CREATIVE SPECTACLES LEAVE THEIR STEYN
Giant hands, life-size elephants, dinosaur sculptures… this is the daily work of three township artists proliferating Steyn City with their creativity. HELEN GRANGE caught up with the talented trio
UCKED away in a shed within the enormous Steyn City estate, sandwiched between Dainfern and Diepsloot near Midrand, three township artists beaver away daily, creating giant public artworks for the residents on the estate to enjoy.
They’ve been doing it for nearly four years and so far they’ve completed 23 enormous land artworks, including an arresting Lady Bench, featuring an enormous hand and a woman seated, a circle of figures, Ubuntu, a life-size elephant and life-size rhinos, a towering totem topped by twin masks, wooden horses and beautiful wall mosaics.
Under the guidance of architectural ceramicist Charles Gotthard, these three artists have learnt to use inexpensive or recycled materials – stone, ceramic tiles, metal and cement – to model larger-than-life sculptures in perfect perspective, works that will continue to impress well beyond their lifespans.
Malvern Makhonya and Martin Umali, from Diepsloot, and Martin Garafa, from Cosmos City, have come a long way since they were retained by Steyn City as its resident artists.
Aside from working for the Steyn City estate, they each have thriving freelance businesses, fuelled by admiration for their very visible and growing body of work.
“I was a stone artist, selling on the street, but that was hard work and for little money,” says Garafa, who has a garage in Fourways where he continues his craft in the evenings and at the weekends. Similarly, for Umali and Makhonya, they have their own art studios, where they work part-time on private commissions. Umali exhibits his stone carvings in galleries, and has sold pieces internationally. Garafa has also exhibited widely. “This retainer has opened many doors for us,” says Umali.
The three were chosen from a group of 60 untrained artists following a wide distribution of leaflets in Diepsloot, and although they were untrained, their talent stood out. Currently they are working on a huge dinosaur, which the children in the estate will be able to climb through and over.
“Everything we make is durable and weatherproof, and the artworks are tactile and functional. There are many more in the pipeline,” says Gotthard.
Most of the creations begin as a giant steel frame covered by shade cloth, then they are covered by cement, or cemented rocks sourced in the estate itself and moulded to shape. One of the most impressive works is two lifesize rhinos made from rock and cement, one rhino lying down, with two men struggling to get it to its feet. This evocative piece, Walk to Freedom, represents the battle against rhino poaching, a subject close to the heart of Steyn City’s chief executive, Giuseppe Plumari, who spearheaded the public art programme.
The masks, meanwhile, represent the interaction of European and African cultures, a symbiotic relationship that defines the history of South Africa.
“Each of the works tells a story, and they are meant to be interacted through touch,” says Gotthard.
The broader vision of this art project is based on the need for balance, through sculptures that resonate on an emotional or spiritual level. “If you go to Japan, for instance, you’ll see many public art works. This is a culture that addresses the need for people to relax and reflect in their modern environment, and we are emulating this philosophy here,” says Gotthard.
Greenery and flowing water are essential elements in this objective, Gotthard says, and at Steyn City, the artists have a 2 000-hectare canvas that includes the Jukskei River, a number of dams and water features, as well as thousands of trees gradually maturing into a forest.
Some of their work is hard to spot because of the foliage, such as the elephant with its hind legs fashioned from tree trunks, with a hollowed out belly for children to climb into.
Underpasses on the estate are made magical by ornate faces and flower shapes in mosaic, and along one of the pathways is a “nest” to rest in, a woven cocoon-like hammock overlooking the vista of the estate’s south side.
After a long tour of the estate, it’s these creative spectacles that stay with you – a marvellous legacy by three unassuming artists whose talent could just as easily have continued to ply their craft largely unnoticed. and Miriam Makeba used to perform for leaders in Soweto so I took that element of performance and called our fashion week the theatre of fashion. It was trial and error but as we continued, people started understanding that when you go there, you’ll see beautiful clothes. Tell us about your fashion labels (ChurchSwag, Be Bold and Shona Accra) which you design?
ChurchSwag is a movement that encourages the youth to be cool and I’m from Zimbabwe and specialise in Ghanaian fabric – that’s why one of my labels is called Shona Accra. In Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ghana, there are shops that already stock the clothing. Then in South Africa, we are at various markets around major cities.