This installation forms part of “A Walk in the City”, Sandile Radebe’s inaugural solo exhibition hosted at the National School of the Arts in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. The work reimagines graffiti not as vandalism or street ephemera but as a sculptural and spatial language, abstracted into three-dimensional forms that take the place of alphabetic lettering. Presented in a circular gallery perched between the inner city and northern suburbs, the installation activates the space as a maze-like cityscape. Viewers are invited to navigate the environment much like the artist traverses Johannesburg’s urban textures — informal economies, taxi ranks, signage, and architectural remnants. At the centre of the show is a totemic tower of glyph-like graffiti, a speculative model for a public sculpture that challenges prevailing ideas about visibility, public space, and linguistic authority. The installation as a whole becomes a meditation on movement, spatial politics, and the potential of alternative forms of urban visual communication.
Leave a Reply