HALF ART
CHRIS THURMAN: Artist sees light where others see just black or white
Throughout its 130-year history, Johannesburg has solicited hope and despair in equal measure. Those who traverse the city today — on foot, by car, bus and bike — can find grounds for either of these responses. Joburg is Jacaranda trees and litter, thunderstorms and pollution, commerce and creativity, enterprise and villainy, opportunity and poverty. But let’s face it: whether you’re in Joburg or Cape Town, Mokopane or Mthatha, the national mood trumps local nuance. And the prevailing atmosphere, it seems to me, is one of cynicism, frustration and anxiety. On the surface, there’s little cause for optimism. Violence and vandalism on university campuses have brought attention once again to the profound social, political and economic fault lines that the comfortable elite prefer to ignore until service delivery protests or labour disputes and strikes force their way into the news headlines. Many in the government have shown themselves utterly indifferent to these fault lines or are int...
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