HEDONISM UNDESIGNED & UGLY

HEDONISM UNDESIGNED & UGLY 

At best, design translates poignant poetry that meets simplistic philosophy = an aesthetic delivered.

At worse, design becomes an unapologetic shameless miscalculation driven by some hedonist pursuit.

Right at the heels of this, there is a lot to be said of the users, who through their usage eventually work to serve the object. The opposite of this is happier ending that is premised on a product that educates the user. In other words, it gets out of its own way so it could be used. So it could just perform its function. And through that relationship, beauty expounds.  

SHIFTING TERRITORIES…….

Shifting Territories

This past weekend saw the peeling of what could have been the gallery’s most important exhibition at the KZNSA, shiftingterritories.

The importance of the exhibition, for various reasons, rests firmly in its name. It was a particularly challenging engagement, for both the artists and the audience. shifting territories was a group effort by the Durban’s notorious streets artists whose output was diligently knitted through by the curator, Doung Jahangeer of the organization dala.

‘’ Street Art doesn’t speak TO its immediate environment, it doesn’t speak ABOUT its immediate environment. It JOINS the environment, attaching itself and all of its ego and contradictions and politics, forcing itself to be seen, experienced, witnessed, and ultimately reacted with. It claims its space unashamedly, forcing us to question its existence, to contest its existence, and when we cannot provide any adequate rationalization for why it shouldn’t exist, we must eventually accept it’’.

At its root, the concept sought to probe at how graffiti would respond to the ‘’institution’’, the gallery. After thorough interrogation of this thematic, it had evolved to an enigmatic experience for the artists, the same experience to be later felt by the audience. And that’s exactly the point to shift the known, the obvious and the everyday to something slightly, well, slightly unexpected.

Altogether to shift the territory of the artist and that of the audience, to shift the metaphysical and psychological territories that inform the way we engage with territory in its broadest sense. About their methodology;

‘’ the writers, were also asked to blindfold themselves and to let their pen traverse paper, apprehending the space of the paper in a movement that could only feel, understand the distances and the orientation – much as we cross the city’’

There’s something to be said about the important relationship between the curator and the participating artists, which is that both their works are immensely informed by and applied on the streets. 

''Power, when conceived of as constitutive of the public sphere, as inherent in the categorisations and legalities which influence our reading, allows us to understand how a city is also a textual economy. Street Art is a fundamental, transgressive, part of this economy. Its transgression is both physical and visual. Physically it appropriates, dislodges, superimposes and subverts.’’

Doung, the curator, has been doggedly exploring a specific walkway from peri-urban Cato Manor to downtown Durban for the past decade in weird and wonderful ways. The graf artists on the other hand are from diverse backgrounds with mad years under their caps, collectively spanning over forty years of experience. All this has informed a new narrative that they’re forging, individually. They have come from points of difference and they’ve used this difference to set a common agenda that they can all interrogate as practitioners.

 

The opening night of the exhibition was filled with ambiguity and loss for the most part. And that triggered the audience to start the journey of finding themselves within the frame of the sketches and broken lines painted on the floor of the gallery. Yes, most of the art was on the floor, and on that point the boys had this to say, ‘’ The final composition involving several street artists - on the floor of the gallery - requires a reading path across its surface. To read one must actualise a path, a vector, a direction over the composition’’

Perhaps deservingly so, considering this statement ‘’our movement within a city, the way we interact with its streetscape, its surfaces, its asperities and ruptures, is a reading.’’

The staging of the exhibition at the KZNSA and its theme has too much to do with the shifting territory of the gallery itself as it sheds its conservative heritage and beckons the young voices asking new questions, shaping new perspectives and shifting the territory of the white walls called the gallery.

* IMAGES COURTESY OF PAULO MENEZES & IAN EWOK BAGGENDS ROBINSON 

THE AIRPORT

Image credited to ''www.kzntopbusiness.co.za''

There’s an allure to an airport. It could be the beautiful majestic aero-machines (thanks to the Wright brothers) giving way to each other on the landing strip. Or could it be the transient mood that permeates the airport?

Essentially, the airport is the only international entry into a city, beside the seaport off course. And no, it’s unlike a bus stop, but off course not. It, the airport, is much more emotionally charged than the bus stop. There’s the feeling of happiness for some as they head for home after a business trip weighted against the somber relative that’s just taken off not to return for some years.

There’s also that element of utter submission when you’re 45 000 feet above ground, you’ve absolutely no control, the pilot is ‘’god’’, if he messes up, there’s no return. That’s it!

Some carry the feeling of adventure as they touch ground anxiously waiting to unveil the city ahead. The airport makes the first impression. The discerning few judge the respective city largely on the airports experience. Was the airport staff genuinely friendly, does the airport flow, can I make it to terminal 3 by way-finding (without asking), is the design considered, and how well is this airport curated? Does it offer a nice mix of retail, culture and free space?

What about the departing? Once again, the airport is the last chance the city has to make an impression, does it bid farewell in sincerity? Does the design and service imply that you’re not of value anymore since you’re departing?

Take the term ‘’aerotropolis’’, it’s when the airport anchors its surrounding. The process when urban planners work from the airport out, every layer of the immediate environment speaks to the airport. Such terms are indicative of the value that some cities or countries have placed on airports. In other words, this here is not just an airport; it’s the centerpiece. However, this could be argued, is it placemaking in full effect? Or is it placemaking inappropriately applied?

Image credited to ''www.proudlyafrican.info''

Would a gallery not be well placed in an airport, not with the primary objective to sell artwork but more so to balance the over-commercialization of space in airports?

Imagine how many users would peruse the space as they ‘’kill time’’ waiting for their connecting flight. Yes, it brings the added benefit of local artists having the last shot at an international audience. Terrorism, drug trafficking and contraband goods have also understood the critical entrance of the airport. The race is on, who can outsmart the other between airport security and criminals.

An airport, for some, is merely a point of arrival and departure but for others, it certainly is more than that.  

Image credited to ''www.wbho.co.za''

 Welcome to King Shaka International!

ON CITIES

Image courtesy of Paulo Menezes - www.paulomenezes.com 

In a nutshell, people make people,

People occupy space

Through this occupation, ‘’space’’ therefore becomes ‘’place’’

This place is what we call home, and these homes form neighbourhoods these neighbourhoods shape our cities, ultimately they shape the world.

And the question goes; is there a ‘’recipe’’ for a successful city?

Are there universal fundamentals that all successful (or failed) cities share?

And exactly how does one measure the success of a city? Is it through capital traction or social development? Or is it a combination of these two drivers that make it work?

In all practicality, is this notion of a ‘’perfect city’’ even realistic, for the rich to live side by side with the poor?

We can agree that there is not a perfect city. Maybe the best city is a ‘’trying’’ city. The type of city that is trying to be humane to refugees, tourists and natives. Again, a city that is trying to serve commerce and community with equal zeal, perhaps, after a period of time this city will seem stagnant because it’s ‘’merely’’ trying to balance an act that can never be balanced. But you know what, that is just fine! It’s good enough that it’s been stagnant through trying to serve the two chief elements of its existence, commerce and people.

Lastly, these trying cities are those that don’t always get it right and yes, they admit their shortcomings but are never too shy to try again.  And the people too are willing to try again because they get the concept. Hell, that’s why they live here.