Neil Fraser
12 July 2002
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again!
Thanks to the many Citichat readers, local, national and international who reacted to last week’s edition and particularly for their words of encouragement.
Mind you, I did have one e-mail castigating me for the damage I was doing in writing so negatively! Sadly the marching, noise and trashing, albeit at a lower level, hasn’t stopped or been stopped this week. Nor has the non-interference by the police.
A property owner in Market Street sent me a copy of a letter she has written to the Johannesburg-Central Station Commander in which she says: "Today yet again we have been subjected to protesters trashing the street in front of us. What is far worse is that your officers stood and watched them and when I went out and remonstrated with them they told me that these people have a right to protest. They laughed in my face and told me to point out the person who had trashed the rubbish bin that they were standing next to."
This property owner bought a large, empty city building a couple of years ago and has worked hard to bring it to its current full state.
She writes: "Today I have had enough! Every day since the beginning of the strike we have been subjected to noise, litter, disruption to traffic and a general inability to carry out our normal business. None of our clients will come to town because of the disruptions. Our cleaners have been threatened with violence if they try to keep our area free of refuse."
One comment made to me that I can’t agree with was that the public are fickle and the whole episode will be forgotten in no time. That might be the case in so far as some sectors of the general public are concerned but not for owners and investors (both current and potential) nor for potential tenants.
Investment goes – and stays - where it is made to feel welcome and certainly the antics of the past week have created concern. Another comment received succinctly states that ‘those who have made large fixed investments in the CBD are perpetually more at risk than we need to be."
It is up to the authorities to ensure that whilst the rights of workers are not suppressed, the rights of the city and of all its stakeholders are upheld - all city users have a right to a safe and clean environment to work, play and live in.
Although the strike and the mayhem has gone on this week I have been remembering the words of the song that says "Ya gotta pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again." So, on the positive side, the seven main ‘trashing’ culprits referred to last week have been arrested, Citichat was sent to the head of Metro Police with a request to investigate their role and I have been contacted by the police for a formal statement regarding the trashing and damage to Gandhi Square.(Assessed value of damage is R53 000).
Now we need to get the City to acknowledge and implement the agreement not to allow such gatherings in the middle of the CBD.
The property owner I referred to says in her letter to the police: "I have a suggestion to make. Why don’t you insist that the next march is in Sandton and then see the reaction you get."
Let’s focus on some real potential good stuff for the city.
JHB ART CITY is not only progressing well but is genuinely stirring up a great deal of interest. Tuesday week ago we ‘dropped’ the first large wall picture, not an artwork but the JHB ART CITY logo.
The rolled up artwork is secured at the top of the building and then released to cascade or ‘drop’ down the side of the building after which a crew absails down the face of the building and stretches it taut over a special frame fixed to the wall.
The logo was designed by my friend of many years Norman Hanna, and in itself is an artwork providing a cityscape outline by using the many names of Johannesburg, Jozi, Egoli, Mjondolo, Joeys, etc.
Two Pitts Special stunt planes piloted by highly experienced SAA pilots gave a precision display over the city letting off plumes of coloured smoke and then ‘buzzed’ the building in Harrison Street where the crew were waiting to release the 150 square metre logo. The ‘drop’ wasn’t quite as precise as the flying, a rope got in the way, but after much embarrassed shaking and jiggling the huge banner unfolded.
Then, yesterday morning, the first of the corporate pictures was ‘dropped’ for fixing on the same Harrison Street building alongside the logo – we are using the pair as a ‘teaser’. The artwork is entitled "Baseball" by artist Robin Rhode and was made available by BHP Billiton. (My pal, newly appointed New York City Commissioner Rob Walsh will be delighted that it portrays baseball and not cricket which he believes is an abomination!)
Because the picture is a sequence of 12 they have turned out to be too small to be seen at the top of a rather high building so we will reposition the artwork on a lower building to provide more visibility and replace it with a single scene artwork.
Another eight artworks from corporate collections and 20 from the competition itself will follow in quite quick order between now and mid-August. I think that the interest levels will increase all the more as the art goes up – inevitably there is going to be some that is liked and some that isn’t, that’s the nature of art.
We have received many ‘complaints’ from artists who would have loved to have entered the JHB ART CITY competition but heard about it too late. Unfortunately our timing was severely curtailed by the decision making process of the city and we had to have a cut-off point.
The good news is that we are aiming to do this annually and will announce the next competition early in the New Year probably on a themed basis, and no, the theme won’t be "A Striking City"!
The originals of the 20 artworks selected will be on exhibition at "The Fort" from 20 August but more of that later. For those who aren’t able to see them in place or at the exhibition we will, in due course, also be showing them on our website (www.jhbartcity.org.za).
Whilst the exposure of South African artists and contemporary art is one of our objectives, the other is of course very close to my heart and is the showcasing of the regeneration projects that have either been recently completed or are currently underway.
Strikers on the ground, art in the air – we keep our reputation for being an ‘active’ and exciting city
