-hop counterculture in the United States in the 1970s, the South African underground art and hip-hop movement has a history of its own and has developed distinct characteristics. It is believed to have emerged in Cape Town, considerably, as a form of political protest against the social injustices of the Apartheid regime and soon spread across the country, adorning countless buildings in the cities of Durban and Johannesburg (Parker, A., Khanyile, S. and Joseph, K., 2019). The expansion in context and rise in popularity of the art form has allowed it to become a multifaceted medium of cultural expression that visually represents the unique character of its urban context. ...
Place-making is a policy exercise rooted in a politics of both space and time. By examining the temporal sequencing of discursive relations and governance networks in the cultural redevelopment of Güterbahnhof Moabit in Berlin, this article demonstrates the fallacy of place-making via artist proxy. It documents the hidden expectations of artist stakeholders and the overextension of their capacities in their municipally delegated and self-assumed roles as “strategic” and “collaborative” partners with local government in place-making processes. It argues that contrary to collaborative and participatory governance ideals, artists are often singularly responsibilized by civic leaders to realize place-narratives for a community rather than with them, which creates a fundamental barrier to community engagement.
Cited as an elusive metropolis, the city of Johannesburg largely resists the imagination. Following on from Lucy Gasser’s (2014) reading of Ivan Vladislavić’s Portrait with Keys this article considers how graffiti and street art offer ways of “mapping” the city. Focusing on Nuttall and Mbembe’s distinction between surface and depth I argue, through a particular focus on the Westdene Graffiti Project, how street art captures some of the tensions in current South Africa and provides new ways of understanding Johannesburg by meeting a map’s six key functions: getting to know, re-forming boundaries, making exist, reproducing reality, inscribing meaning and establishing patterns of control. The result is a city written from below.
A first look upon a well-contrived piece of graffiti or street art may inspire feelings of surprise, delight, and amusement, but the connection between graffiti and cultural heritage might be more difficult to perceive. Conventionally, graffiti was synonymous with vandalism, associated with a subculture that needed to be extinguished immediately. However, with the works of such artists as Basquiat, Keith Haring, Banksy, Steve Powers, and the like, graffiti began to be recognized as something more than crime – something with far more value, something that could reach beyond the walls of a gallery. Indeed, this subculture has since proliferated exponentially, and with its popularity a closer connection to heritage becomes more apparent. Though it may be a more radical and alternative way of creating heritage, its increasing recognition suggests that such cultural values are clearly demonstrated.
Over the past 15 years, creative industries have emerged as a popular focus in urban policy discourses and have been used as a lever for several urban regeneration initiatives in Northern cities. Minimal scholarship exists on creative industries and urban regeneration in the global South. Notwithstanding that in South Africa creative industries have been recognised in policy frameworks, limited scholarly research exists on creative industries and their relationship with the urban landscape. In terms of geography most creative enterprises in Johannesburg are scattered across the northern suburbs of the city. Over the past few years, however, there is evidence of creative enterprises re-centralising and clustering in inner-city fringe areas such as the Maboneng precinct. Using interviews with creative entrepreneurs and stakeholders the purpose of this paper is to analyse the case of the Maboneng precinct Johannesburg in terms of the role of creative industries in urban regeneration.