Ralph Borland
Aerosol-artists Sky One and Kane Seven have given a wild twist to hip-hop art in Cape Town. The two artists have worked together on several pieces over a week-long period, putting up large-scale wall-art pieces in the city itself for the first time. Work like theirs has been mostly restricted to the Cape Flats.
Sky One met Kane Seven at the Gallery Mau Mau’s Greenmarket Square art exhibition, among other spray-canners executing their work on panels for a public display. Sky One is Evaron Orange, a graphic design student at the Peninsula Technikon. Kane Seven, or Patrick Hoffmeyer, was visiting from Germany and courtesy demanded that Sky One accompany the visitor in putting up some art in his home town.
Kane already had his eye on a few walls in Gardens, on the edge of the central business district. Sky One was keen to give hip-hop wall art, and his own skills, more exposure by moving into the city. All the pieces they executed were legal, where the owners of the walls were consulted.
The pieces along Orange Street in Gardens, a main route between the southern suburbs and the city, are highly visible images. Most of the people who pass by them daily appreciate the change, and haven’t seen anything like it before. They’re fine pieces, and with the amount of work and the cost of paint that goes into each piece, Sky One is happy that they’re appreciated and getting attention.
Most of the work is in “wild-style”, where the lettering of the artist’s name has become an art-form in itself, and almost illegible to the uninitiated. If you’re interested in seeing more, their largest work can be seen along Vanguard Drive in Athlone, and up in the Bo Kaap, where they worked on “join-ups” with Ice and Falko.