Stephen Hobbs from the Trinity Session beside one of the tree sculptures

RELATED LINKS: Tree sculptures to adorn Juta Street Conceptualised by The Trinity Session as part of a visual trail in Jozi's cultural arc, nine interactive tree sculptures will be erected in Juta Street this weekend. Read more Blazing a trail of public art JOHANNESBURG'S cultural arc, which spans Constitution Hill to Newtown, is to be enriched by an R8-million public-art project that will create a visual trail to link many of the artistic riches along the way. Read more Celebrating Jozi's inner child SITUATED at the centre of a new cultural universe blossoming in what has become known as the Cultural Arc of Johannesburg, The Premises is a strategic part of the regeneration programme that is changing the face of Jozi. Read more City launches Braamfontein brand THE inner city suburb of Braamfontein is finding its identity, becoming a place to work, to learn - and to live. Read more

Artists from the Imbali Visual Literacy Project with one of the Juta Street trees

The sculptures in Braamfontein garner much interest

Talk to the trees in Juta Street Developed from an idea conceived by the Imbali Visual Literacy Project, the interactive tree sculptures recently installed in Juta Street, Braamfontein, have added an interesting visual dimension to Joburg's cultural arc. July 13, 2006 By Ndaba Dlamini SNUGGLING comfortably in their concrete planters in Juta Street, Braamfontein, the colourful large-scale tree sculptures look real enough to pass for budding shrubs, exuding an almost natural aura of some exotic vegetation. They are nine tree sculptures born out of a public-art partnership between the Johannesburg Development Agency and The Trinity Session, a contemporary art production team that runs The Premises, the Johannesburg Civic Theatre's art gallery. Installed at a cost of R75 000, the sculptures are part of a broader initiative to create a visual trail in Johannesburg's cultural arc, which spans Constitution Hill, Braamfontein, and Wits University's East Campus across the Mandela Bridge through to Newtown. The launch of the Juta Street public-art project During a celebratory walkabout of the public art project on Wednesday, 12 July, Stephen Horne, director at The Trinity Session, said the sculptures will provide Braamfontein with a fresh new look. "The difference with these tree sculptures is that one can touch and even speak to them, unlike art in a museum." Claire Regnard, a part-time visual art teacher who came up with the large-scale design of the sculptures, said the installation garnered a lot of interest. "The trees were installed over two days and some people were actually asking to have them installed in their homes. They will definitely change the environment in Braamfontein." The Juta Street public-art project is a result of a series of conceptual design workshops conducted by Regnard and the Trinity Session. Students from Imbali Visual Literacy Project at The Bus Factory came up with the original concept and developed small-scale designs of trees using recycled material like tyres, tin cans and plastics. From these designs, Regnard took elements and created human-scale expressions of tree-like metal forms. Bethuel Mapheto, one of the Imbali students, ecstatic that some of his efforts had reaped such stunning results. "I feel great. Even though the tree sculptures don't exactly look like our original designs, I am glad our ideas were not thrown away. I hope this public art project will give us the necessary exposure we deserve." Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za