Art and Reconstruction in Cape Town
by Paul Edmunds
Unlike Durban and Johannesburg, Cape Town has not experienced a rapid and drastic degeneration of its inner city. Local newspapers may be filled with rants by 'Shocked, Constantia' complaining about crime and grime in the CBD, but for the large part the inner city has remained functional and even vibrant. It's not certain that any credit for this is due to a concerted and thorough visual arts programme in the city, although there are some links to be made.
One factor that has allowed the 'city fathers' to keep extreme urban degeneration at bay is the small size of the inner city. Cape Town's CBD finds itself in the centre of a bowl, abutted by sea on one side and enfolded by the upmarket suburbs, which can only ascend Table Mountain's slopes so far, on the others. Tourism has long been seen as Cape Town's golden goose, and institutions like Greenmarket Square, the Waterfront, the Company Gardens and even Parliament have been quite effectively preserved as tourist attractions in the city.
One could even suggest that the idyllic and picturesque situation of the city has made the forever-changing ruling parties even more determined to keep things that way. As a result the CBD boats a large number of visible and active art galleries: the South African National Gallery, Bell-Roberts, AVA, Joáo Ferreira and Michael Stevenson Contemporary, all of them within walking distance of each other. The flipside, unfortunately, is the urban and peri-urban decay of the Cape Flats, which can lay claim to none of the above.
One of the most recent initiatives, which pledges faith in the current and future state of the inner city, is the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Plans for this colossal complex on the foreshore included a respectable (by South African standards) budget for commissioning of artworks. At present substantial works by Gavin Younge and Brett Murray (the latter artist working in collaboration with Tuoi Stefaans Samcuia) are being installed within the new buildings.
Both Murray and Younge have intimate ties to public art in the city, Murray in particular with a public sculpture programme begun some years ago. The JK Gross Public Sculpture Trust seeks to establish a corridor of public sculpture through the city. The starting point of this passage of public art starts at the Waterfront with a sculpture by Gavin Younge, a commission that is unrelated to the JK Gross trust. Younge's large timber and bronze construction depicting an overturned ice cream cone on a wedge of cake is not very funky in my view, but it is accessible and probably fairly appropriate for this rather Disneyesque part of the city.
Following a path from the sea towards the mountain will take you to the foreshore where you will find the first of the Gross Trust commissions. Awarded in 1992, John Skotnes' Mythological Landscape is situated in Thibault Square. A complex tree-like bronze and Cor-Ten steel piece essentially provides background to office workers on their lunch breaks. On weekends and evenings, though, the area is deserted.
The second of the Trust's commission was Brett Murray's Africa, realised in 1999. The mixed reception of Murray's bronze African figure, studded cheekily with Bart Simpson heads, is well documented and not just a little disappointing. That influential people in the city were unable to read the work in a critical and informed manner probably doesn't bode well for anything vaguely risqué in the future.
Fritha Langerman and Katherine Bull's Come to Pass, the most recent project selected from an open competition, is yet to be realised. If all goes well, it will stand - or lie as it happens - on the corner of Shortmarket Street and St. George's mall. Just adjacent to Greenmarket Square, this area is packed with traders, city workers and tourists by day but all but deserted by night. Which is a pity, since the work incorporates reflective cat's eyes.
Travelling further up the mall one soon comes to Government Avenue, which passes between Parliament and the Company Gardens. At its city end you will see a thrice life-size bronze of Jan Smuts. Fortunately there is a much better sculpture of the man further up the Gardens. I do not wish to suggest that such traditional works have played any role in the upkeep of a functional city centre, but I do mention them for two reasons.
Firstly, they are an integral part of Cape Town's landmarks, and have been fiercely guarded and preserved. Secondly, this and other statuary in the Company Gardens (and around the city) have been involved in events that have to some extent revitalised the city centre.
'Night Vision', for instance, sees shops, restaurants, bars, clubs and art galleries open in the evenings. This event has its roots in 'Art Night' which was an event initiated by art galleries in the CBD who kept their doors open, provided shuttle buses and plied literally hundreds of patrons and party people with cheap wine.
These events, beginning sometime in 1998, opened up the city to many people, crucially at night. Extra security and parking was provided and the constant stream of people engendered a feeling of safety. Disused shop fronts became screens for video projections, and slides were beamed across usually deserted streets onto bare walls. From these grew 'Night Vision', which has become part of the Cape Town Festival, and now hosts fashion shows and live performances in closed-off streets.
'PTO', initiated and organised by Public Eye, was a similar event. Held in 1999, the happening asked city artists to respond to existing public artworks and monuments. The Cape Times gave Beezy Bailey's contribution front-page coverage on Heritage Day. With the aid of a blanket, some clay and cardboard, Bailey had cleverly changed the famous figure of Louis Botha on his horse one evening, the austere statesman reinvented as a jaunty amakwetha, or Xhosa initiate.
It would be a bit of a stretch to suggest that an applied programme of public art and a series of artist-initiated nighttime events have been responsible for the upkeep of a city centre that might have ended up another way. It is accurate to say, however, that these have taken place in tandem with a number of other initiatives, particularly City Improvement Districts (CIDs) and investment in tourism. These latter initiatives have contributed to an operational, sometimes vibrant inner city.
Just this week the CID claimed that crime has been reduced by 60% in the city. Along with grittier (some would say grimier) aspects of street culture, like skateboarding, graffiti and other fashionable practices, there is a happening and visible pulse of creativity in Cape Town's city centre. Events like the 'Soft Serve' productions at the SANG, and most recently 'YDEsire' at the Castle, may not have a lasting effect on the relationship between the residents and their city, but at the time of their happening they certainly do engender a feeling of ownership.
