As far as attempts at rebellion go, here’s an interesting one: some folks took to the Joburg CBD to paint-bomb a few old buildings, all of them apparently abandoned, with bright pink paint. Allegedly led by an American, the group goes by #BewareOfColour and, like you’d imagine of a modern protest group or art movement, they have a tumblr to accompany their manifesto. They probably have a secret handshake too.
You know this joint: around 25 years ago, large sections of the Joburg CBD were left empty by big corporates looking to haul ass to the perceived safety of business nodes like Sandton and Bryanston (Bryanston, you guys). Popular terminology suggests that, in the interim, the city was “abandoned” but that’s only if you count the thousands of people who have lived and worked there for the last two decades as, I believe the technical term is “not real”. But let’s not dwell on the past alone here. The last few years has seen an immense push by property developers, businesses, government, party organizers and banks (both literally and figuratively where the money is) to get people who wouldn’t dare come into the city before now back here. Venues have been refurbished, new places have opened up, events are constant and there have been numerous public works projects by City of Joburg to motivate Fourways and Sandton to give the centre of town a shot again.
A situation that, I guess, #BewareOfColour felt a little pink paint would help.
It’s difficult to be sure why exactly they paint-bombed some of the city’s oldest sites with bright pink streaks that recalled running blood. They were drawing attention to abandoned buildings, sure, but to what end? Their manifesto, courtesy of their tumblr, doesn’t make things much clearer.
“this is an urban experiment. it is a questioning of what the city is, what it has been, and what it will be. it is a re-framing of buildings that have been forgotten. they re-appear before us through pink. it is a re-invention of space. a celebration of the unapologetic. it’s a new story that needs to be written. a love letter from our creatives to our land owners, our chief executives, our politicians. we look at buildings that have been left behind by time and we caress their walls with our paint brushes. we tickle them in hopes that they will tickle her. she who walks to work in the morning her heels clinking and clanking. we play with them in hopes that they will play with him. he who sits around in the afternoon after waiting long hours in the unemployment line. we whisper out their windows in hopes that they will whisper in their ears. whisper to them: messages of hope instead of fear. we know well that safety thrives in bright pink and danger dwells in muddy browns and faded greys. hot pink laughs. dark brown frowns. hot pink dances. grey merely moves. together, we dress fear in pink in hopes that she will smile a little and join us in reinventing much.”
Once you get past the part about how the group aims to “tickle” the city’s land owners, chief executives and politicians “in hopes that they will tickle her [the city?]”, there’s a neat sentiment that seems to be motivating it all. Here are people who apparently want to help others overcome their supposed fear of the city by drawing attention to its abandoned buildings. Of course, making this statement by doing potential damage to possible heritage sites and classical architecture also seems like a weird way to celebrate those buildings.
More concerning though is how this sort of “activism” seems to exist in a space that’s intentionally built around the city’s many residents, while apparently targeting those who don’t live there at the moment. There’s a fair amount of irony in a photograph of people standing on their apartment balcony in a rundown but occupied building while in the background pink paint drips off the top of another, apparently abandoned building that also looks to be in disrepair. This probably isn’t what the #BewareOfColour group intended, but the prevailing intention of helping people to overcome their fear of the city while calling out property owners and the city’s governors for their lack of work in this specific space looks a little absurd in a city that is primarily on the up, with near-constant renovations and new property developments cropping up everywhere from Newtown to Jeppe.
On the other hand, according to a newspaper report displayed proudly on the group’s tumblr, they had received “permission from the Gauteng Education Department to carry out a project about the fight of abuse of resources in the CBD as an artistic protest”. Permission apparently included a list of buildings owned by Gauteng legislature. Still, the group hit Shakespeare House, privately owned by Urban Ocean property developers, which is what prompted the company to call security and the police, and led to the arrest of a handful of suspects, including their apparently American leader.
I’d normally argue that arresting “protesters” isn’t a good look for the city or its business owners, but I still fail to understand exactly what it was they were protesting about, or how this pink paint communicates their ideas. Whatever motivated it, if this was truly about “the fight of abuse of resources in the CBD”, then targeting properties owned by Gauteng legislature seems like a misstep and a missed opportunity. I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t choose their privately owned targets from the many buildings in the CBD that belong to property developers who are inadvertently fostering South Africa’s pre-existing culture of exclusion while making use of the city’s apparent resources.
I’m not saying I don’t like what they’re doing (because I’m not even sure I ‘get’ it). I’m just saying that other sections of the city were asking for it more than Shakespeare House, don’t you think?